Modern visor material and properties

Fanum

Toubab
Joined
Apr 26, 2003
Messages
48,939
Reaction score
7
Location
Secure unit 2
My 'newest' helmet is a few years old now (5 actually) but NONE of the helmets I have are any cop at this time of year.....Even if I clean the visors with proprietary visor cleaning shit, or follow conventional wisdom of a bit of soapy water and don't remove the soapy stuff completely so the interior doesn't fog up, ALL Of them get shitted up inside 5 miles.

OK, I'm riding on a fast A road away from a major port in a farming area, so there's diesel, cow shit, more diesel and more cow shit in with a load of mud and spray being thrown up, but yesterday on a 20 mile circuit, I found myself practically blind inside of 5 minutes.

1) are all visors coated and in which case, I presume mine are fucked?
2) are 'new' visors made of any great new stuff which helps minimise this?
3) Only for year round riders.......what do you do to get around this, or do you just suffer, make a best guess and stop occasionally to wipe off like I do?
4) I've had a pinlock jobby on the inside of an old Mk1 Tour-x, but didn't get on with it (peripheral vision was shyte) so are there any aftermarket coatings or covers that might improve matters?


(Arai Tour-X, Schuberth flippy thing, Roof boxer, Givi X-01)

:popcorn
 
I've had a pinlock jobby on the inside of an old Mk1 Tour-x, but didn't get on with it (peripheral vision was shyte) so are there any aftermarket coatings or covers that might improve matters?

I find the pinlock to be the only reliable solution Bill. I can't see how it would interfere with your peripheral vision Bill, maybe it's down to the lid you wear but I don't notice any such problem at all.

Just turn your head a wee bit, that'll fix it. :comfort :kissy2
 
pinlock works well at preventing misting, but IME they suffer from introducing a slight, but to me very noticeable and annoying milkyness to the visor when the weather is fine. that and another set of lines inside the visor aperture, i find equally annoying.

whatever they coated my uvex enduro visor with works perfectly though.
 
In my experience Pinlocks don't work too well on either Tour-X or Shoei Hornet visors. I think the relatively small radius curve in the centre of the visor makes it difficult for the Pinlock to seat onto its inside face and I haven't had one yet, of the several I've used, that doesn't fill up with water between the visor and the Pinlock when it pisses down out there.

New visors certainly make it easier to keep the exterior clean than old ones although Mr Sheene can assist in water roll-off for a wee while.
For cleaning I usually just use the rubber wiper on the thumb of my glove or a Bob Heath V-Wipe. Having said that, I've been looking with interest at the recently released Visorcat. It's marketed by an Edinburgh based startup and was pre-production roadtested by at least one of my friends. If I rode enough in the winter, instead of being largely a fair-weather motorcyclist these days, I'd be tempted.

In the few times I've been out on the bike recently, I have suffered from badly misting spectacles and have had good success this week using Fogtech to prevent this.
 
I remember replacing visors on my first lid, a Stadium, every couple of weeks in Winter - they just scratched to buggery.

Modern visors are so much better: I have a naughty tint Arai visor that is onto it's 3rd helmet.

Pin-lock irritates me with the peripheral vision thing too Bill, but I have one fitted to my clear visor, which I rarely use.

I like the percieved protection of full-face lids but find them claustrophopic, so with a decent screen the only time my visor is fully shut is at motorway type speeds.

:nenau
 
I like the percieved protection of full-face lids but find them claustrophopic, so with a decent screen the only time my visor is fully shut is at motorway type speeds.

:nenau

I ride with the Roof chin bit up or with the chin section taken off with the Givi X-01, and I nearly always ride with either clear or tinted CE work 'glasses' underneath, so if/when I have shit on the visor, I can flip it up and still have eye protection from cold wind (these days it seems to make my eyes water much more than a few years back :nenau)

I can wipe off the visor with the squeegee on my gloves usually, but there seems to be so much oily crap around at the moment that even with a good-ish wipe, I'm not getting decent clarity, so I have to flip up and rely on the backup glasses layer, which of course are practically impossible to clear with gloves on.........so it's over to the side of the road to dig out the microfibre cloth from my forearm pocket :blast


Cars these days have all sorts of fancy arsed glass tech in them.....buildings have 'self cleaning' glass that works with some form of electrostatic repulsion, but it seems we just have to rely on a crappy old bit of clear perspex :(
 
The F1 driver system is similar to pinlock they have twist knob cam locks that pull the tear off down tighter to the visor.
The helmet techs use a clear liquid when they put the tear-offs on.
This removes any joins or milkyness and marks when looking through it.
Takes them about 30 mins to do each visor properly

All this is perfect for straight ahead vision and 2 hours with no cowshit though. :)
 
The F1 driver system is similar to pinlock they have twist knob cam locks that pull the tear off down tighter to the visor and the helmet techs use a clear liquid when they put the tear-offs on.
This removes any joins or milkyness and marks when looking through it.
Takes them about 30 mins to do each visor properly

All this is perfect for straight ahead vision and 2 hours with no cowshit though. :)

<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5Qf6Sv3A9zs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Can we come back down to earth now please :)

Average punter old helmet, shit roads, oily spray, vision.......Focus Phil, focus! :D
 
I looked, I giggled.

Sorry :comfort

It's a well intentioned idea I'm sure, but........ really? :nenau

Well, the last time I saw my friend who's the Chief IAM Examiner for bikes, cars, buses and trucks in Scotland, he'd finished his pre-production testing and was still wearing one on his glove. He likes it..... :nenau
 
Well, the last time I saw my friend who's the Chief IAM Examiner for bikes, cars, buses and trucks in Scotland, he'd finished his pre-production testing and was still wearing one on his glove. He likes it..... :nenau

I don't think I ought to add anything to that :)
 
I don't think I ought to add anything to that :)

You could add R1200GS Adventure rider, yachtsman, sports car driver and fettler, retired Police Inspector..... he's a practical kind of guy. It seems to work for him and to be fair to Visorcat, they've tried to address the problem by developing the product. At the moment, you either attach some washer nozzles to the top edge of your screen and squirt fluid at your face before you wipe it off or use one of these things.

Or....fix half a tennis ball onto the handlebars and bung a small damp sponge in there..... :nenau
 
Or..... :thumb

ad04-visor.jpg


With the added benefit that your head might take off......:augie
 
Or....fix half a tennis ball onto the handlebars and bung a small damp sponge in there..... :nenau

:eek

Now that's genuinely spooky.

Back on post 6, I'd actually typed out nearly all of a paragraph about the old split tennis ball I had on my old lebbenfiddy with a cloth in it:blast

Do you still have our sexchat webcam connection on, bitch?




My gripe (if it was one) was more about technology in visors TBH....your matey's farkly thing looks.....er....great......but it's not for me :comfort

There's probably a simple spray on coating (quite possibly designed for another application) that will work well in minimising the crap or at least making it less damn smeary when wiped off with the old thumb rubber strip

I will try pledge again......must admit, haven't done that for years.






PS Michael, why aren't YOU trying one of those plasticky wipey widgets, as they're so good? :augie
 
There's probably a simple spray on coating (quite possibly designed for another application) that will work well in minimising the crap or at least making it less damn smeary when wiped off with the old thumb rubber strip

I will try pledge again......must admit, haven't done that for years.

I use Mr Sheen....*

PS Michael, why aren't YOU trying one of those plasticky wipey widgets, as they're so good? :augie

A) It's just another piece of kit to faff about with. I already have more than enough of those.

B) See above...*

C) Moreover, that would mean one might actually be tempted to ride one's new, pristine, water-cooled confection in inclement conditions. Heaven forfend...! :eek
 
I use Mr Sheen....*


Moreover, that would mean one might actually be tempted to ride one's new, pristine, water-cooled confection in inclement conditions. Heaven forfend...! :eek

I've always told the big boys that what they said about you wasn't true, but you don't make it easy sometimes :D

PS I award you 8 points for "forfend".....that's a bloody cracker that is, but I'm afraid I have to deduct 9 points for referring to your toilet as a sweet delicacy :rob

(shit, I hope I haven't missed an obscure meaning there.....)
 


Back
Top Bottom