System 6 review.
I've just taken a BMW System 6 on a 3,500 mile round trip to Norway on a on a 2008 1200GS with an Adventure screen. Storms, sunshine, noise, wind and cold.
Here's what I found:
Firstly, I bought the helmet from
Chandlers BMW in Portslade near Brighton, England. The guys there are brilliant. Simon, Adam, Chris - great. Generous with their time and attention - even when I consistently turn up after 5.00pm. They close at 6.00. Visit them.
Secondly, if you belong to the BMW bike club you can get a discount. Don't tell 'em I told you I paid just under £300 - but I have also bought £1,000 worth of gear from them, so maybe that gives them a bit of room for added generosity.
Next, the little plastic ratchet/spring that holds the visor and flip front up is very sensitive and unfortunately
pops out by itself. If it does it one side, it is not good and won't close properly. If it does it both sides (it happened outside a little shop in the middle of nowhere in Norway) the visor won't stay up AT ALL or close properly, and it will take you 20 mins of dismantling and fiddling the parts into place to get it back again. (... provided they haven't fallen into long grass. They are each about the size of a curved matchstick and black.) It is very fiddly, and a stupid design. For NO extra design costs they could self-retain. The guys at BMW told me, unofficially and a little embarrassed, that
people super-glue them in to stop it happening and it won't invalidate the guarantee. Make sure you clean all the lube off first though - and replace it!
In normal riding, the dark inner sun-visor droops down eventually and needs to be pushed up again.
In the cold mountains of mid Norway on an early autumn day the visor the clouded up. I levered the bottom back to let it refresh. I stuck back on when it had cleared and it was more or less fine from then on.
I had several
major rain storms on the motorways in Germany and Denmark, so I can tell you confidently that if you leave the air vents open or the 'crack' designed for city wear (it works but is a bit odd!) you WILL get a bit of water ingress. Not a lot, but drips running down the inside the visor. Click the visor fully closed and it is dry again. So in wet city riding, you settle for either fully dry or a bit hot and muggy. Side winds make it worse.
BUT it is SUCH a quiet helmet - provided it is clicked fully shut. Thousands of miles with no ear plugs and little wind noise, yet you can hear the bike and the road, which I like. Put in nice soft ear plugs and it feels like you are cocooned, isolated even, in soft muted Alcantara comfort.
The System 6 is
LIGHT and easy to wear. The chin 'apron' doesn't automatically flip into place with me, so I got used to 'snuggling' it onto my head as I set off, so the apron around the front and sides settled into my face and neck tube.
When I was really hot I rode with my collar undone and no neck-tube. Not good! The metal ratchet chinstrap cut into my neck and was very uncomfortable. The padding around the strap needs to be a centimetre wider to stop this. I eventually jammed my necktube into the strap to get some comfort, and pushed the helmet back on my head to bring the chinstrap forward. Again, poor scrimped design.
The helmet is great with the
new STREETGUARD 3 jacket, with its double, soft, leather-lined collar feature. You may decide you don't really need any neck tube when you've got the two together - and the jacket is over £500! (SO worth it though.)
It is about £100 less than the C3. It had the three 'BMW' letters stuck on the back. I took 10 mins to peel them off. It already has a discreet BMW roundel moulded into the neck trim at the back. I don't need both thanks.
It doesn't have the little triangular deflectors at the top of the visor that the Schuberth C3 has. I wonder why -or why not. However, I like the smooth line.
Do I like it, and would I buy another? It was twice the price of my budget Justissimo GT, but is in another class of quality, much lighter and much much quieter. If Coberg can design a sun visor that has a click-up position, BMW surely can. I'm going to look at the C3 again, but I suspect from reading between the lines it IS pretty much the same - and £100 more.
My Verdict: At the moment I think the System 6 is probably the best compromise touring helmet available. If you don't think so, I'd love to hear from you (
[email protected] or my blog:
www.andrewsercombe.wordpress.com) so we can come up with some other viable alternatives.
