I’ve needed a new lid for a while now, after losing my main one in an accident last year (Arai Astro R, worked perfectly, thank-god). Since about two years ago, I’ve been an Arai man, after realising the obvious benefits of their extensive R&D department’s work and world-reknown racing success (Nakano’s MotoGP 200mph crash??), but have always been dissapointed with their designs. We wear helmets for our saftey, but also to express ourselves. Why Arai have such bland designs is beyond me.
With this in mind, I looked at the competition, and was really dissapointed with the helmets out there. They were all either too bulbous, not protective enough (Shoei’s lack lower-neck protection, speak to Karl Muggeridge about the important of this) or I had no faith in the protective qualities of them. Then I started looking at Suomy.
Suomy seemed to me, to be pretty clued up, they had good technical designs, and absolutely incredible graphical designs! Foxy has one and has loved it for over a year. I’ve borrowed it before (oh the joys of being the same size) and liked it. I was taken by the Suomy designs and started looking into them. the Spec-1R Extreme helmet is their top-of-the-range helmet, a sister to Arai’s infamous RX7-R helmet, which was my other favourite.
So the research was done, the Spec-1R Extreme looked very capable and suited me. I loved the Flowers design, as I thought it was unique and I like to be a bit different. The Flowers design is meant to be a Hawaiian tribute by the way, not anything else before you comment 
Mike at M9Performance was the supplier for the lid, getting it instock quickly for me, and even going as far as collecting it from the Ashford depot for me in person just to make sure we got hold of it quickly! Now that’s what I call service! Thanks Mike!
The helmet itself feels slightly lighter than my previous Arai Signet GT (Cathcart Rep) and the interior is vastly superior, with a full Alcantara lining (very posh and soft suade). The lining is also completely removable for washing, with a better system than the Arai’s, coming out in a complete unit, unlike Arai’s which come out in pieces, making it fiddly to get back in and to wash.
It comes with a slight iridium finish on the outside, complementing its design, and the view for the rider is a slightly more yellow tint, which is actually pretty damn perfect for Britain where most of the time it’s blue and depressing outside with overcast skies, making everything appear warm and joyful, huzzah! I’ll be looking into a heavily tinted visor (thinking chrome outer finish though because of the design) for the summer. I can’t stand being blinded by the sun, and don’t understand the law which says you can’t use a tinted visor, yet sun-glasses aren’t, which are the same, but offer less vison. Madness.
The visor also has an anti-fog coating on the inside. I had no expectations of this working, having tried many such similar spray-on products before in the past to no avail, but yesterday it performed brilliantly when at a stop in traffic and you expect some mist-up, and then this morning when it was raining very heavily, there wasn’t a hint of any mist, just a clear view! This is an amazing feature, and further endears me to the helmet.
The first ride with the lid was pleasant, it fitted very well, gripping my face tightly, but not so much as to leave marks. The second thing I noticed was that it was a noisier helmet than an Arai. You could hear more wind-noise. I’ve checked and all my vents were closed, so it’s not that. This isn’t so much of a problem for me, as around town I don’t wear ear-plugs and don’t ride that fast, so can live with it, and for faster and longer rides, I use ear-plugs so I’m sure the noise difference will be marginal. Though I’ll have to wait and see.
The cost of the helmet is £399 and it comes with a nice little helmet bag that also doubles up as a shoulder bag so you can carry a spare around if you need to, or just to protect the Suomy as it’s intended for.
Overall, I’m really happy with the helmet, but time will see how I get on. I think Arai have the market dominated, but Suomy can’t be far behind with such good alternatives like this Spec-1R Extreme model, and their frankly, amazing designs!
Here’s some snaps I took:
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