Last season, I was gifted a brand new helmet. A Shoei RF-1000. It is a great helmet with tremendous airflow over the top of the rider’s head. The sales people told me that the helmet would break in a 1/2 size. That is definitely true. This year, now that I have about 5000 miles on the helmet, the inner padding has compressed and the helmet sits too low to allow all that wonderful air in over my head. It also sort of wobbled around in the buffeting wind.

While riding this summer I found myself pushing the helmet up periodically to allow more air in to cool me off. That also revealed that it was also more comfortable on my forehead when up slightly.

I tried weather stripping in the top of the helmet but didn’t like the result. I then started the search for some more cushy foam pieces. While moving the window A/Cs from the basement I found just what I needed. Foam left over from the over-the-range microwave:

I cut three sections of the foam and placed them in a halo formation in the helmet, avoiding the forehead area. On the ride to work the airflow was much improved as was the position. However, the comfort was less than ideal. It is a significant proof of concept though and for the ride home I have removed the back portion leaving the side pieces in place. In the photo below you can see the head liner pushed in on the side.

I will update later on my final design implementation.

Thanks for reading and happy riding.