So just wearing it around the house, the GT-Air fits very similarly to my old RF-1000. Having said that, the fit seems to conform to my head a little better than the RF-1000. I wore an XL RF-1000, and I wear an XL GT-Air, so if you're looking to upgrade your RF-1000 or RF-1100, you should find the corresponding size GT-Air to fit as well. For what it's worth, I also tried the RF-1200 and Neotec and found their fit to be similar as well as the sizing. As is typical with Shoei, the inner liner is very plush and comfortable. I wear glasses, and I do not have any problem with the padding on my temples. I have discovered, though, that the GT-Air is a bit taller physically than the RF-1000 as it takes a little shifting around to get it situated just right so that I can latch the lid shut on my Givi topbox. This is due to the position of the top vent, which is centered and more on top of the helmet than on the RF-1000, which had dual brow vents mounted more forward and to the sides. The weight isn't appreciably different. I think I read somewhere that the GT-Air is lighter, but I find in practice that the difference isn't noticeable.
The first opportunity I had to wear it out on a ride came just before Christmas. It was pretty cold (for Texas, so low 50s) and really windy (20mph gusts) which made for some pretty miserable riding on the superslab on the way out to the more fun and twisty roads. This helmet definitely earned its name. This thing flows serious amounts of air. In my RF-1000, I could ride all year round with all of the vents in the open position, and it was fine. In the winters, it was cold but not too bad. I didn't get very far down the freeway frontage road before I had to snap the vents closed. I could actually feel the air flowing across the top of my head. Looking inside the helmet, there are three large vent channels, and the inner liner helps with this effect as well. Even riding today with temperatures in the upper 60s/lower 70s, I didn't feel the need to have anything but the chin vent open. I have high hopes for this helmet come the triple-digit summer temps.
From a completely subjective standpoint, the GT-Air seems to be quieter on the highways, but there's still a fair amount of wind roar. The neck roll seems to do a better job of keeping the turbulence on the bottom at bay as shrugging my shoulders up when at speed doesn't produce as pronounced a reduction in road noise as on the RF-1000. It does make it a little tougher to pull the helmet on, but it's worth it. One thing I've noticed is that the chin strap feels like it's a little further back towards my neck than the RF-1000's, and the little strap retention snap is a bit further up, almost in the helmet, making it a little tougher to secure the end of the strap. It's a minor thing but worth mentioning.
The visor is bigger in both directions than on the RF-1000, but since I wear glasses anyway, that doesn't really make a big difference to me. I have discovered that the pin lock anti-fog shield that I've installed doesn't want to seal up against the visor in one area at the bottom by my right cheek, resulting in a small triangle of fogging. I need to see what I can do about that again. Just a word of caution: the pin lock shields scratch REALLY easily. I was cleaning the bottom of it with what I thought was a very soft cotton towel, and it left what I initially thought were streaks on the edges of the pin lock. Unfortunately, they turned out to be scratches. It's still worth in, though. I installed one on my RF-1000 and never looked back. It was nice to only have to worry about my glasses fogging. The other visor comment centers around the internal sun visor. I didn't really think I would use it much, but I figured it would be a nice feature to have for when I forget to change from my regular sunglasses to my sunnies after a lunch break or something, which has been known to happen from time to time. Two of my most recent rides were for extended periods under very sunny skies. Even with my sunglasses on, which have the polarized tinted Transitions lenses, I found myself using that internal visor to cut down the light even more. It's great, because it fits over my glasses without any issue, which was a concern for me initially.
So overall, I love this helmet. I sometimes I wish I had gone with the Neotec, but I still question how often I would use the full-face flip-up feature.
Pros:
- Shoei's latest technology
- Shoei's reputed build quality and fit/finish
- Flows a ton of air
- Fits my head very well
- Has the emergency removable pads (hopefully won't need to use this feature)
- Comes with a pin lock shield (was an additional ~$110 for my RF-1000 as I had to buy the new visor as well as the shield)
- Inner dark tinted visor
- Still fits in my top case, but barely
- Inner liners are all removable, so easier to clean
Cons:
- It's one of the pricier helmets on the market, but I believe it's worth it
My pinlock is being difficult and not sealing properly at the approx. 5 o'clock position- Chin strap feels a little different from my RF-1000; a little tighter towards the neck
Chinstrap retention snap difficult to engage- ADDED: It would be nice if the Hi-Viz options had more of the Hi-Viz color. I'd probably even go for one that was the inverse of mine -- Hi-Viz body with black offset stripes. Maybe even retroreflective stripes.
I tried to capture all of the things I wondered about while I was considering this helmet versus the RF-1200 or a marked-down closeout RF-1100. I also finally got around to installing the Scala Rider Cardo G9 comm unit just in time for my ride today. I will be posting some observations on the Cardo G9 soon, so check back later! :-)
UPDATE (2014-05-15): The pinlock issue has been resolved! This spring has been really bizarre for Texas with one week being in the upper 70s and 80s and then the next down in freezing temps. Try this one on for size. This morning's low was 49F, which tied a 125 year old record for low temperature for May 15. The high yesterday was 13F lower than the average. Why am I telling you all this? Because with the low temps and the high humidity, fogging happens quite easily, so resolving the pinlock issue is huge. I broke down and sent an email to Shoei support, and they sent me a link that described how to adjust the tension of the pinlock shield! Yes, I'm guilty of not following the rule of RTFM.
Apparently the pins are designed like an engine's crankshaft with the barrel against which the pinlock shield rests being offset from the pin's actual center. By default, the pins are set so that the barrels are farthest apart from each other, which makes sense as it makes it easier to actually mount the pinlock shield to the visor. I removed the shield and cleaned it and the visor of smudges, bug juice and fingerprints. Then I set about reinstalling the shield. Once the shield was on both pins, I then rotated each pin 180 degrees, which basically pushes in the edges of the pinlock shield, causing it to snug up to the visor. So technically, this adjusts the pinlock shield's compression. And in my defense, the pinlock shield on my RF-1000 went in and sealed against the visor without any adjustments whatsoever. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
After a quick visual inspection, the pinlock shield's edge is obviously sealed against the visor much better than before. I put the helmet on, closed the visor tight, closed all the vents, and started breathing. After a few minutes, the helmet got all nice and humid, but the visor remained clear. A quick check in the mirror showed that the areas of the visor that were left exposed were all fogged up, and there were no regions of leakage around the entire perimiter. I'm a happy camper again!
Other than that, the chinstrap retention snap has gotten a lot easier to engage. I'm not sure if it's a function of just being used to it now or something else, but I'm no longer fumbling around trying to get it to snap into place.
