I've been riding for close to two decades, and besides ample head protection, there are two things I consider essential in any motorcycle helmet I'm thinking about buying. One is, it needs some type of sun visor; usually a drop-down internal sunshade paired with a clear visor is my go-to.
The second essential thing for me, personally, is that the visor needs to not fog up on me. Now, I'm used to riding in a wide variety of temperatures, and I also wear eyeglasses to see. So I'm used to cracking my visor just a little when it's winter out, and it's fine; I just need to see, you know?
The advent of Pinlock visor inserts has undoubtedly been a relief for riders like me, but what if you could have a similar visor insert concept that also includes some type of sun protection? Better still, what if it offered a range of dimming that goes from light to dark, that could be controlled electronically? And as a final cherry on top, what if you had the option to control that dimming manually, or you could choose to set it to dim automatically instead with a simple flick of a switch?
If all that sounds good to you, then you might want to know about Shoei's newest announcement. It's a helmet visor insert called e:DRYLENS, and that's exactly what Shoei says it does. As you might guess from the inclusion of the "e," it's an electronically dimming device, made with a special dimmable liquid crystal film developed by Dai Nippon Printing.
Because it's electronically controlled, it will require charging. There's a USB-C port to allow you to do this, and whether you want another device you need to remember to plug in to charge is, of course, another matter entirely. According to Shoei, the e:DRYLENS shield should be good for about 20 hours of functioning on a full charge, and should take around three hours to charge up when you plug it in. Please bear in mind, this is a news piece and not a review, so RideApart can offer no informed opinions as to the veracity of these manufacturer claims.
Now for the specifics: The e:DRYLENS shield insert is made to fit Shoei's CWR-F2 and CWR-F2R shields, which only fit a few of the brand's helmets. The other important thing to know is that so far, Shoei has only announced the e:DRYLENS shield for the Japanese market, and has not announced it for international markets yet.
Preorders in Japan for the e:DRYLENS shield insert will open on January 9, 2026, at a cost of ¥27,500 (about US$176.50 at the time of writing).
What do you think, is this a welcome helmet technology development, or do you think it's unnecessarily complicated? Let us know in the comments.
