Helmets are inherently cool. Think of every time you've watched someone pick up a helmet and walk away—you know they're going away to be a badass. Likewise, when someone enters a room and plants their lid on a table, they steal the show, and the conversation about what bike they ride is just hanging in the air. Helmets are the unspoken gateway to a cool aura.
But if I saw someone come into my apartment with the AGV that MotoGP racer Luca Marini was testing at Jerez, which has two massive winglets on the sides, they'd be met with an exasperated sigh.
Advancements in motorcycle racing are fascinating, but when we start seeing features that were meant to make the pinnacle of motorcycle racers a tenth of a second faster trickle down to riders on the street, well, they don't look that cool. For the record, I maintain that superbikes peaked in 2015, before they grew mustaches.
Now, before you paint me as a grumpy old man, I think this technology is insanely cool and have felt it to some degree on the track, where it was designed to be effective. My Alpinestars Supertech R10 has smaller aero winglets on the sides to help keep the rider's head more stable and reduce drag while they're hanging off the bike mid-corner.
I don't know if it was the overall helmet design, the side aero, or a placebo, but I felt like it gave me one of the least turbulent track rides I've ever had.
I'm in a bit of a bind here because I'm super excited for more people to experience what side aero on helmets has to offer on the track and to watch how much it can be improved upon since I first experienced it. But I'm waiting like a grumpy old man to see AGV's latest lid bombard my Instagram feed on riders who go from stoplight to stoplight.
I'm probably a bit of a hater, and I accept that.
