 Excellent helmet and very good customer service at HJC |
| Review Date: February 14, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Eric, Thailand |
| I've had an HJC Symax helmet for about a year and a half now, and have been very happy with it. It's protected me well in two falls - (1) I went down very hard on concrete at about 30 mph when a large dog came out of nowhere and ran into my back wheel (!) - my head and the helmet hit the road on the right front side; I'm sure the helmet's chin bar saved me from a broken jaw, and I didn't even have a headache afterwards. (2) I crashed going downhill on a steep dirt track (tires got caught in a rut), and landed face down; my face and the helmet landed on my chin, but no injury or soreness. The helmet is well-padded and well-ventilated, and the paint has retained its glossy shine. The flip-top option is extremely convenient, and necessary for me, as where I live (Thailand) there are a lot of vehicles that pollute badly, and I sometimes need to use a smog mask. I've had one problem - the plastic lever that opens the flip-top broke recently when I was opening the helmet. HJC customer service was excellent. First they sent me the replacement part for free. Then they answered my emails promptly and helpfully when I needed help figuring out how to get inside the chin section to replace the part. One other thing - I've noticed that at times the chin bar will click when closing it, but is not fully locked in place, and needs an extra tug (which causes a second click) to fully secure it. This is not happening now that I've replaced the chin bar, so my guess is that it was caused by a loose screw that attached the chin bar, causing one side to close and click slightly before the other side. I'd give this helmet 4 and a half stars (but there are no half-star rating increments available with Amazon). |
Outstanding replacement for the original Symax
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| Review Date: June 29, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Mike 03a3, Vienna, VA |
As the title implies, I've owned an HJC Symax helmet since 2003. Now, after over six years and tens of thousands of miles, the lining was wearing in the rear and the strength of the shell starts to become suspect from all the sunshine and heat it has endured. I've been a happy Symax owner, so I was a bit concerned about how I'd like the replacement.
First the fit: The basic fit of the shell seems the same as the original Symax, the peripheral vision seems the same and the clearance between the chin bar and my chin is identical. The new helmet is a bit more snug, but I suspect that's due entirely to the lining in the old one being compressed a bit from years of use.
Ventilation: There is no comparison. The ventilation in the Symax II is light years better than the original. With the top vent open I can actually feel the air going over my head. Nice. The chin bar vent is also more effective, so the combination is just outstanding.
The nifty new feature on the Symax II is the built-in sunshade. It's a great idea, and works reasonably well, but it really misses the mark a bit. While HJC advertises it has three positions (four if you count retracted) the fully extended position is really just for removing and replacing the lens. The primary two operating detents are VERY close together and almost at the fully extended position. It really needs one more position where it can act like the dark band at the top of a car windshield - far enough down to shade the eyes, but not so far down you are actually looking through it.
It's a great helmet, the flip-up chin bar functions flawlessly, the sun shade is a nice add-on and the ventilation is outstanding. All in all a worthy successor to the original Symax. |
a good helmet
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| Review Date: August 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ian A. Smith, Sussex, WI |
I have owned this helmet for a almost a year now, and have very few complaints. I actually lost the original one I had a few weeks ago and after going back to the store to see what else they offered. I got the same helmet again because I still liked it better than the other system helmets that had the drop-down sun visor. The ability to move the visor to one of 3 locations is pretty handy too.
One downside to the helmet is that the bottom edge of drop-down sun visor can catch sunlight and get kind of bright, but the overall effect is still better than not having the visor at all.
I do own one other different helmet and I usually chose this one whenever possible. Most of the time my girlfriend uses this helmet and she has no complaints about it either. |
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