I’m thinking of getting one of these myself (probably try one on at the next motorcycle show). The Roof Desmo was designed to solve some of the ‘problems’ found with the Roof Boxer and the Boxer V8. Both these helmets are, of course, ace and iconic. But there’s always niggles and Roof reckon they’ve sorted them out with the Desmo…
The first niggle was that some folks moaned you couldn’t open the shield very easily. It needed a couple of pushes and pulls and that’s a pain when you’re riding along. The desmo takes just one hand and can be done in one movement. Niggle solved. Secondly, when the shield or chin guard was down, ventilation could be pretty poor. So Roof uprated the air channels and vents on the Desmo, so cooling’s improved and misting reduced. That’s coupled with an anti-fog shield being provided as standard. Bang on.
There’s also some thought gone into improving the mechanism of the shield. It seals better than before and when the chin guard’s pushed up, cunning things happen to the hinges and the shield moves closer to the face to give more protection. Nice.
In the EU, the Roof Desmo is also dual-homologated which means it’s been ECE 22.05 tested and approved as being OK and safe to use with the chin guard up as an open-faced helmet as well as with the guard down as a full-faced helmet. That being said, we can’t be sure quite how well it performs as it’s not been Snell or SHARP tested yet – however, previously tested Roof crash helmets have scored either three or four stars out of five in the SHARP test, so we’d guess it’ll probably perform pretty well in the tests and in an accident.
That being said, it’s the look of a Roof helmet that’s going to sell it to you. If you want sensational performance from a modular, flip-up helmet, there’s a gazillion out there that perform as well or better. But there’s something about the Roof that’s stylish, funky and cool. They come in XS (54cm) to XXL (63cm) and cost about $400, if you can find a dealer as there aren’t that many about (sort it out Roof!) but well worth finding one out.
Update: I did buy one! Check out the full review here.
To check out reviews of other flip up helmets, check out our flip up crash helmet section.
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