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The Lazer Bayamo – a great value SHARP 4 star rated full face helmet
Belgian helmet maker Lazer have been making helmets for almost as long as motorbikes have been around. The Lazer Bayamo is Lazer’s attempt to make a low-cost full-face all-rounder; one that doesn’t cost too much, isn’t that fancy but has everything and does everything you’ll need.
- SHARP 4 Star safety rated
- 3.4lbs/1.55Kg weight (about average)
- Integral sun visor
- Comfortable with decent ventilation
- Pinlock ready
- 2+3 Years Guarantee (standard plus Lazer’s own)
- Sizes XXS-XXL
- Expect to pay between $100-$140
Overall/Summary
Lazer have produced a great helmet in the Bayamo. Not only does it perform in pretty well every aspect, owners are surprised at how well built it is (especially at this price point). It’s an excellent all-purpose helmet that’s backed by Lazer’s 5 year guarantee and represents great value for money.
Safety
Safety is of course one of the main things you look for in a crash helmet. The Lazer Bayamo has a thermoplastic injected shell that’s made in two shell sizes. It’s hasn’t been Snell certified (Lazer don’t tend to submit their helmets to Snell for testing) but it has been independently SHARP tested where it scored 4/5 stars.
That’s a great score; and it’s also the average score for Lazer crash helmets, with all their helmets apart from one (the Tornado) scoring either four or five out of five stars – though despite this, they still didn’t quite make it into our list of the top 10 safest helmet brands!).
However, because the Bayamo has a quadruple-density internal shock-absorbing EPS lining and a 4 out of 5 SHARP score, we reckon you can probably put your trust in the Bayamo to look after your head in an accident.
Of course, there’s more to safety than having a helmet protect you during an accident. A well designed helmet can also contribute to you not getting into an accident in the first place.
You need a decent strap to make sure it stays on your head and a nice clear visor for good vision. The Bayamo has a decent shield and an integral drop down sun visor to help keep things bearable and safer when you’re riding into the sun. It’s also got a micrometric chin strap which are nice and safe and easy to operate.
The fact that the shell is manufactured in two shell sizes is also useful. In general, the more premium a helmet is, the more shell sizes are produced. It all contributes to making a helmet that looks proportional to the size of the person wearing it – and also means both the comfort lining and the shock absorbing EPS liner are there in the correct proportions to be most effective.
Not all lower-priced helmets are made in two shell sizes so that’s another tick in the box for the Lazer Bayamo.
Helmet Noise
If you’ve read a few of our reviews, you’ll know that helmet noise is very subjective and depends on how your previous helmet performed and the type of bike you ride. Having said that, in general owners of the Lazer Bayamo seem to think it’s about average for noise suppression. We tend to find sporty helmets are noisier helmets so the Bayamo being a general purpose helmet with sporty aspirations, it’s about typical for the noise levels you can expect from a helmet of this type.
Owners say it gets particularly noisy above 60-70 Mph (100-110 Kmh) which means you’re best wearing ear plugs with it (as we recommend with all helmets anyhow).
Ventilation
The Bayamo has the usual array of chin and head vents found on most full face helmets these days.
The double chin vent (it’s got two vents, not that it’s there to ventilate your… you know what I mean!) is operated by an easy to use up/down slider switch and directs the air onto the back of the shield as well as around the lower face area, exiting from the twin exhausts to either side of the chin bar.
On the top of the helmet, and set slightly rearward to allow for routing the air past the retracted sun visor, there’s a pair of air inlets that can be opened/closed by a slider. Again they’re very easy to operate in gloved hands.
Unusually, the rear exhaust ports are also covered with the same sliders to allow for reduced airflow in colder weather.
Importantly, owners say the Bayamo has good ventilation with no problems to report – though to keep the main shield fog free in cold/wet weather you’ll need to fit the optional Pinlock (see below).
Shield
The Bayamo has a clear Pinlock-ready main shield and a drop down internal sun visor, operated by a slider to the rear/left of the shield pivot.
There’s no problems reported with the main shield and the only issue with the sun visor is that many owners reckon it could do with dropping down a bit lower.
Good points about the main shield are that it’s got a nice ratchet mechanism; the opening tab’s where it should be, i.e. on the bottom left; and the shield quick-removal system is great. As you can see in the sales video for the Bayamo below, to remove the shield, simply twist the central dial slightly and it’ll clip out. To refit, it just clips in. Simple, quick and it works well.
The Lazer Bayamo comes with a Pinlock-ready main shield but, unlike some, it doesn’t come with a Pinlock in the box so that’s worth considering if you’re looking to buy one – you might need to spend another $40ish to get one (you can buy one from Amazon here though unlike our recommended retailers, we can’t vouch for the quality of the retailer).
Sizes & Comfort
Lazer produce the Bayamo in sizes XXS-XXL which, if you need a helmet at either extreme, you’ll know is reasonably unusual.
As usual, make sure you get a helmet that feels tightish and doesn’t have any pressure points or over-rotate when you grab the helmet and move it about on your head. See our fitting guide for more information on getting a helmet that fits right.
Assuming you’ve got a Bayamo that fits correctly, then owners are happy with how comfortable they are. They’re often happily surprised at the quality of materials used by Lazer – especially at this price point.
The interior is removable and washable and it comes with a flexible and removable chin curtain and nose deflector. Lazer also has what they call their Morpho system plus. It sounds grand but all it is are replaceable cheek and head pads so you can tweak the fitting to get the size just right. Again, that’s a nice feature and one that’s typically only available on pricier lids.
Looks & Graphics
I think it’s fair to say that the Bayamo isn’t going to win any design awards – it’s more functional than cool-looking. But that’s just fine for many of us who want something that works well and doesn’t break the bank (me included). It’s available in gloss/matt black and gloss white (called Z-Line) and if you’re after something hi-viz, the closest you’ll probably get is the Bayamo Reflex in fluo yellow/black/red that’s shown further up the page.
There’s a couple of classic black and white designs – the Bayamo Cup and Bayamo Spirit (right) – plus some gaudier designs like the Pitt Bull, the Sprint and the Helter. And last but not least there’s one designed with the ladies in mind which (sorry girls) is a flowery design in the usual pink and called Pretty Love (at least they didn’t call it fluffy kittens!). You can see it at the top of the page.
As usual, we’ve tried to include examples of every design available at the time of writing on this page – though it’s worth checking out the recommended retailer links you’ll find towards the bottom of the page to see all the latest designs.
Video
Here’s Lazer’s own promotional video that takes you through some of its main features. Nice music!
Other stuff – guarantee, weight, buffeting, comms
The Lazer Bayamo comes with a standard two year guarantee but if you register it here on the Lazer site, they’ll give you an extra 3 years’ manufacturer’s guarantee too. For a lower-priced helmet, that’s a great guarantee; right up there with the most premium helmet manufacturer’s.
As you’d expect from a thermoplastic helmet, it’s not going to be as light as something like a composite-shelled helmet. However, it’s more or less bang on the average weight for a thermoplastic shelled helmet (the Bayamo is 3.42lbs/1.55Kg while the average is 3.46lbs/1.57Kg!) so you know it shouldn’t tire you out or feel too heavy when riding.
Finally, it’s what Lazer call speaker-ready. No more details are provided so that probably means it has speaker pockets. Also, a couple of owners rated it very highly for the lack of buffeting, saying they’ve found it markedly better than their previous helmets and doesn’t move around on the head, even at speed.
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Alternatives
There’s several thermoplastic/polycarbonate full face helmets out there that are great value and score well on the SHARP safety test. Take a look at the slightly more expensive (but also scoring 4 stars) Scorpion Exo R-410 – it comes with an optical class one shield (though no sun visor). If price is your main consideration, you can check out our cheapest crash helmets here, or if it’s safety, you’ll find all our four and five star rated helmets on this link.
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