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Review of the Scorpion Exo Covert motorcycle helmet.
It’s usually Shark with their Drak/Raw helmets that turn bikers into stormtroopers. But now Scorpion’s having a go too with their Scorpion Exo Covert helmets.
Like the Sharks, the Scorpion Covert is essentially an open face helmet with a plastic face guard that’ll instantly make you look like a badass. All for not very much dollar.
But with the addition of a drop down sun visor, the Covert (called the Combat outside of the US) promises to be a much more practical helmet too.
Just don’t think of it as a full face helmet replacement – more an open face that’ll keep your face clean!
- Polycarbonate shelled open face helmet
- Removable plastic face guard
- SHARP 3 star safety rated (ECE helmet)
- Drop down sun visor
- Antifog coated visors
- D-Ring fastener
- 5 year warranty
- Sizes XS-XXXL
- Expect to pay $210-$299
Looking to buy a Scorpion Exo Covert?
Please click below to visit the Scorpion Exo Covert helmets pages at our recommended stores – all checked for great online ratings. And if you buy from any store, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).
Overall/Summary
So is it worth buying a Scorpion Exo Covert?
Well, it’s got some mega cool looks, an interesting sun visor system, it’s well built and it’s comfortable – providing the helmet shape suits your head (read below). It’s also very well ventilated.
On the negatives, that tinted visor system means you might struggle when it gets dark. Plus, you’ll struggle to fit a bluetooth kit in there. And with that face guard, you might be lulled into thinking you’ve all the protection of a full face helmet when in fact you’re exposed in an open face.
But if you’re after a lower-priced open face helmet that’ll make you feel and look distinctive/badass, with the advantage of having some protection from the elements, then the Scorpion Exo Covert is very much made for you my friend. Go and check one out immediately.
Safety
(more about helmet safety)
The Scorpion Exo Covert has a polycarbonate shell and is made in two shell sizes.
It’s a pretty basic shell construction and material, but that doesn’t mean the shell itself won’t give decent protection.
Although the DOT Covert hasn’t been independently safety rated by Snell, if we look back at the stats of how well ECE Scorpion polycarbonate helmets do when they’re safety tested, we can see that of the seven Scorpion polcarb helmets tested in the UK by SHARP to date, they score an average of just over 3 stars out of 5.
And when SHARP tested the Scorpion Exo Combat (what the Covert is called in ECE land) in 2021, it scored exactly the same – 3 stars. If you look at the 8.5 m/s test results it seems that it falls down a bit on the side and rear impact tests, though of course that’s only part of the picture.
That’s because that face guard doesn’t really offer impact protection. The helmet’s DOT certified but that face guard doesn’t really offer much protection – in fact with the ECE helmet its been certified as NP or non-protective, because it’s there just to give weather and dirt protection, not impact protection.
So don’t buy a Covert for facial protection because it’s not gonna give you much. If you want that, buy a full face lid.
That face guard is easily removable courtesy of pressing in a couple of plastic tabs and pulling the guard off. It does protect you from road filth and flies etc. but that’s about it.
So, if you have an accident, as long as you hit the actual helmet shell and nowhere else, the Scorpion Covert should offer a reasonable level of protection. If you don’t, it won’t – and that includes the plastic panel that wraps around to the back/bottom of the helmet.
You can actually remove that part and ride with it as a half helmet, but if you do it don’t look too great (see pic below) and it becomes even noisier and windier.
The sun visors on the Covert do give you some level of eye protection, though of course don’t use it after dusk. But that visor aperture’s a bit small according to some riders, so may not give you the all round visibility of many other helmets.
Overall, if you think of the Scorpion Covert as an open face helmet with some other useful bells and whistles – and accept the risks of riding with an open face lid – then you should be happy with the protection on offer.
But if you’re looking for the best protection out there, then choose one of our Safest rated helmets instead.
Helmet Noise
(more about helmet noise)
Yeah, it’s an open face and open face helmets usually let more air – and noise – into a helmet.
Couple that with the fact that there’s a ton of air getting into the Covert through the vents (see below) and that makes for a helmet with potentially all the noise attenuation of a kettle drum.
And sure enough, most owners reckon it’s a noisy helmet. Actually, most owners reckon it’s a noisy helmet but they’re happy to put up with it because a) it’s not quite as noisy as their usual open face helmets without a face guard and b) they expected it to be noisy but bought it anyway, so don’t really mind.
If you want a quiet helmet, you’re probably best to steer clear of the Scorpion Exo Covert. But if you want to look damn cool, don’t really expect to be riding too fast or too far in it (or just don’t give a s**t anyway!) then you’re good to go.
Ventilation
(more about helmet ventilation)
Ventilation’s good. There’s a surprise.
Obviously, it’s an open face helmet so pull off the face guard, push up the sun visor and you’ll get all the ventilation you’ll need.
But there’s a bit more to it than that with the Covert.
With the muzzle on and visor down, you’ll rely a little more on the designed-in vents.
The vents in the chin bar are always open and just have some metal gauze in there to stop flies etc. getting in. But with the space underneath the face shield and those vents combined, there’s no shortage of air getting in.
Up top, there’s a forehead vent operated by a slider. And while there’s no exhaust vent in the rear of the shell, that forehead vent does let air circulate inside the lid through channels in the polystyrene liner.
All in all, owners of the Scorpion Covert says it flows tons of air. Which may be a good thing or it may be a bad thing depending on how often you ride in mid-winter!
Sun Visor
(more about sun visors)
OK, there isn’t actually a conventional clear visor on the Scorpion Covert. It’s really a sun visor, although it pulls down very much like a normal face shield and is actually sealed at the bottom to stop water/wind getting in like a proper shield.
But because it’s tinted, you shouldn’t use it to ride at night for obvious reasons.
A couple of useful links…
– All our Open Face Helmet Reviews –
– Coolest Motorcycle Helmets –
Scorpion does include both a lightly tinted and dark tint sun visor in the box, which is handy.
And if you’re thinking I’ll just buy a clear visor to swap it out so I can ride at night – that’s an option because Scorpion will sell you one – or a darker tint, gold or silver one for about $30.
Those sun visors are actually Everclear anti-fog coated so you shouldn’t be too troubled by misting either – except when it’s really cold or rainy.
Usefully, the sun visor has an opening tab on both sides which is very handy for when you’re stopped at the lights and want to use your throttle hand to push up the sun visor.
The only real fly in the ointment is that the visor opening isn’t really very big, with a few riders saying it’s both vertically and horizontally challenged and can make shoulder checks and lifesavers tricky.
So probs a helmet to avoid if you’re still learning then. If that’s you or you’d prefer a helmet with a good wide face shield, you might want to check out our helmets with wide shields pages instead.
Chin Guard
(more about chin guards)
The chin guard on the Covert is basically a large plastic face guard that’s EPS-lined and is easily removable from the helmet.
Sorry to keep on repeating myself – but it’s not designed to be protective in an accident – rather it’s there give weather and road dirt protection. Oh, and to make you look mean of course!
It clips off easily using a couple of tabs, one on each side. And there’s a couple of locating magnets on each side to help align the tabs when you’re putting the chin piece back on.
Nice touch that – with a couple of owners saying they make it super easy to get the chin guard back in place.
Removing this chin piece obviously turns the helmet into a regular open face helmet. And in the US, you can also remove the piece that wraps around the bottom of the helmet to turn it into a half helmet.
That said, it’s fairly unanimous that it works and looks best in its openface config.
Comfort and Sizing
(more about comfort and sizing)
OK, the Scorpion Exo Covert is made in two different shell sizes to cover fitment sizes XS-XXXL.
Sizing’s a bit weird with the Covert though. Slightly more people reckoned the sizing’s a bit small, so you need to go up a size to get the fitment right. While others said the opposite. Bit weird that so we’d recommend measuring your head correctly and ordering the right size and keeping your fingers crossed.
Just make sure you order from someone with a decent returns policy who’ll refund with no quibbles (like our recommended stores – see below).
Inside the shell, there’s Scorpion’s KwikWick2 liner which is a comfortable lining made up of anti-allergenic and moisture wicking materials.
The cheek pads are velcroed in there so can easily be removed, while the cap is held in using poppers.
Overall, owners find their Coverts very comfortable. Once they’re sure they’ve got the right size (with no pressure points but an overall comfortable yet firm fitting) then it’s a very comfortable helmet – with one occasional exception…
A few owners reckoned there’s not enough padding – or space – around the ears. There isn’t space inside the helmet for speakers and the EPS liner can push the padding into the ears making it uncomfortable.
The internal head shape of the Covert is medium oval, which means it should fit most riders as that’s the most common head shape. But if your head shape is rounder than average, you may find this sort of problem.
So, again, make sure you buy from a store who’ll give no-quibble returns – and always leave any tags and stickers on the helmet until you’re happy it works for you, otherwise a store may not accept the return.
Looks & Graphics
Obviously, it’s the looks of the Covert that are the big talking point. And it seems that Scorpion reckons they’re only helped by dark and moody graphics because, so far, most are black or urban camo like the Incursion or Ratnik. But there is also the Rockstar – named after the energy drink, not the GTA game company.
We’ve pretty well covered all the available graphics up and down the page, but to see if any more have come out and find pricing/deals, please click through directly to the Scorpion Helmets pages of our recommended sellers below.
Best places to buy a Scorpion Exo Covert?
Please click below to visit the Scorpion Exo Covert helmets pages at our recommended stores – all checked for great online ratings. And if you buy from any store, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).
Scorpion Exo Covert video
Here’s a 2.5m video looking around a matt black Covert.
Other stuff – fasteners, audio, glasses, weight, aero, build quality, warranty
In the US the Covert comes with a solid double-d ring fastener. In Europe, the Combat comes with a quick and easy micrometric.
If you’re thinking of fitting a bluetooth kit to your Covert, don’t bother as there’s not space inside for speakers.
And while Scorpion does say it’s got grooves inside to fit your glasses stems – what they call their Kwikfit system – we’ve heard from a few riders who reckon that tightness around the ears really limits the type of glasses you can wear. Maybe if they’ve ultra thin arms and you’ve quite a narrow head, you’ll get away with it. Might be you’ll have to try it out to see if it works for you.
Onto weight, most owners say it feels quite light weight. It’s a polycarbonate helmet so that shell’s gonna be on the heavier side, but it is an open face helmet so that means it’ll shed a few grammes. It weighs around 2.9lbs (1.3kg).
As you might expect for a helmet that’s not quite a full face, aero isn’t the best on the Covert. Some owners say it’s fine if you keep the speed down but press on and you’ll find quite a bit of resistance and buffeting.
Build quality is widely seen as very good though – but I think that’s widely seen in light of a helmet’s price. So comments like – great build quality for a helmet at this price range are common. Which means don’t expect top of the range Arai hand built quality but it’s more than good enough for most people.
Finally, the Covert comes with a very generous 5 year warranty. Yay!
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Good Alternatives to the Scorpion Exo Covert?
OK, we’re gonna go with baddassery here and find some decent alternatives to the Covert that’ll send grannies and children running for cover when you ride by.
First up, there’s the good old Shark Drak which is the most direct comparison with its face mask, though the Drak comes with goggles instead of sun visors.
And there’s a nice clutch of Simpsons to look at too – including the modular Mod Bandit, the Snell certified Outlaw Bandit, and the highly rated Ghost Bandit (SHARP 4 star safety rated in UK). All these have that distinctive Simpson cool look too.
If you like that look but want something for around the same price as the Covert, the Biltwell Lane Splitter is worth a look.
Looking to buy a Scorpion Exo Covert?
Please click below to visit the Scorpion Exo Covert helmets pages at our recommended stores – all checked for great online ratings. And if you buy from any store, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).
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