Shark RSX Motorcycle Helmet Review

Bill — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:18:12 +0000

You may or may not have heard of Shark Motorcycle helmets before, they are not one of the glamor brands that receive a lot of adoration like Shoei or Arai but I will tell you positively that they produce a hell of a motorcycle helmet. Simply because you haven't heard of them before, do not lump them in with some of the other no name cheap motorcycle helmets. That would be a big mistake.

I have very limited exposure to the Shark Motorcycle helmet as this review is written based on feedback from a buddy of mine that bought it about 6 months ago and based on what he is saying, I think I might be adding one to my collection in the very near future. So let's see what he had to say about these not very cheap motorcycle helmets.

Screaming Eagle Shark RSX

I have to say that visually, this helmet is a good looking piece of equipment. The helmet that he bought was the Shark RSX Eagle edition aka the Screaming Eagle edition. You don't have to be one of them there rocket scientists to see why this helmet is named the Eagle. Stunning graphics and visual appeal will get the message across rather quickly. I usually tend to personally lean towards the monochrome or darker color helmets like the Joe Rocket Carbon helmet but if you like some flash, then this helmet is for you.

Shark RSX Fit and Finish

First off the quality of the graphics and the paint scheme of the Shark are very good. The helmet has at least 6 months of very hard riding time on it and not a chip or a scratch to be found. Admittedly my friend is careful with his helmets but out on the road, you get hit by what you get hit by. The paint is laid down smoothly and I couldn't find a single flaw in it.

The liner of the Shark helmet was very soft and felt like a high quality liner. The liner has a small amount of excess padding to fit around the sides of your neck and the padding on the chin strap was comfortable. I barely even felt it. A traditional D-ring system keeps the strap down by the way.
The venting system on the Shark is also quality. Both the front and top vents are push to open type vents which make the very easy to operate when going down the road. They open and close with an audible click that you can also feel through your fingertips, even in gloves.

Air flow through the helmet was great. The Shark has two scoops that direct air into the helmet on the chin and the top of the helmet. The chin vent blows air over the visor and does a very effective job of eliminating fog up on the visor. The top scoop works off kind of a ram air effect and is a reverse V configuration. It opens with the push of a button. The airflow is surrounds your hot head and removes as much heat as possible before being forced out the rear of the helmet via two small exhaust holes.

We live in Georgia, so heat is a year round issue and airflow in a helmet is critical. This Shark RSX helmet easily gets two thumbs up for it's ability to flow air and keep your visor clear and your head cool.

Shark RSX Visor

Speaking of the visor, this is one of the components that is often overlooked, but can really kind of make or break a helmet. The visor on the RSX utilizes a button release that I found to be pretty easy to operate. You simply push the lever down, hit the button and pull the visor off the button. A child of 5 could do it in about 10 seconds.
The face shield itself is a high quality piece. It is very thick and had to be covered with an anti-fog coating because it was almost impossible to get it to fog up. In fact we couldn't get it to fog up so during our test period I would say it WAS impossible to get it to fog.
So far I am pretty damn impressed with the Shark RSX but let's see how it performs in some other key categories.

Shark RSX Road Manners

With several thousand road miles on this helmet we can honestly say that the helmet behaves very well on the road at low, medium or high speed riding. We always ride with ear plugs so keep that in mind but that combination produced a very reasonably quiet ride at all speeds. With or without the ear plugs the Shark RSX is a quiet helmet.

I give this helmet a rating of excellent in terms of noise and that is pretty darn good.

The Shark RSX has very good road manners in terms of noise, but turbulence and helmet weight are also very important. An improperly designed or poorly designed helmet can be a bear to ride on long rides because it buffets your head around incessantly. A heavy helmet can also wear you out on long rides as well, simply because your neck muscles aren't used to carrying the extra weight.

You will be happy to hear that the Shark RSX performs very well in both of these categories. I experienced no unusual wind buffeting of any kind and the helmet actually was barely noticeable on my head, even for extended rides. Like many well designed helmets, this helmet will feel even lighter going down the road than it does at a stop.

The lightweight is a direct result of the Kevlar-carbon multi-composite material from which the Shark RSX is constructed. The Shark RSX weighs in at just 1350 grams which puts it into the top percentile of helmets based on weight.

Shark RSX Conclusions

When you take everything into consideration, the Shark RSX is an awesome helmet and I know my buddy absolutely loves his. I would be expecting to add one of my very own in the near future. Graphics and appearance are very personal to the rider so you may not like the graphics of the Eagle edition but I loved them. They do have a few different options so take a look and see if you like what you see.

The MSRP for this helmet was about 430 bucks give or take a few bucks but I think it is worth every bit of that. If you are looking to save money and buy a quality helmet at cheap motorcycle helmets prices then I would give the Shark RSX a solid look. You can save a ton of money on these genuine Shark RSX helmets below.