Skully emailed me, that they would love to film me and my BMW S1000 RR for some of their videos and I could test the new age Skully AR 1 helmet… Well of course I did it :)

What makes the Skully AR 1 Helmet special ?

If you have been living under a rock the past few years, I’ll give you a quick run down. Skully is a motorcycle helmet startup based in San Francisco. The AR1 (their first helmet) is packed with technology we have never seen in a helmet before :

Rear-view camera

Head-up display

integrated speakers and microphone

navigation

voice control

eTint Visor that electronically changes the visor from clear to tinted

1500$ price tag

Stock image from Skully

First Impressions

I only had the helmet on for maybe 2 hours and didn’t even get to use all of the functions yet, but I spotted some interesting first details about the AR1.

In the first moment I got the AR 1 in to my hand I was very surprised on how light it was. I usually wear an Shoei RF 1200 — a pretty light helmet — and the Skully felt lighter. I did not get to measure them, but that alone was impressive, because obviously with all that tech it should be huge and heavy right ? Nope not really.

Once I put on the helmet I noticed the inner liner and it is a very nice fabric. Felt great on the skin and gives you the feeling that you are wearing something of very high quality. The chin strap opens and closes very easily with a ratchet system ( it is not your typical double D ring), but to me it was quite uncomfortable to wear, as it can press into the throat and is made of hard components — not so fun.

The HUD

Then I got to adjust the HUD crystal, which sits at the lower right and is not really interfering with the normal vision. At first it is a bit weird to see the rear view and navigation instructions in this little screen. But you get quickly used to it. It does not look really like in the picture above. the difference is that it has a solid border and it seems quite small, when you actually see it. The image quality is good, but in very bright light it is hard to see the image clearly. Once you have a darker background or maybe even the tinted visor would help to see it easier. Cool is however that the image is projected into infinity. No this is not a Buzz Lightyear reference, but cool technology. It simply means your eyes don’t have to change focus if you look onto the road and change your attention to the HUD and back, which helps to keep distractions to a minimum.

First Generation Problems

It is a cool looking helmet and full of tech that we have not seen before in a motorcycle helmet. But .. it is not perfect yet. The chin strap is uncomfortable, there is no chin curtain yet, but Skully is working on fixing that soon. The HUD, with the camera is clearly the highlight of the helmet and it was nice to use, but size and display quality could still easily improve in future version. Then there is also the safety aspect to it. The helmets are DOT, but not yet SNELL certified — so if you want the safest helmets for an impact you need to look elsewhere for now.

My Verdict

Well would I buy an AR1 ? No — not yet. The tech is cool, but for me the missing SNELL certification and some minor issues like the annoying chin strap make me look twice at the 1500 $ price tag.

I could rather buy a top of the line Shoei or Arai helmet and fit it with the latest bluetooth communicators and be under one grand. However I will have an eye on Skully, to see when they release a second generation helmet.

These little issues aside — I love Skully for what they are doing to the motorcycle helmet industry. Putting this kind of technology into a helmet is starting a completely new era of helmets and in a few years normal helmets without technology will be antiquated. So if you are a diehard early adopter you should get this helmet.