M2R Helmets Navigator Carbon

A very comfortable, well-made helmet at a reasonable price, with only minor flaws. I found the overall fit very good for my head (M) and enjoyed the large spaces for my ears to fit into. The cheek pads are a bit tighter than my last helmet, but I assume they'll soften a bit over time. The field of view is excellent and the edges of the supplied PinLock inner visor aren't in view. The wind noise with or without the outer sun visor attached is pretty good. The inner sun shield works well, but when fully retracted, it locks into place, and unlocking it requires significant force on the sliding knob, which is a little small and fiddly when wearing thicker gloves. The clear visor only has three positions, fully open, half open or closed, so you can't leave a small gap at the bottom in cold weather; if you do, once you get over about 40km/h, the wind pressure forces the visor to close in the closed AND LOCKED position. Unlocking the visor from the closed position requires a lot of force, which I hope will soften over time.

Unfortunately, the external sun visor is essentially useless. It's not long enough to block the sun from your eyes / face at all, and since it is in a single, fixed position, you can't tilt it down to block the sun when it's low in the sky. At least it's not too much of a wind sock when attached, but I ended up leaving it off, as I found it was mostly pointless having it attached.

There are no instructions available to advise how the vents work. The top vent button works in the opposite direction to the chin vent button, and I only found by accident that there is sliding button inside the helmet piece to change the chin vent's airflow direction. The airflow through the vents isn't that great, so it gets hot and stuffy when riding slowly.

In summary, it's more like a road helmet with a sun visor bolted on than a true adventure helmet, but if you're a 60/40 road / off-road rider like me, it's an acceptable compromise for the price.

M2R Navigator Carbon helmet is a hit – I moved from sports bikes to adventure and supermoto bikes and was looking for a more appropriately styled and functional helmet. I walked into my local motorcycle accessories shop and the Navigator caught my eye. Then I saw the carbon edition! I’m a sucker for anything carbon fibre. I tried it on and found it to be very comfortable (I have an M2R MX helmet so the brand suits my head shape) and light. I figured I’d give it a go as the price tag wasn’t too bad either at $599 or $399 for the polycarbonate shell version but carbon looks way cooler ;o).

I’ve worn it on my R1200GS with a screen protecting me, and on my motard with zero protection from the wind up to 110km/h. Pros - It’s a great looking helmet. Some are a bit gaudy whereas the Navigator looks classy - Quiet (for a helmet with a visor) - I use standard ear buds to listen to music and they stay in whilst pulling the helmet over my ears - Minimal buffeting - The internal sun shield is clear with zero distortion - The ventilation is excellent. It’s hot in Brisbane at the moment and I can feel the air moving through the shell - The strap buckle is quick to fit and release as it’s a ratchet style not a double D ring style - The pin lock (anti-fog) shield fits seamlessly and is undetectable. On my previous helmet (Shark Cliff Carbon) it sat in your peripherals which 8 got used to anyway.

Cons - The visor has one fixed position unlike MX helmets where it can be moved to a number of positions which is great for setting it low for the morning or afternoon sun in your eyes. - The lever for the internal sun shield is a bit hard to locate on the move (near your left ear), especially with gloves on - The internal sun shield lever is moved up to bring the shield down, and vice versa for up. I found this a bit hard to get used to - On some helmets you can easily flick the internal sun shield up with your fingers but not on the Navigator. You must use the lever - With the internal sun shield down, the bottom edge is in my peripheral view but I will get used to it. - The clear main shield clips down in the closed position and can be hard to unclip to raise it. It’s most likely exacerbated due to being new and I’m sure it will ease up after a short time but it means that you lift the front of the helmet up when you’re trying to lift the shield

In all I’m very happy with the helmet and the cons I’ve mentioned are in the interest of providing a thorough review but have not stopped me from rating this helmet as excellent.