A touring adventure-like motorcycle helmet
It’s been a year since I’m using a Schuberth E1 flip-up helmet. After two long-distance adventure trips in the Caucasus and Morocco, after riding both at 2 degrees C and 40 degrees C, here are the things I noticed.
Not so ventilated when riding a touring bike
Schuberth says that its E1 helmet is more ventilated than the C3 Pro due to a larger chin air intake. Which is true. But you can appreciate that only when riding a naked motorcycle – and none of the buyers will use it on a naked bike. I couldn’t feel the wind when riding my R1200GS and it was just like any other full-face helmet. The windshields featured on big-adventure motorcycles will stop the air-flow, so the chin air intake is useless.
Plush interior – Best Comfort
I love the lining of the Schubert E1. It’s one of the most comfortable helmets I’ve tested. You can spend the whole day riding, and you won’t have any complaints about it. Especially during the first weeks, when it has a nice smell.
Hard to detach lining
Although very comfortable it was a headache for me to remove the interior for cleaning it. It has a lot of connecting points, and I must admit that I gave up detaching it and I preferred washing the whole helmet.
High-quality sun visor
It has the best sun-visor I have ever seen. Really. It’s just like a high-quality pair of sunglasses. Usually, the integrated sun-visors will give you a dark tinted cheap plastic feeling. But not this one. The Schubert E1 has a top-class integrated sun-visor.
Low-quality pinlock
On the other hand, I didn’t like the visor. First of all, because of the pinlock which wasn’t properly attached to the visor, so it created a very uncomfortable effect during the night: the road signs were doubled due to a reflection. More than that, the peak is attached both to the helmet and the visor. And there were some visor elements that I broke so I couldn’t use the beak any longer. But it was me. I wasn’t very careful when maneuvered the helmet, so I can’t blame Schuberth for that.
Silence inside
Besides the top comfort offered by the lining, the E1 is also very silent. It comes with no vibrations, except for the beak which might vibrate at some speed, depending on your height, bike, windshield, wind buffeting, etc.. But it’s not often, so I don’t consider it a real problem.
Not a proper dual-sport but a good Touring Adventure-like helmet
The E1 is not a dual-sport helmet. It’s just a C3 Pro with a more adventurous look. But this is not something wrong because most of the buyers will spend 90% of their time touring on the road. And that’s where Schuberth E1 shows it’s strong points: it’s silent, safe and comfortable. That’s why I don’t regret buying it despite the pinlock issue which I consider to be E1’s Achilles’ heel.
