Racewear recommendations

[R8Steve]

boggissimo said:

Just as a follow-up, I was about to order one of the Alpinestars suits from ebay/McGill Motorsports, when a lightly-used Sparco suit in my size came up on eBay, and I won the auction for about £80. The year of manufacture is 2007 but it has the necessary FIA approval patch. I am having trouble finding a helmet for less than £400 but at least since I haven't spent much on the suit I can spend that without worrying about it.

The suits at McGill were in their clearance section and the one I nearly bought was an Alpinestars GP Tech from 2010 (new with tags), for £300 inc VAT. http://www.mcgillmotorsport.com/clearance-range-al... - still a pretty good deal if anyone else is looking. They also have other clearance suits in that section.

Trouble finding a helmet for less than £400?

See here, FIA approved and complete with hans posts for under £200, i have the full face circuit one and it's ideal. http://rrs-direct.co.uk/store/pilote-co/casques.ht...

[boggissimo]

R8Steve said:

Trouble finding a helmet for less than £400?

See here, FIA approved and complete with hans posts for under £200, i have the full face circuit one and it's ideal. http://rrs-direct.co.uk/store/pilote-co/casques.ht...

Thanks, I had looked there but they only have XS and S sizes, and I need an XL! Demon-Tweeks stock RRS but not the full face.

[boggissimo]

Demon Tweeks have this: http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/helmets/r...
It meets the standards required and would save about 150 quid on the Sparco WTX-5H that I'm looking at, but are they any good? Anyone got one?

While I'm at it, why is it impossible to find out how much each helmet weighs? They all have blurb about being lightweight but I haven't seen a single site that says how much lighter one is than another, nor any sites that have useful comparisons or user/expert reviews. Anyone?

[carl_w]

http://www.v2sport.com

I have a carbon fibre helmet that I bought for £180 from Black Cat Racewear that turns out to be a BEIJING SHENZHOU RODIA BF1-R7 and weights 1150g. The same weight as my old Sparco Pro-Jet (fibreglass) which was only BS6658 Type A/FR. It seems the current helmets are a lot more bulbous and heavier than the older ones, and the price of carbon fibre seems to be coming down. Koden do some cheap-ish carbon fibre ones.

Edited by carl_w on Thursday 28th July 20:59

[boggissimo]

carl_w said:

http://www.v2sport.com

I have a carbon fibre helmet that I bought for £180 from Black Cat Racewear that turns out to be a BEIJING SHENZHOU RODIA BF1-R7 and weights 1150g. The same weight as my old Sparco Pro-Jet (fibreglass) which was only BS6658 Type A/FR. It seems the current helmets are a lot more bulbous and heavier than the older ones, and the price of carbon fibre seems to be coming down. Koden do some cheap-ish carbon fibre ones.

Thanks Carl, I have tried everywhere I can find selling the Koden Carbon fibre and nobody has stock, also tried to find the Hedtec Onyx which is carbon fibre, but nobody has any of them either.

V2 looks OK, will give them a call. Can't get the Black Cat website to work, a few pages are OK but the helmet detail pages don't show any content. http://www.blackcatracewear.com/carbon-helmets.htm

[stinkspanner]

I've got an omp grand prix 7, it was the right price, comfy, looks good but boy is it heavy! Ok in something that doesn't generate a lot of g force but I hadn't considered what a difference it would make when I raced something that went fast round corners..
I like the look of the koden carbon fibre jobbie

[carl_w]

boggissimo said:

Can't get the Black Cat website to work, a few pages are OK but the helmet detail pages don't show any content. http://www.blackcatracewear.com/carbon-helmets.htm

Me neither, I have a feeling the one I got was the last one in stock.

[boggissimo]

OK, just tried ringing Black Cat and got no answer on the phone either.

V2 were helpful on the phone, they have the new V2 Super-Vent in stock at around £230 and helpfully told me that they weight 1520g in large size (counterintuitively the larger the size, the lower the weight - since the shells are all the same size and the difference in fit is down to the inserted materials, so smaller sizes need more filling).

Demon-Tweeks didn't know how heavy the helmets I was looking at are, but did say that the Sparco WTX-5H and -5W are middle of the road for weight, while the Racing Safety Accessories one is heavy, and cheap due to the quality of the internal materials.