Your helmet is the most important part of your motorcycle kit, you should never ride without it and you definitely shouldn't cheap out on it!
We took a look at one of the industries best helmets on offer, the Alpinestars Supertech M10, to show you what goes into the development of one of the safest helmets money can buy!
It is the result of over five years of intensive study, development and testing; Alpinestars Supertech M10 motocross helmet made its race debut at the Anaheim Supercross, back in January 2018. This years lineup of Supertech M10 are looking better than ever.
Creating The Perfect MX Helmet
At the outset of the MX helmet project, Alpinestars product philosophy was applied and a set of specific objectives set: Create the most advanced, protective and performance enhancing helmet possible. Primary objective: protection – to create the most high-performance protection possible. Secondary objective: to give excellent ventilation, comfort and reduced weight.
Alpinestars approach to the creation of the advanced technology in the Supertech M10 draws on its depth of experience from over half a decade of world class innovation across the spectrum of motorsports and especially, its deep-rooted commitment to motocross. As with all other categories of technology that Alpinestars has mastered, bringing a new, highly complex, product to fruition requires specialist experience and know-how and a project plan led by the best brains in protection development.
Hence Alpinestars Helmet Development Department was created and given the brief to research and develop the most protective, most comfortable and lightest possible motocross helmet.
Improving Helmet Technology Through Innovation
The goal was to allow riders to push the limits of performance, benefiting from confidence inspiring safety technology, reduced weight distribution to minimize muscular effort in the neck, shoulders and back and improved physiological and cognitive performance with a supremely well-fitting and well-ventilated construction, optimizing comfort while riding.
Style, Form & Function
The design is coherent to Alpinestars philosophy and shares distinctive themes with other products in the portfolio; a smooth, attractive, profile which is streamlined and free of any external channels and features that might act as a load point in an impact, or compromise the overall integrity of the construction.
The surface curvature promotes reduced friction on impact, allowing deflection and the most efficient transfer of energy to protect the rider’s head from direct force to the skull and referred to the neck and spinal column.The aperture is designed to accommodate a wide variety of goggles and the air vents in the shell are located to maximize ventilation efficiency.
The M10 shell has been profiled with performance as a priority and with a design style that identifies the profile of the helmet and its sculpted surface as uniquely ‘Alpinestars’.
Another key feature is the M10 shell sizing solution; each helmet fit size has its own appropriate shell size to deliver the most anatomical solution for the wide variety of fit needs worldwide.
Key features of the M10:
Weight
- Reduced by design while allowing the Supertech protection to be class-leading.
- Weight is both a factor in riding performance and safety in a helmet and to ensure the M-10 offers the ultimate in weight saving performance enhancement, the material selection, preparation and construction of the helmet has been rigorously analyzed for weight to strength and energy absorption properties and a strict analysis of all the components used in the Supertech finishing.
- Weight of M-10 is 1260g for size Medium (ECE) For DOT: 1370g for size Medium
Ventilation
- Ventilation is a key feature of the Supertech M10.
- Heat mapping tests have resulted in specifically designed ducting which produces a positive flow into the helmet over and around the rider’s head, improving comfort while riding and reducing the on-set of heat stress in extreme conditions.
- The visor design of the M10 is also an integral part of the ventilation system as it is profiled to direct airflow, acting as a channel to concentrate and smooth the flow into the shell.
- The Supertech liner design is formed to optimize airflow channeling around the rider’s head before being extracted from the M10 through rear exhaust vents to ensure positive pressure is maintained with constant airflow while riding.
- Hydration system compatibility.
- The Supertech helmet lining design includes canals which allow a tube to be incorporated on either side of the shell.
- This is a feature extensively tested by Alpinestars rally raid and enduro riders enabling convenient fitting and connection to a hydration system.
Comfort & Fit
- Interior lining comfort.
- Removable liner cover is washable and features a cool-max fabric interior and anti-bacterial talent yarn for long-lasting freshness and quick-dry performance between riding sessions.
- Chin-Strap: Wider than certification requirement: 26 mm for comfort and produces with a woven poly yarn to give a soft ‘hand’ feel and connects securely with a double D-ring.
Extras
- The M10 helmet features TPE coating washable surfaces to improve maintenance and increase durability.
- Spare Visor
- Racing Helmet Bag
- Additional cheek pad set offering increased thickness of +5mm, for tighter fit adjustment – available separately.
Our Thoughts
Alpinestars cosistently pushes the boudaries of every category of motorcycle gear, The M10 is no exception. We can only imagine the amount of time and effort that the Alpinestars product development team put into the research, development and testing of this stellar helmet.