After purchasing a Apache 200 4v, I decided to put my hands on Steelbird Air SBA-1 helmet at ₹1400 from Amazon and the delivery came real quick and helmet is now 17 months old.
So, here are few important and good features of it describing Design, Aerodynamics, Vents and Cooling system, Safety, Paddings, weight & Customer care.
Design: Design is damn good at this price range. The sharp curves and lines makes the helmet make look more cool and aggressive and due to the positions of air inlet scoops and otlets helmet carries lot of fancy functions enchancing the look.
Aerodynamics: Steelbird really did a great job on this helmet in term of aerodynamics with its simple but little compact and brief back side the helmet performs well on high speeds. honestly I dont feel any drag or resistance on high speeds. The inlets does take air for cooling but they take only a little scoop of air without effecting the aeridynamics aspects.
Vents and Cooling system: I am really impressed with the helmets cooling system, the small opening above the visor takes air all time while the other inlet above that do have a on & off button which enhances cooling in summer days the air comes in through inlets and circulates around the upper skull portion. Steelbird uses a breathable ( mesh) fabric to ensure maximum cooling all time. Then the warm air comes out from the exhaust vents located at the back side of helmet. And like other helmets it also have a air inlet near nose section.
Safety: This helmet comes with micro metric helmet straps which is good in its segment, this straps are fitted on metal support to decrease the chances of strap failure in an accident. The padding is good enough to save life. Their is crushable polystyrene beneath the primary lining and at the top their is shell made up of good regular helmet material to spread impact force all over shell.
Paddings: Padding is important thing to note down while purchasing a helmet you can see poor quality helmet which dont have even a 1mm layer of polystyrene but in this helmet their is breathable fabric layer and beneath that their is good amount of foam + polystyrene to dampen all the shocks and nearly any hazardous impacts. their is good supportive foam cuts to make close fit to ears. And the upper most layer is made up of good quality shell material and I have watched lots of videos which shows this particular helmet takes lots of impacts but still is in intact.
Weight: This particular helmet weighs 1250 + -gms and Honestly when I put this helmet on my head for the first time, it feels really bulky but later I get used to it and now I dont feel anything about its weight. And barely have any neck or shoulder pain.
Customer care: I felt no need of contacting customer care based in delhi until I break few parts in it doing some d.i.y and after contacting them response was quite slow and dont feel promising to me but its ok ! Because I dont think so if their is anyone asked for parts in helmet for replacement.
