The 3 Best Noise Cancelling Motorcycle Helmets, Reviewed

Between the wind, the engine, the road, and the traffic, things can get loud enough to damage your ears. It might not sound like it, especially if you’re used to cathartic chaos, but a motorcycle engine alone can reach a sound level of up to 95 decibels (dB). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that’s enough to cause permanent hearing damage if the exposure lasts longer than 50 minutes. That means that your weekend joyride can cause more damage than you imagined—damage that is irreversible.

Because figuring out a helmet that fits you perfectly is not easy. Helmets in at this point and I still struggle with whether my helmet fits well sometimes. We have listed a few great options here and went over why you should get an acoustic dampening helmet. But if we had to pick, we highly recommend the Shoei Neotec because of the ear pads and sound-reducing lining. The AGV Compact ST E220 helmet also has a built-in sun shield that can be easily deployed when needed. The only downside to this helmet is that it does not have a modular design, which cannot be converted into a full-face helmet.

So you have a full face helmet for when you want extra face protection. And when you want to feel the wind in your face or just air out the stuffy helmet, you get an open face setup. Which one you choose will depend on the type of riding you do, any specific features you’re looking for, and maybe even where you live in the world. No matter which helmet you choose, make sure to check for safety certifications (DOT, ECE, Snell) to ensure you’re getting a quality product【5】.

This standard applies to all helmets used for professional motorcycle racing. The Snell standard is set by Snell Memorial Foundation, which is a non-profit organization. They voluntarily test and certify helmets, and some racing sanctioning organizations require that the helmets used be Snell certified. Well, most helmets use similar components and materials for the construction. What differs is the quality and design of these particular components. They are fully enclosed, so noise levels are bearable when you are riding in a busy city center.

Well, the exact type of helmet you buy will depend on the type of riding you intend on doing and the fexact features you find useful. Like the off road helmet, you get a fixed visor that shields you from the sun and any falling debris. This may cause buffeting, but there are some models that let you detach it altogether.

Physics is physics, and this helmet will not be as quiet as the Shoei RF-1400 or another purely street helmet. But for those days when your adventure includes long stretches of pavement to get to the good stuff, the XD-5 keeps it calm. It’s quiet enough to make those highway miles genuinely enjoyable, and that’s a huge win in my first project, helmetedge.hashnode.dev, book.

We credit the Koroyd, an inaugural moto technology previously used in bicycle helmets. The material uniformly equalizes force in a crash, like the crumple zone of a car, where the accordion dissipates force by spreading the energy. If you’ve been on the road for dozens of hours sweating into a container, removing the pads and giving ’em a wash feels like a million bucks. The magnetic attachment system from Bell makes maintenance far easier than snap-in setups. Oh, and of course, if a helmet is goddawful noisy, we’ll always put that in the review too.