Akuma Phantom 2 MFR Carbon Fiber Helmet

As close as it gets for now

After riding the Phantom 2 helmet now for about 500 miles I can say the two things that drew my attention to this helmet have proven to be worth the purchase. Item one is the light weight factor. Having a bad neck and still longing to ride I will take any relief I can get. This helmet is light weight. It not only has helped with pain of long rides, it has also made it much more comfortable to simply turn my head at a stop light or to look in my blind spot. Item two is the visor changing tent with the amount of sun light. No more sunglasses required. I will agree with a few of the other reviews I read about this helmet. The room between your nose and the front of the helmet is tight, the material is not the softest in the world and there is a little more noise around the viser at some speeds than I would like. But the bottom line is This is a nice light weight helmet and the self tenting viser is a bonus.

Akuma Phantom 2

The Akuma Phantom 2 was intended to be a replacement helmet for my Arai Quantum F, so that's my point of comparison. I would likely not have gone looking for a CF helmet in particular, but the photochromoc visor was a great draw to this helmet.
Ok.
Pros: It feels light when it's on my head, and it looks good. I find it is cut in such a way that those quick looks over the shoulder are easier than they were with the Arai. The Arai's chin bar would contact my shoulder when I looked back. As well, the Akuma has a wider field of vision, helping to eliminate blind spots. It has a D-Ring chin strap. It has a more square type D-Ring with teeth in it. I think I would have prefered the traditional smooth rings, but it's ok. Ventilation seems very good, although it's been cool where I live so that's subjective at this point. It does seem like there's a lot of airflow inside the visor, particularly when it's set to the cracked open anti-fog setting. The Akuma has a removeable liner which the Arai did not have. I disagree with reviewers that say the liner is not comfortable. I find soft and the support is good, although the Arai has more padding in it. My helmet came with the SOLFX shield, and I am quite pleased with it. It gets quite dark in bright sunlight, and is clear at night. Compared to my Arai the shield id a pleasure to remove and install. Easy.

Cons? I found the felft chin strap with the D-Rings on it too short by a couple inches. This is an irritation every time I use the helmet. As well, because the strap is too short, I gave up trying to snap the loose end up to it's retainer snap. The top vents whistle when they're open, but I knew that before I bought the helmet. I do get a a very infrequent whistle from the shield, but not a real bother.The tab for lifting the shield is either too small or placed wrong, I have to fumble with it a bit to get the shield up. The helmet de-fogs all right at speed, but fogs up when I stop. I leave the shield open a crack most of the time.An issue that I was unaware of at the time of purchase is that there is no clear shield available. Before someone tells me that the stock shield do that duty, there's two reasons that's not true (1) If you need a replacement the clear shield is cheap, the SOLFX shield is not. (2) The SOLFX shield is never really clear in daylight. I rode in a really dark threatening overcast the other day and the shield was carrying significant tint. Not real dark but I could really see the difference. And if a truck kicks a rock into the center of that stock shield, it has a pretty high replacement cost compared to a clear shield. I was going to buy a couple spares just for my commuting.

All in It's a good helmet. I gave it a 4 rateing because of the lack of a clear visor and the problems with the chin strap. It is a light, comfortable helmet, and with that Transitions visor it's well worth the money.

Not quite so great

This helmet's shell is too small. The XXL was just an XL with thinner padding. It's light weight but the shell seems to flex more than I've seen on any other helmet I've owned. The lining material is scratchy and uncomfortable.. The tinting shield is a great idea and works well, but it's a bit flimsy and has no anti-fog coating causing it to fog up too easily. It might be good helmet for one sprint race, but it's uncomfortable for any longtime wear.

One word: Amazing

So, let me discuss the two (very slight) negatives first: 1. No helmet manufacturer has an accurate size chart in my experience. Almost always, they recommend a large for me, and almost always I have to buy an XL for it to fit well, but have sufficient room inside to keep my lips from polishing the front of the helmet. The size guide recommended a large in this helmet, and I normally would have ordered an XL; however, after reading the reviews, I ordered an XXL and it fit me perfect. 2. There is a noticeable whistle from air coming in between the shield and the shell at the forehead. Possibly due to increased air pressure, this goes away at speeds over 30mph. It can get a bit annoying when putting around town, but that slight annoyance is out weighed (quite literally) by all the other benefits to this helmet.

The goods are too many to list and discuss with any degree of accuracy this helmet deserves. It is light as a feather, solidly built, well ventilated, and the Transitions shield is amazing. It never gets exceedingly cold here in Santa Barbara, but my morning commute has been averaging 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit; I haven't had any fogging problems with the shield. Ironically, the few days I've worn my prescription glasses, they were fogging up on me and the shield remained crystal clear even at a full stop. I've now logged almost 600 miles in this helmet and haven't given my old Arai's, Shoei's and Nolan's a second glance. After adding a Bluetooth com system to this helmet, it'll be my primary for quite some time to come.

Did I mention it is a race-ready helmet, it is full carbon fiber construction, it is under $1000 (if you want to see what quality you get from other manufactures for less than that price check out the crap HJC tries to pawn off on you) and it looks sexy as hell. Akuma seems to be trying to change what people expect to get for $300-$400 in a helmet, and I think they're doing a fine job. This is easily of the same quality as my $800 Arai. If you spend more on anything else, you're making a HUGE mistake. Get one.

Excellent!!!

I broke my shoulder in a dunebuggy rollover 2 years ago and thought I was going to have to give up my sportbikes do to neck and shoulder pain. I am over 50 and always had sport and standard bikes. This helmet is worth every penny and more. It is by and far the lightest and best feeling helmet I have owned in over 35 years of riding. I guess the Goldwing is going to have to wait until I retire!!!
Thanks Revzilla and webbikeworld for the reviews and great service..

Egsscellent Brain Bucket

What a great hemet. I ride a BMW K1200S and a Harley. I have not worn a helmet in my 36 years of riding. I did a lot of reseach, as I have a bit of a neck problem. This helmet is so light that I actually like to wear it. I am glad I got a size larger. I tryed my regualr size and had a hard time even getting it on my head. The Transition lense works like a charm as well!!
One thing to add the customer service is excellent as well. The liner had a bit of a flaw and they sent another helmet immediately without charge. I will buy all of my motorcycle equipment from RevZilla and they did price match with no question. Totally satisfied with my purchase and RevZilla!!!

New generation of melon protection!

No more stiff necks, headaches, nor fighting the wind trying to rip it off. Needs to be 1 size larger when you order. It will feel small a few wearings, but the pads will mold to your head then it will feel like a glove.

Lightweight No-Nonsense Helmet

This is a great helmet if you are looking for lightweight, full face helmet. Another killer feature is the transitions shield. Venting is OK, which is why I only gave 4 stars.

Best helmet I've ever had!

Nice, extremely lightwieght helmet. Runs a little small. I usually wear a medium in most helmets and I needed to order a large. The visor is terrific! This is the best helmet I have ever owned. I highly recommend it. Revzilla was a great company to work with. Shipped quickly as promised.

asd

THE BAD
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*This helmet does not come with built in lights like the other Akuma helmets.
*As other reviews have mentioned, the top vents do whistle when your head turns to the side.
*My nose touches the front of the helmet which I don't think is a safe and encourages fogging when stopped or at low speeds.
*The snap on the D-rings is very difficult to secure.
*the tab on the visor is undersized in my opinion.

THE GOOD
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*Supremely light weight
*The visor is thick and feels sturdy
*The auto-tint on the photochromatic visor is excellent and takes care of most glare. At the darkest setting, the level of tint may not be sufficient in direct sunlight for some riders.
*The visor is easy to remove from the helmet and easy to put back on.