My Fox Flux was getting a bit long in the tooth. It still looked in good shape although the visor was long gone somewhere on the Tantalus road, but it’s been a few years so it was time to look at a replacement. Arriving on the scene is the new Bell Super “all-mountain” helmet. AM, what is it? Extreme XC, pansy DH? Anyway, what distinguishes this helmet and most “AM” helmets is the supposed increased covereage for more of the head, mainly the back, without being a full head helmet. The Super also features a pretty prominent visor which can be replaced with goggle hooks and additional venting at the brow area to further aid the use of goggles with this helmet. And in keeping with current trends, it also features an accessory GoPro mount that can be popped into the front vent. Has a rear retenion dial system. Uses microshell construction to keep weight down, anti-microbial pads to keep the funk down.
I’ve had the helmet for a couple months now so what do I think? This has one of the best fits to my head shape, the medium fits me perfect with no discernible play, even better than the Fox. Everyones head shape is different though. There is increased side coverage, the rear seems about the same as the Fox. As a consequence of this, there is interference with glasses, especially technical sports frames that extend out more. But being used to using full head and automotive racing helmets its something that doesn’t bother me much. The helmet fits so nicely that it doesn’t move around so it doesn’t jiggle my glasses either.
The visor is nice and big enough to really work, and the fastening system with the thumb screws keeps it secure. It will take a lot to lose these. Word of warning, the hardware isn’t stainless so when you wash the helmet (you do, right?) unscrew the bolts, dry them, and make sure they go back in straight. I had to run a tap to chase the threads once.
I like that there are only two pads, instead of the six little fiddly pads in the Fox. I’m still amazed I haven’t lost any of those. Unfortunately they ran two of the straps for the rear tension system through captured holes in the pad! So if you want to remove the pad for washing, you need to pop the strap out of the fitting in the helmet, or snip an edge of the padding which fortunately can be done on a heat/sonicly welded web of the pad.
The GoPro mount is cool, but is held in with only two little tabs of Velcro. It’s ok if you mount the camera directly to it, but if you use any kind of extensions, it quickly gets wobbly. I’ll detail my mod to fix this later.
The one point that it subjectively loses to the Fox is in its venting, it feels hotter. Possibly it could just be placebo from looking at the smaller holes as compared to the Fox, but it feels hotter, especially if your not moving.
This helmet gets a high 3.5 of 4 AM monkeys because it fits me so well, but everyone’s head is different.
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