Schuberth’s E2 is their latest flipfront helmet, which is fitted with a removable peak to deliver an off-road style.
I use peaked off-road-style helmets on my adventure and dirt bikes and have tried a few that also have a flipfront capability, so I was interested to see how Schuberth’s model performed.
The E2 is a successor to Schuberth’s E1 and it meets the new ECE 22.06 safety standard, as well as being dual-homologated for use as an open-face helmet with the chinbar raised and a full-face helmet when it’s closed.
The helmet portion of the shell for the E2 is made from fibreglass that’s reinforced with carbon-fibre. There are two ventilation intakes on the chin and one on the top, which can all be opened or closed independently. An exhaust vent on the rear of the helmet extracts the warm and stale air.
I found the ventilation to be good and, combined with the Pinlock insert, stopped the visor from misting up in extremely heavy and continuous rain on a trip to Yorkshire and Northumberland.
The visor is Class 1 for clarity of vision and comes with a pre-installed Pinlock anti-mist insert. The peak has three positions and is not needed to keep the visor in place, which means the helmet can be used with the visor installed and the peak removed.
The visor mechanism holds the visor in one of five positions, from partly open to fully open. When I wore this helmet the visor stayed in each of the intermediate opening positions on my Aprilia Tuareg 660 and a BMW R1250GS Adventure at speeds of 60mph.
Once in the closed position the visor clicks firmly to make it more securely shut. There are tabs on both sides on the visor, which makes it easy to open and close. When you open the chinbar the visor mechanism’s memory function means it will return to the same position once the front is closed again.
Peripheral vision from the E2 is good, turning my head to check over my shoulder gave me enough vision to execute a manoeuvre safely. Overall, the vision in this helmet is good as there’s no interference from Pinlock pins or other elements of the helmet.
Photography: Jose Mas
A dropdown sun visor is operated by a slider on the left side of the helmet and there is also a limit switch if the rider wants to restrict the sun visor’s range of movement, for example to stop it touching their nose as it drops.
In terms of the amount of drop available, I could see light under the sun visor if I looked for it. However, while riding and concentrating on the road ahead it wasn’t visible.
The chin strap uses a ratchet fastener and while I personally prefer D-ring fasteners, after many miles of use I found this ratchet easy and convenient to use. A soft section that fastens with Velcro sits under the chin strap, which makes it very comfortable to wear.
Between the E1 and E2, Schuberth have worked on the position of the chin strap to improve comfort in the throat area. The E2 also has an anti-roll-off system with extra straps extending to the rear of the helmet to hold it more securely on the rider’s head.
The chinbar is easy to lift and lower while wearing gloves and, once in the open position, a red button locks it in the up position and allows the E2 to be used as an open-face helmet. A removable wind deflector is attached with Velcro to the bottom edge of the chinbar.
The comfort lining is covered with a soft material and it can be removed for hand washing. The lining around the head can be adapted to suit different head shapes and Schuberth claim this will create an optimal fit for 98% of the population. Different sizes of cheekpads are also available. Interestingly this custom fitting is only available for helmet sizes medium, large and extra-large, which excludes XS-S and XXL-XXXL.
If air leaks past the closed vents in winter then the comfort lining has two flaps that fold out to give some extra protection against any draught. Then, in summer, folding them back under makes sure maximum airflow is possible.
I found the comfort lining of this helmet to be excellent - it’s both very soft and appears like it will be very hard-wearing. If I owned this helmet, I would like to try some alternative pads as part of the custom-fit capability to see if I could finetune the fit a little better. I wear a size medium in the E2, so this service would be available to me.
The E2 comes with the speakers, antennae and wiring that allows installation of Schuberth’s SC2 Bluetooth communication system, which is based on the Sena 50S system.
This system wasn’t installed on this helmet so I can’t comment on how good it is, although my experience of Sena systems in general is positive and I’m certain the Schuberth one will be neat and easy to fit.
The helmet is designed to easily accommodate spectacles. I don’t wear prescription glasses for riding, however I do use safety glasses to protect my eyes when riding with the visor up and I was able to fit them into the helmet with no problem.
Most riders know the fit of a helmet is very personal and varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. When I first put this helmet on it felt very slightly too big, yet after a few miles I concluded it was just a different fit from my normal helmet.
I always use earplugs when riding, yet this helmet was so quiet I decided to ride without them for a while and I was surprised how quiet this helmet was while I sat behind the screen of my Aprilia and BMW.
Overall, I have been thoroughly happy with what this helmet has to offer. When it’s time to replace my Shoei Hornet ADV with a new helmet, the E2 is likely to be on my shortlist, though I will investigate the custom-fit service first to see if I can get a slightly better fit.
