When you think Fly Racing, you probably think of the motocross racers, sporting Fly gear from head to toe. That’s understandable, as Fly is a prominent figure in the motocross world, selling a wide range of top-notch gear for the riders on two wheels. Don’t be mislead, though. They do have plenty of gear for other extreme sports as well, including PWC racing.
Thanks to Fly Racing, we were able to get our hands on their top of the line F2 Carbon Dubstep helmet, designed with watersports in mind. When we first received the helmet, we noticed it was considerably lighter than other competitors’ helmets we’ve tried. This is mostly due to it’s durable, yet extremely light shell, constructed with state-of-the-art aircraft grade woven carbon fiber and Kevlar composite. It is also held together with lightweight aluminum screws and rivets, which also cuts down on weight and stands up to even the toughest conditions watercraft racing has to offer.
It’s not hard to tell that Fly Racing has put a lot of effort into making this helmet as racer friendly as possible. When you’re out there on the race course, midway through a moto, the last thing you want is for your head to be baking inside your helmet. Some helmets are designed with as little as two intake and exhaust vents, which doesn’t properly allow air to flow through. Fly racing has equipped the F2 series helmets with eleven intake and four exhaust vents, which kept us plenty cool when out on the water. As if the fifteen air vents aren’t enough, the inside of the helmet is also designed with COOLMAX comfort liner and cheek pads, which as well as protecting you, it helps with the ventilation and absorbs sweat.
Also, a common problem with helmets and goggles is the goggles fogging up. This can obstruct your vision, which can put the rider in a dangerous situation, especially if you’re fighting for position or surrounded by other riders. The F2 helmets are designed with four vents above the goggle eye port to draw air away from the goggles, thus helping prevent them from fogging up. This doesn’t necessarily mean your goggles can’t fog up, it just makes them less likely to.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to rely on this helmet to protect us in an impact. We are confident, though, that if we did, it would have protected us sufficiently. With a durable shell that is sure to be among the strongest on the market, dual density EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) liner to provide more progressive impact absorption, and the COOLMAX cheek pads provide plenty of cushion to protect you in a collision as well as making this one comfortable helmet. This helmet met or exceeded all of the toughest safety standards on the market.
So it’s got some cool features and a lot of engineering work in it, but how does it fair in real world use? In a closed course racing environment, we put it through the ultimate test, and think it passed with flying colors. Approaching the line for the first moto, we were curious to find out how the F2 Carbon helmet would perform. Our goggles did fog up while waiting at the line, but we believe that was just because the anti-fog vents can’t draw air when not in motion. After they were wiped clean and the race started, the issue never reoccurred.
The low weight of this helmet allowed for easy and quick movement of our head with no problem, which is crucial, especially when in technical sections of the course. The excessive number of ventilation slots and the COOLMAX liner kept us cool, comfortable, and complaint free throughout the entire race. Lining up for the next race, we had one final test to put it through. One we would’ve rather not tested during a race, but ended up doing it anyways. We went for a swim at 60-plus-mph, and it actually went better than we had anticipated. The helmet was very hydrodynamic, and didn’t jerk our head much at all.
Once back above the surface, it didn’t become waterlogged as we had expected. It may have held some water, but it didn’t become unbearably heavy. Overall, we were very impressed with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking for a top-tier helmet for any kind of racing or just aggressive recreational fun. You can find all the variations of the Fly Racing F2 Carbon helmets along with more info about them here. The F2 Carbon series helmets are all basically the same, just offered in different colors and styles. While they do come at a price of $399.95, we believe the quality of this helmet is well worth the extra coin.
