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I would have gone with Davida as they were also made in the UK and I'd had a couple done to my own spec. Unfortunately they have moved their manufacturing to China and I guess that means they don't do bespoke any more.
Davida are top quality of course - not sure standards/options will have slipped due to the China move; depends how good their QC is I suppose. A bit hypocritical of me - it would matter if it were a bike, but a lid less so.

Won’t wear an open face helmet myself. I’m ugly enough from birth - road rash not required!! Give Norton a ring and let the guys know the outcome.👍
 
I emailed Hedon but they don't appear to have much of a clue. They first responded on 30th Jan saying that they would find out from the "relevant team". Nine days later they followed up with:

"The helmet you are looking for is exclusively available through Norton’s website. Unfortunately, we do not carry this model directly, but you should be able to find it there. We recommend checking their site for the most up-to-date availability and purchasing options."

I couldn't see any helmets on the Norton web site.
There could be so much more on the website, both clothing and accessories.

Anyone seen a brochure?

I would like a flyscreen, but it seems that there isn’t a brochure of any kind.
 
Davida are top quality of course - not sure standards/options will have slipped due to the China move; depends how good their QC is I suppose. A bit hypocritical of me - it would matter if it were a bike, but a lid less so.

Won’t wear an open face helmet myself. I’m ugly enough from birth - road rash not required!! Give Norton a ring and let the guys know the outcome.👍
Davida also runs really small in their sizing.
 
There could be so much more on the website, both clothing and accessories.

Anyone seen a brochure?

I would like a flyscreen, but it seems that there isn’t a brochure of any kind.
No brochure for bike parts Tb. Just contact your dealer and order the carbon bits.

Be sure to tell your bank manager that the very large sums being extracted from your account are not fraudulent! Well, in a legal sense anyway! :oops:
 
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Davida’s range of designs, colours inc flags etc used to be HUGE plus they offered a custom service.

All that’s gone now, they offer 3-4 plain colours each and that’s yer lot.

That’s the price you pay for having a mass producer in China and 2-3 months of supply chain inventory to contend with, any lean / agile / customer centric manufacturing strategy goes out the window …
 
Norton say they aren't supplying any helmets at the moment but intend to within the next year. They said you can see some on display at the shows, you just can't buy one.
Trying hard to think why Norton would hold back helmets that are already in production - they have promo shots of various riders wearing them on the road. The first colour schemes match the colouring of existing models.

Doesn't seem to make sense, but I guess there’s a plan. Maybe they want to release the range along with the new bike models. Maybe Hedon cannot produce numbers currently. Who knows.

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Trying hard to think why Norton would hold back helmets that are already in production - they have promo shots of various riders wearing them on the road. The first colour schemes match the colouring of existing models.

Doesn't seem to make sense, but I guess there’s a plan. Maybe they want to release the range along with the new bike models. Maybe Hedon cannot produce numbers currently. Who knows.

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Like everything else Norton, they promise, promise, promise, and continually under-deliver. Nothing like getting people excited about Logo merch and then either don't have it or sell sweaters for $500. If I was a dealer and there was no merch with the brand I am selling, that would be a deal breaker. As discussed before 75% of Harley-Davidson's revenue is in branded and licensed merch and parts.
 
Like everything else Norton, they promise, promise, promise, and continually under-deliver. Nothing like getting people excited about Logo merch and then either don't have it or sell sweaters for $500. If I was a dealer and there was no merch with the brand I am selling, that would be a deal breaker. As discussed before 75% of Harley-Davidson's revenue is in branded and licensed merch and parts.
Some decisions are hard to fathom, no doubt CG, but then we are commenting without access to their plan and its timeline. My guess their dealer hierarchy knows far more.

Whether Norton’s planning turns out to be well developed/ executed and ultimately successful, only time will tell. Until then I suppose ‘howling into the wind’ provides us with a certain satisfaction🤣!
 
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Davida are top quality of course - not sure standards/options will have slipped due to the China move; depends how good their QC is I suppose. A bit hypocritical of me - it would matter if it were a bike, but a lid less so.

Won’t wear an open face helmet myself. I’m ugly enough from birth - road rash not required!! Give Norton a ring and let the guys know the outcome.👍
I was lucky to get a Davida custom paint job with Norton logo before they stopped offering the option. The answer is to get a custom paint job - find a good helmet which fits you well then get it customised. I'm sure it will work out cheaper than an official Norton one.... Same with the jacket; there are lots of companies doing custom leathers. Lost track of compliments (including Norton show stand) on my £30 ebay special red leather jacket with black on white Norton logo applied.
 
The Hedon seems grossly over priced for what it is, I'd take an Arai or Shoei any day, which I did.. bought the Shoei below as a good match for the 961. I did see a vid of the Hedon 'factory' on YT, just a small workshop where the helmets where being manually assembled around a table. Reminded me of the Davida workshop I went to a few times in Liverpool many years agol.. they sold off their seconds - often with just a tiny scratch in the paint, for less than half the RRP.

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Would be interested to see how these fashion wear helmets fair up to the Sharp testing/evaluation....but they've not submitted any for testing.
Suspect the Hedon helmets are very high quality, judging by the literature/reviews - DOT/ECE approved. I suppose if ya want a luxury custom made lid you’ve gotta pay extra. Still well overpriced IMO though - no way I’d ‘shell’ that out for a product with a likely 5 year lifespan.

After the two ‘offs’ my riding mate had a couple of years ago, I decided not to ride the Norton again without running a helmet cam. That led me to my helmet choice.

Neither accidents were his fault - young female driver (car full of mates) and an overseas visitor (in a hire car)! Litigation is still ongoing and stressful - all would likely have been resolved with some simple cam coverage.
 
Suspect the Hedon helmets are very high quality, judging by the literature/reviews - DOT/ECE approved. I suppose if ya want a luxury custom made lid you’ve gotta pay extra. Still well overpriced IMO though - no way I’d ‘shell’ that out for a product with a likely 5 year lifespan.

After the two ‘offs’ my riding mate had a couple of years ago, I decided not to ride the Norton again without running a helmet cam. That led me to my helmet choice.

Neither accidents were his fault - young female driver (car full of mates) and an overseas visitor (in a hire car)! Litigation is still ongoing and stressful - all would likely have been resolved with some simple cam coverage.
Five years later still waiting of my accident conclusion. Jogger ran out in front of me .
Camera would have resolved things much quicker.
 
I wouldn't wear a helmet that hasn't been Snell-tested.
Interesting subject if ya look into it CG - especially about how appropriate some testing is in the most relevant scenarios. It seems to hinge on what type of impact is likely to occur. If a rider could know the nature of the impact he/she could choose the helmet with the most appropriate standard. Impossible of course.

Ryan F9’s video here is critical of Snell, although it’s a few years old - Snell has adjusted their standard recently to include oblique impact testing (to match ECE and access the European market I guess).

If money were no object then it would likely make sense to select a Snell certified helmet for track use (maybe) and ECE for real world applications. I’d feel (reasonably) confident though that my bonce was as (reasonably) protected as it can be, in this rather dangerous of pastimes, wearing either.

I think!:oops:



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Just remember camera evidence runs both ways y’all.

I know some lads who got into serious trouble. They were riding in a group and most had cameras of some kind or another. Then they got collared by the plod…

Most lost their license, have to re take it, huge fines, community service, etc. Even those without cameras got hammered by the footage ‘evidence’.

At least one pretended to have no footage and somehow got found out this wasn’t true, they got time for perverting the course of justice.

The whole group had the max book thrown at them. Personally, I was thinking to myself ‘well, you obviously deserved it’.

But then I saw some of the footage and couldn’t believe it, I thought the guy was kidding me. It looked like they should have been told to rein it in a bit, not get carried away, etc but it really did not look excessive at all. Could easily have been me on virtually any ride really.

Riding footage always looks worse to none riders though I guess.

Jus’ sumthin’ else to consider.
 
Just remember camera evidence runs both ways y’all.

I know some lads who got into serious trouble. They were riding in a group and most had cameras of some kind or another. Then they got collared by the plod…

Most lost their license, have to re take it, huge fines, community service, etc. Even those without cameras got hammered by the footage ‘evidence’.

At least one pretended to have no footage and somehow got found out this wasn’t true, they got time for perverting the course of justice.

The whole group had the max book thrown at them. Personally, I was thinking to myself ‘well, you obviously deserved it’.

But then I saw some of the footage and couldn’t believe it, I thought the guy was kidding me. It looked like they should have been told to rein it in a bit, not get carried away, etc but it really did not look excessive at all. Could easily have been me on virtually any ride really.

Riding footage always looks worse to none riders though I guess.

Jus’ sumthin’ else to consider.
Certainly valid FE. Also depends where you are in the world I suppose.

There are states in Aus where actually mounting an external helmet camera is illegal - classed as a helmet modification. In others it’s legal. Bikers have been fined and issued points when riding through one state into another - barking mad!

The police may notice an external mounted camera no doubt. Mine is discrete and internal to the helmet - much more difficult to spot. The footage does cover the clocks though, so would incriminate myself and anybody in front with matching (or greater) speed. It’s easily erased via the app though, or by simply reaching up and ejecting the micro SD card.

Also plenty of discreet camera options for mounting on the bike itself. But the risk of plod accessing them is still there.

Personal choice I suppose, linked to how we each ride and what we value most. I certainly feel better protected having a record of what’s occurring in front of me. Almost never look at it - it just loops (recording over when the card is full).
 
I would never ride/drive/cycle without a camera on. People do not want to offer their details as witnesses these days - part of the 'if I don't benefit why should I do it' culture. I got a motorist to court based on camera footage after a cycle accident. I got a motorist into court after he tried to push me into the central motorway barrier on my Ducati. A friend who's car ended being pushed sideways down the motorway by a foreign truck driver who had several mates to say he didn't do it was prosecuted on camera footage...... The list goes on. And riders being prosecuted for doing something they shouldn't with their own camara footage? Well I may be turning into an old f**t, despite the fact that I don't hang around when riding, but we do have a responsibility to other road users, some of whom are a lot more vulnerable than us. Just accept that the days of 'You were going a bit quick there sonny, off you go but watch it in the future' are gone. Dad was right; things were better in the olden days........
 
I wouldn't wear a helmet that hasn't been Snell-tested.
Not something that is recognised over here. SHARP tested is something to do with the UK.gov, it's via the gov website eitherway.
Had a quick look to see how the two compare, and tbh based on this, I think I'm going to have to lean towards Sharp being the better test for real world impacts/crashes ie hitting a car, then the road etc etc before coming to a stop. My missus agrees too. She's now a community nurse, but up until last summer, was a neurosurgery nurse on one of the UK's leading head trauma hospital wards.
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