So you know that the UK Gravity Enduro Series needs you to wear a full face on timed stages, right..?
“Helmets like the Bell that carry a safety mark are allowed at the UK Gravity Enduro Series, just no dodgy home made chin guards allowed!”
Steve Parr, UKGE organiser
You can either carry two helmets round with you and chop and change as you go … or you can go for a two-in-one job. The Bell Super2R just landed here at WideopenHQ and might just be the answer for those riders that don’t want to carry a second helmet around with them.
- Weight: 694g
- Vents: 23 ย on the helmet, 6 on the chin bar
- Certifications: CPSC Bicycle,ย CE EN1078
- ยฃ149.99
The Super2R is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a Bell Super2 trail helmet … with a removable ‘chin bar’ (as Bell calls it) that transforms it into a full face quickly and easily. You can see from the vid below how quick and easy it is to attach or remove and that it can be done with the helmet on your head meaning less faff when you’re hurrying to meet your start time!
Also a nice touch is that if you already own a Bell Super2, you can buy the chin bar seperately and hey-presto you’ve got a full face helmet without having to buy a whole new helmet.
So what are our first impressions?
It’s funny how trends come back full circle isn’t it? It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we were lusting after a Troy Lee Edge helmet (with removable chin guard!) and then the mood changed and a few beasts like the MET Parachute were being showered with scorn at trail centers around the country! ย Now the enduro-revolution has showed up and riders are starting to look on the transformer-helmets with a bit more sympathy. Style and trends aside, the Super2R is an easy to use system and a solid helmet. It has loads of vents, an easy to use adjustment system and the chin bar clips on and off really easily.
What’s not so good? The clip on the chin-strap feels a bit flimsy and the camera mount feels a bit of an after-thought with velcro attachment compared to other helmets like the Lazer. We also quite like helmets that have a bolt in the centre of the visor to keep it locked in place, which the Super doesn’t have allowing it to move around quite easily. The flipside of that though, is you can store your goggles under the visor when you don’t want them on your face.
Does the Super offer as much protection as a dedicated full face helmet? No, probably not. Is Enduro actually any less gnarly than downhill and worthy of lighter weight protective gear? Sometimes. But not at Enduro World Series level or even necessarily at the UK Gravity Enduro Series. Hitting a tree at warp speed at a DH race will hurt just the same as at an Enduro race. You’ll need to take that into account when considering whether you’re prioritising protection or the convenience of not carrying two helmets. That’s obviously your call. For a lot of riders, we reckon the Super will be a great compromise.
Update: Bell’s UK distro Zyro (the guys who sent us the helmet) just got in touch to add a note about the Gopro mount:
“The initial Super had a clip-in mount that fitted into the central vent. This has been changed for 2 reasons. Firstly, it blocked a vent, and ventilation is something that is very important when racing a multi stage enduro. As such the decision was made to move the mount to sit on the bridge where it would not obstruct airflow. Secondly, with clip-in mounts on all helmets, they tend to wear loose over time with people clipping them in and out of the helmet. This is due to a combination of what are typically hard plastic mounts pushing into the soft EPS helmet. It obviously depends how often you remove the mount, but over time it develops a small amount of play, which will be seen as vibration in you video footage. This is why Bell have opted for the simple yet effective method of strapping the mount to the helmet. This means that the helmet can always be securely mounted no matter how often it is take off or removed”.ย
Check out more about the Super2R over on Bell’s website.
