As dual sports or adventure motorcycle riders, we often have to deal with the helmet issue – if you ride a small-medium size dirt bike and you do it mostly off-road, you’ll choose an offroad helmet. If you ride a road bike – you’ll probably want to get a full face, modular, or an open face… but what do you do when you need to cover some distance on the road on your way to ride off-road?
Would you use your full-face road helmet and then switch to a lightweight off-road helmet?
Sounds like a hassle.
Would you ride on the road with your off-road helmet on at high speeds? Trust us, you DO NOT want to do that – especially when it rains. Have you ever felt like someone threw hundreds of tiny knives at your mouth and cheeks?
And it’s not just about comfort – off-road helmets are usually not designed to absorb strong impacts like road helmets – they usually don’t have the safety ratings that road helmets have, so it’s also a matter of safety.
Dual Sports helmets – why choose if you can have ’em both?
So now, when we understand that both options are not idle, let’s continue to the third one – we’re talking about dual sports helmets – those are actually off-road helmets that were converted to fit dual-sport – adventure use. They do not offer the same aerodynamics as “pure” road helmets, but they are still the best solution if you ride your off-road bike on the road.
With the dual-sport and adventure segments gaining more and more popularity, almost all helmet manufacturers introduced their own “combined” product – and in this article, we want to focus on one of them – the Airoh Commander.
Airoh Commander dual sports helmet
Airoh is an Italian helmet manufacturer that is well known for its lightweight, comfy helmets. Besides the Commander, Arioh makes pure off-road and road helmets, flip-up helmets, and open face.
We’ve been using the Airoh Commander for the last 3 years and we absolutely love it!
The first thing you notice is how comfortable it is – the fabric feels really good on your skin and for our head shape – it was perfect. While it was fitting us perfectly, each rider has a different head shape, so we highly recommend that you put it on your head and try it yourself before buying it.
The second thing we notice about the Airoh Commander is how light it is – it weighs 3.02 lb (in the full carbon version) which is not the lightest, but somehow, even with the front visor, they manage to make it feel like it’s a pure offroad helmet – great weight distribution!
Even after a long day riding off-road + a few hours on the asphalt, it didn’t feel heavy at all.
Besides feeling great and lightweight, the Airoh Commander also fits perfectly with other protection – like the Leatt 3.5 neck brace we’ve purchased lately – this allows you to keep moving your head without any interruption – very important when you go on the road and there’s traffic around you.
The front wide visor of the Airoh Commander is great on-road, but when you go off-road, especially on a hot day, when there’s dust and sweat involved, you’re gonna want to be able to use your off-road goggles. Airoh thought about that too and made enough space for you to be able to do that. Taking out or putting in the goggles (we use Scott Prospect and Leatt Velocity) is not that easy or smooth like in a pure off-road helmet – but it is still manageable. And of course – you can always take the visor apart completely.
It really feels like this helmet was designed by off-road riders that understand what other off-road riders want/need. And we like that about the products we choose.
The riding experience with the Airoh Commander dual sport helmet
Is pretty good. It feels light on your head, the touch of the fabric is very nice on the skin, and you can feel like you’re riding with a premium product. Yes, it’s not Shoei or Arai but still, those guys know how to make helmets, and they know how to do it well.
It is probably not the quietest helmet you can get and if you don’t ride off-road at all or your riding routine is based on 80%-90% high-speed road riding, you’ll probably want to have another pure, full-face road helmet as your daily – the Airoh Commander is great, but it is still designed like an off-road helmet.
How ventilated is the Airoh Commander dual sport helmet?
Thanks to its three-zone ventilation, the Commander can be used also in a very hot climate. And when you’re riding off-road with the visor open, you get all the air coming on your face.
Does the Airoh Commander dual sport helmet include any accessories?
The Airoh Commander dual sport helmet comes as standard with an integrated Sun Screen Visor, Pinlock® lens, and a cool GoPro mount (for both naked or offroad) so you can attach your action cam and don’t miss any moment. It’s not that important and maybe even not important at all, but it is cool, and it gives you the feeling (again), that the product you got is a premium one.
A few more things you should know about the Airoh Commander dual sport helmet
If you’re going to ride it off-road, you’ll probably want to freshen things up a little bit from time to time – the hypoallergenic inner lining of the Commander helmet is fully Removable and washable.
And what about communication? It seems like today, a communication system for helmets has become standard equipment for dual sport/adventure riders, and we’re not different – because what’s better than riding single-tracks with heavy metal music going into your ears?! (or something else, whatever you like…)
We managed to install our Cardo PackTalk Bold on the helmet easily – and found plenty of room for the speakers without making any changes inside.
Should I buy the Airoh Commander dual sport helmet?
The Airoh Commander is really a great dual sport/adventure helmet, but the answer to this question really depends on your riding habits – do you ride your dual sport/adventure motorcycle every day for an hour and a half on the road? In this case, you would probably want to get a road full-face road helmet as well. Or do you ride a nice amount or off-road combined with some road? In that case, and with a price starting at about 450$ (a few hundred dollars less than Arai or Shoei) we think you should definitely consider getting the Airoh Commander.
