Believe it or not, this helmet, in its original form, has been around since the 70s. With its clean finish and huge color variety, Bell reintroduced this helmet as a modern remake of a 70s retro classic. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’re talking about the Bell Moto 3! This is an off-road type of helmet manufactured by Vista Outdoor Sales LLC.
Some companies design throwback models to bring back outdated designs. Well, the well-designed graphics of this beauty is both simple and striking. Throughout the years, the Bell Moto 3 has adapted to street riding and maintained a strong following. It made sense for Bell to remake this iconic 1970s helmet with modern technology.
This legendary helmet has earned a re-release and caused quite the hype doing it. It has shown many improvements in the safety enhancement categories and the design sector. The build of the Bell Moto 3 is proper 21st century-like.
With that said, is this helmet as impressive as its older edition?
Ratings
Comfort:
Visibility:
Ventilation:
Quietness:
Specifications
Outer shell material : Fiberglass
Shell size : XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL
Liner : HydraDry material
Weight : 3.79 pounds
Pinlock : No, but with a separate sun visor
Strap System : Double-D ring
Safety Ratings
DOT : Yes
ECE : Yes
SNELL : No
SHARP : Not tested
Shape and materials
Back in the day, the original Bell Moto 3 was known for being the world’s first full-face motocross helmet. It had a unique retro design while bringing full-face protection to the dirt. The technology used for Moto 3 in order to deliver the utmost protection has evolved since the 70s. Those of us who consider safety to be a priority know that a 1970 Bell Moto 3 helmet won’t suffice in this decade.
With the new Moto 3, this helmet uses a polycarbonate outer shell material. This causes it to be nice and strong. The shell comes in five sizes. There’s an xs and small shell size, a medium, a large, an XL and an XXL shell size. This helmet is said to have a slight round shape to it, but it’s a bit more of an intermediate-oval shape. This can be an issue for riders with much rounder heads.
At the top is a plastic peak on the front. The peak has five press studs. You can’t adjust it but the sides of the peak are very flexed so you can fit it into the lid. It comes out pretty far that it blocks most of the sunlight. This way there’s not much glare on your face. The visor on the peak of the helmet starts to lift as you reach higher speeds. But, you can remove it with ease before riding by pulling it off the built-in snaps.
With the bell helmets, you can also take out the cheek pieces and go for a smaller or larger size. This will depend on your face size or shape.
Things I liked
Things I don’t like
Then it of course fastens via the D-ring at the bottom. The D-ring is a bit more secure than the ratchet strap and it’s something you adjust each time you ride so it’s more comfortable.
This helmet is customizable with a variety of colors. With the Fasthouse and Reverb Moto-3 helmets, they’ve got a leather finish where the chin bar is. If features their HydraDry triple-layer liner we’ve so much grown to like specially for helmets on the least luxurious end of the spectrum, and double D ring strap system, americas’ favorite.
Another feature we really like is the cutout shape at the back of the helmet, which keeps it from tapping against the bulkier back protector from some jackets, allowing for a comfortable full-tuck position.
Let’s talk about comfort:
Overall comfort
The Bell Moto 3 is comfortably light to lug around. This is good when going off-road or biking in general. It gives you less neck ache and is comfortable to wear when biking. They are quite big in size so the helmet can easily fit on your head. This makes it easier to see while giving your head a little bit of space to move around if needed.
There is a double D-ring chin strap. Now the straps on the helmet are kind of fiddly when getting it to fit your face. But once you get used to the D-ring, the mechanism of getting it on and off will be easier, more secure and comfortable as a result.
The interior is removable, washable and antibacterial. To avoid any pressure points inside the helmet, the comfort liners are held in with insert snaps in the forehead and back of the neck. The overall fitting for the helmets is pretty true to size and has a nice snug fit. However, some may feel like this helmet is kinda on the smaller side because of its intermediate oval-shaped shell.
Visibility
The visibility with their helmets is almost second to none, if not, second to none. The massive opening for this helmet is one of their big selling points. As far as a full-face helmet goes, the Bell Moto 3 probably has the most visibility.
This is beneficial to you because, with this one, you’ll want to put on goggles. This is if you’ve ever cracked your visor at 70 miles an hour! So yeah, you will need something for your eyes inevitably. You can add goggles or even sunglasses. Unlike a few of the competitors to this particular lid, this has such a big opening that you could fit almost any set of goggles in there.
Quietness
The noise level in a Bell Moto 3 is quiet considering the amount of air that flows through the face of the helmet. There is a huge hole right in the face of the helmet, so there’s some expected wind noise and buffeting. You can hear it but it’s not too loud to bear. You don’t get any whistling or extra noise because the outer shell is pretty smooth. There are no vents up top to make the airflow in abnormal ways, keeping it overall pretty muted.
Ventilation
To bring air into the helmet, the retro Bell Moto 3 has left things simple with the main vent being in the front on the chin bar. There’s also plenty of airflow into the goggle aperture, considering that the Bell Moto 3 does not have built-in crown vents. This helmet has only one source of venting aside from the wide front opening. That source is the slots in front of the mouth.
The chinbar has vents but they aren’t closable. With a helmet like this, it’s kind of redundant to have closeable vents on the front since there’s a huge opening right above it for your eyes.
The helmet lets in a ton of air through the large front opening and the chin vents. So you’ll still get a little bit of airflow coming through. Be ready to take in all that fresh air to your face!
Also, you’d think that venting wouldn’t be a problem considering the big hole in the face of the helmet. Well, that’s where the small holes seen in modern helmets come in. People think that they’re meant to force air in but they’re also meant to help force air out with exhaust vents.
A downside for this helmet would be that you’re not getting any big eps grooves to help push out any air on the inside of the helmet. The Moto 3 helmet does not have either intake or exhaust vents for your scalp. This prevents your head from receiving that cooling airflow, making you hot in certain scenarios.
Safety
The Bell Moto 3 is DOT-certified, as well as ECE tested and certified. This means that it qualified for the mandatory requirement of safety standards. It’s SNELL approved as well but has not been SHARP tested. The helmet is eps 2205 certified too.
Conclusion
The history and overall design that the Bell Moto 3 comes with are unmatched. Bell is known for its high-quality helmets. Well, the Bell Moto 3 lives up to this expectation. In fact, it lives up to almost every expectation we had for this helmet.
It not only has a mesmerizing exterior but also provides complete comfort and safety. Some of you may not choose this helmet for off-road use since it’s sometimes seen as more of a hybrid street helmet with plenty of designs. This helmet may be more for style but it’s still keeping modern safety standards.
The Bell Moto 3 is perfect for those of you looking for a retro-style helmet. It’s better looking and safer than most of its competitors. You’re getting a helmet of premium quality for quite a decent price of $300. It’s also stronger than other helmets in the class.
The few minor downsides are a lack of crown vents, flimsy visors, its intermediate-oval shape and just not as many safety features as the others. For some of you, this can easily be looked upon. But for the rest of you, you’ll probably rather use this helmet when going out, for stylish purposes. Either way, you will use this helmet, can’t deny that.
Yes, there is a refurbished original 1970 Bell Moto 3 helmet out there. There are other regular helmets out there too, probably with better safety features. But with the new Bell Moto 3, you can still get that vintage style while also receiving the necessary safety features. The helmet is more for style while still having modern safety standards.
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