The ICON Airform is one of the best buckets we’ve found in the 200ish price range. A replacement for the Alliance and Alliance GT that borrows nice touring helmet features from the latter such as the drop-down sunshield visor.
With a fantastic field of view coming straight from the more expensive Airframe Pro (Yes, ICON has confusingly similar product names for their entire product line) it makes for a solid choice for a full-face, touring capable helmet.
Ratings
Comfort:
Visibility:
Coolness:
Ventilation:
Quietness:
Overall rating:
Specifications
Outer shell material : Polycarbonate
Shell size : S, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL
Liner : HydraDry material
Weight : 3.75 pounds
Pinlock : No
Strap System : D-ring
Safety Ratings
DOT : Yes
ECE : Yes
SNELL : No
SHARP : Not tested / stars 1-5
Shape and materials
In terms of materials and some bits of the build quality, we’re rather unimpressed.
- Polycarb shell weighin’ 3.58lbs (1625g)... pretty average.
- Shield-lock pin and hole mechanism with fancy name… no comment.
- Spring loaded sun visor that’s noisy af… okay. At least the mechanism is easy to find with gloves on (not like this should be worthy of praise per se, but then some fancier brands continue to surprise us with bad designs sometimes)
However, we like to see double D right straps, thank you very much; and a triple layered liner with removable cheek pads is another plus. Another major plus is the actual shell shape, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Shell Sizes
Talking about shells though, the Airform comes with a grand total of two shell sizes for 7 helmet sizes. BOO. I’m lucky and I use an M for 95% of the helmets I’ve ever bought in my life, but for those using XS or S sizes, the wobblehead feeling will be real, as they’ll share shell with the L size…
I guess you could always go with the Airmada instead if this is your case and looking like a lollypop is not within your list of exciting things about riding motorcycles, as that one does come with 4 shell sizes and goes for about the same amount of benjamins.
Let’s see what else is worth mentioning here:
- Removable breath deflector? Sure, we’ll take it.
- Speaker pockets? Yes!
- Customizable trim pieces at the back of the helmet that you can match with the visor color AND your ride’s color scheme? Sweet.
Things I liked
Things I don’t like
Overall comfort
‘Tis nothing but a straight-up comfortable helmet. The internal shape is an Intermediate Oval which leans more towards narrow than it goes for oval so round heads look elsewhere. It has a remarkable up swoop at the chin bar that makes it very easy to pull apart from the straps in order to put the helmet on. Good stuff.
Ok so what was that major plus we were talkin’ about before?
The way the tilted neckroll sits on your back (or better said, doesn’t sit) when you’re at full tuck. Most helmets I’ve tried with one of my bulkier jackets hit the back protector, but the exaggerated shape of the Airform prevents this.
Points won, for sure.
Liner
In terms of the liner and how it sits around your head and face, we’ve got removable cheek pads with velcro and two pins, very easy to take on and off so if you’re sticking a comm on those ear pockets it’ll take no time to do so, and with a contoured shape that make them feel pretty darn good. The HydraDry material used is also effective at its mission. Well done ICON.
You’d want however to use a comm that comes with a sticky mount, not with a clamp mount, as ICON’s side walls are typically too thick for those to fit properly.
Visibility
This is one point we particularly like about this helmet, as it has a more touring, wider, taller FOV than many other entry level full face helmets.
It uses ICON’s optic shield which you’ll be able to find on some online retailers in a total of 11 different colors for you to customize it’s looks, would you consider a $50ish addon a wise money use, that is.
Oh did we say they’re fog-free? Yeah, that’s a win. You can also get a pinlock visor to go on top if you ride on extreme weathers. Good.
Quietness
The most unremarkable bit of the Airform is how not quiet it is. I mean, it’s not terrible, but it leans towards the louder end for a full face helmet. This is sort of expectable on this price bracket specially for a helmet with speaker pockets where your ears aren’t pillowed agains noise padding so to speak.
Ventilation
We’d rate this an overall “good” for ventilation. Now, mind you, when you can’t close the chin vents you might be sold with some marketing jargon such as “active vents” but I like to call them “don’t wear in winter vents” or “couldn’t be asked to make them properly to save costs” vents. We’ll always have our bestie the duct tape to help us cover those if needed, but it just feels cheap to me.
However, it does make for a nice airflow with a total of 4 intake vents when you take into account the rather small central top intake, and 1 exhaust port. If you took the rather premium liner off, you’d see some massive channels molded on the eps liner that will certainly help keep your head cool and that’s what matters.
Still miles away from the superior Airframe Pro and its 9 intake ports and 7 exhausts, but hey, you’re only paying like, less than half as much.
Safety
It passes all the tests it needs to pass to be a viable commercial helmet, that is DOT and ECE as well as the Japanese PSC (for which it comes without an appropriate sticker unless purchased from an authorized dealer in Japan).
Not like the DOT means s**t safety wise, but the ECE is a slightly more reassuring sticker. Nothing worth spending much more time talking about. You can’t take it to the track if that’s what you want to know, but it should keep your brains within your skull if that’s what you’re worried about.
Conclusion
Overall, we have to give this lid a total average rating of 80.5/100, or 4 out of 5 stars for the folks that like to keep things simple.
With some serious bang for your buck in the areas of comfort, features, visibility and airflow, as well as coming in with really cool customization options and a few sick graphics for those who fancy designs that seem to come straight out from the Devil’s Kitchen, it makes for a great, comfortable entry-level commuter helmet for those who value looks over fancier features.
Where to buy this helmet :