Welcome to our first full fledged gear review here at Nashvilleriders.com. This review of the new Shark S900 looks like it may be the first professional (ha! like we're professional) review of this new helmet available online so we're pretty excited to be able to use words like Exclusive!, First look!!, Premiere!!!.. OK, it's just a helmet review, but we've got it and now we're going to tell you about it so.... on with the show!

Let me start off with saying I can be kind of a cheapskate. Over the years I've had several helmets and I've never spent over $200.00 on a lid. Not that there's really anything wrong with that as there are plenty of helmets in that price range that are DOT and Snell rated, so they should at least offer excellent protection. What one is usually giving up is comfort, lightness, and quality of things such as vent controls, visors, etc. Now lately I've been looking to replace my Zeus 3000a as it didn't fit quite right and that's a very important aspect when you think of safety as well as comfort. When you put about 8000 miles a year or so like I do, you spend too much time with helmet on to have it not fit well.

This time I thought I'd step a bit out of my cheapskate shell a bit and move up (to the tune of $269.95) to a nicer helmet. My criteria for this purchase was that it fit well, lightweight, and has an internal sun shade visor. I've had internal visors in my past 3 helmets and I am spoiled by this feature now. Unfortunately a couple of months ago there was no such animal that met all my expectations, but now there is. Enter the Shark S900.

Now I've heard nothing but praise for Shark Helmets from professional reviews to comments at online store sites. Additionally, Shark has excellent ratings in the SHARP rating system used over in the UK. When I saw that Shark was releasing a helmet with an internal shade that wasn't a modular helmet, I took notice. I received my S900 in the black and red Glow graphic last week and feel prepared at this point to render my verdict, so let's jump in already!

The Shark S900

The S900 fit's into what I would consider the "mid-level" of Shark's lineup and it appears to share a very similar design with their newly released S700 but adds the internal visor. The S900 is a full face helmet that meets DOT and ECE/22-05 ratings and features a 2.2mm thick visor incorporating Shark's excellent and easy to use visor removal system. Unpacking the surprisingly thin box the helmet arrives in one is presented with a nice helmet bag, instructions, and the warranty card for Shark's 5 year warranty which should realistically last the usable life of the helmet.

The S900 feels very light when first picking it up and feels equally light when wearing. The shell is also pretty compact and has a very good aerodynamics. When at interstate speeds, the S900 does little to make its presence known. There is no lifting and very little difference in how it cuts through the wind when turning your head, which you will need to do a bit more than normal depending on the helmet(s) you have had in the past. We'll get to that a bit later.

The Look

The Glow graphic is quite interesting and subtle. I'm not into flashy designs usually (OK, the Zeus 3000a was a bit over the top) and the Glow graphic is pretty sharp without being ridiculous. This purchase is a bit of a departure for me in the fact I usually don't like black helmets due to their reduced visibility at night and the fact that they can get hot in the sun during the summer. I felt it looked so good in black though I cast aside my prejudice this time.

The lacquer on the S900 is nice and thick and very smooth. Indeed, as I was prepping the helmet to be photographed I could see how far the dust was siting up on top of the lacquer. It's a very impressive finish and a little time with a can of Plexus and soft T-shirt results in a show car type of shine. The finish is only interrupted by the edges of the graphics which are applied via decals under the finish.

The graphics, while they look very good and have a nice metal flake look to them, they are let down a bit by the fact the black on the decal is not dark as the black of the paint of shell. This results in there being a distinct change from graphic to paint that is pretty easy to spot when outdoors in the sun. Indoors it is not as apparent but still I feel this lets down the look a bit on an otherwise great looking design. I've shot a close up of the graphic below so you can see what I mean

Fit

In most helmets I wear a size large and the S900 is no different. The helmet fits very similar to a Scorpion EXO 400 (at least on my head anyway) providing a snug fit that feel very secure and wraps around your head and face very well. I should mention that while the fit is similar, my EXO 400 was an XL, not an L so keep that in mind when choosing a size. The S900 has plenty of room for one's chin unlike most other helmets I've had. Those with Jay Leno-ish chins should be comfy in the S900.

Speaking of chins, the S900 comes down pretty far below the jaw line so you don't feel like your lower jaw is sitting in the wind. The only niggle I have with the fit is the top seems a bit tall inside. I can feel the gap at the top between my head and the liner when I have helmet positioned where I want it. It's not distracting, but its there. It has the side benefit of allowing a bit of the air from the top vents to be felt. If you have more of the "Bert" shaped head, the S900 will probably right up your alley. The tall interior is most likely responsible for the way the padding over the brow comes down just a bit more than prefer over my eyes. It's certainly not a deal breaker and since I like to ride with one of those helmet "beanies" it's a non issue when wearing it.

The interior liner of the S900 is well padded and very comfortable. It was rather snug when I first tried it on but after a few wearing felt a bit better while still being a good fit. The liner itself is removable and washable but I wasn't able to find any information on if it is anti-microbial, moisture wicking, etc. The liner does include pockets for helmet speakers with a hook and loop opening on one end allowing for secure placement.

I installed my Chatterbox XBi system on the S900 and though the speakers did indeed fit in the space provided, it pushed the padding a bit to tightly against my ears for my comfort. This problem was worsened when turning my head to the left and right. Fortunately I was able to remove the casing around the speakers (thank you Chatterbox for making the casings easy to remove with via screws) and place them back in the helmet. This resolved the issue for me but be aware taking apart your speakers will probably void their warranty, so if you screw them up, it ain't my fault.

The S900 is secured using the standard double D ring system but unlike most D-rings the ones Shark use are very thick, and though a small detail, it definitely adds to the overall quality feel of the helmet. Likewise, the chinstrap is thick and well padded making for a comfortable and secure fit. The extra length of strap is held on in a way I have not seen before. Where most manufacturers place a small snap or length of elastic to keep the end of the strap from flapping about, the S900 has a plastic tab with raised "nubs" that fits through a gate on the nylon strap. This is located back on the underside of the strap rather than on the upper left portion of the D Ring side, making for a cleaner and easier way to keep the strap secured. I don't know of this is standard on all Shark helmets but this small detail adds a lot to the overall user friendliness of the design.

The Visor(s)

The S900 has Shark's 2.2mm clear visor which has an excellent optical quality to it. The visor closes with good solidity and seals well against the gasket material. Raising the visor from the thick and substantial lift tab results in only a small amount of flex against the strong detents of the visor's mechanism. The first of those detents from closed to open leaves about a 1 inch opening for de-misting. This is a little larger than I prefer for the first opening, as I usually want just a small gap to help increase airflow when needed. This is better than many other helmets where the first opening is 2 inches or more so I suppose it could be worse.

The visor incorporates an anti-fog coating on the inside which is very effective. Intentional attempts to fog the main visor have failed beautifully. The coating leaves a somewhat rough texture to the touch on the inside of the visor and seems similar to the anti-fog coating I've had on other face shields from other manufacturers. In my experience this means that while it is effective for now, it will eventually fade and/or be removed by cleaning. Time will tell so a long term follow up will need to done to see how well it works.

This reminds me of a point I wanted to point out to manufacturers (if they're reading our little site here). If you're going to go to the trouble of performing anti-fog coating, treating, or what have you to the main visor, how about a little anti-fog love for the internal visor? Let's say I'm on my way to work on a cool spring morning appreciating how I'm not fogging up my shield and then part of my commute has me heading east into the morning sun. No problem, I just flip down my internal sun visor and I'm good.. well good until the internal visor starts fogging up. Now there are solutions (pun intended) for treating visors on your own so this can be remedied, but the first helmet maker to anti-fog any and all of the plastic between my eyes and the road will be getting some serious praise from this site.

Enough ranting then, let's get back to reviewing. Visibility I would characterize as average / above average. The top to bottom visibility is a bit short but side to side visibility is actually pretty good. This of course will vary a bit depending on the shape of one's head so your mileage may vary but I've noticed that when doing a check before changing lanes, that my peripheral view is a bit better than my previous helmets.

Removing the visor on the S900 (and most other Shark helmets I believe) is a simple and elegant process and one that I think other manufacturers should consider when designing their systems.To remove the visor just presss the buttons inside the pivot point of the visor and push the visor forward away from the helmet. The visor should then slide right off. To re-install, just line up the circular mechanism in the visor into the track on the helmet and slide it back into place. it will lock in with a light click and then you're ready to roll. Do be aware there is a little grease in those pivots that you can get on your hands and create some nice fingerprints on your helmet (or your freshly cleaned visor you just snapped into place).

The internal sun shade is moved into place via a small plastic lever over the left side pivot point of the main visor. This is one place where the mid-level status of this helmet shows where corners where a cut a bit to keep the price down. The lever does not move that smoothly and requires a bit more effort to start it moving than I feel should be necessary. The plastic used in the lever is a bit soft and allows it to flex as you try to engage the visor and it gives the feeling that much more force could snap the lever off. This is true for both opening and closing actions of the internal visor.

Once the sun shade is in place it does a good job of darkening your view of the road ahead. It comes down far enough to where there is not a visible gap between the bottom of the visor and the small breath guard in the middle, but a small gap is visible to the far right and left as it tapers off at its edges. The sun shade is not quite as dark as a dark smoke shield, but a bit darker than light smoke, so medium smoke perhaps is the best way to call it. The internal shield also introduces a fair amount of optical distortion once in place which is quite a contrast from the near perfect optical characteristics of the main visor. After a minute or two I didn't notice it much, but when first flipped into place, you can certainly tell you've introduced a less than optimal piece of plastic into your view. Combine this with the aforementioned actuating lever and one gets the feeling that perhaps the entire internal sunshade aspect of the S900 was the victim of cost reduction.

Venting

The S900 follow the what I would call the standard vent setup with a chin vent and a pair of top vents, which is a bit of a departure from the usually single "scoop" top vent that Shark has on most of their other helmets. The lower vent is open and closed with a rather narrow, long vertical switch. Despite its size it is rather easy to operate with gloves and gives a solid click when opening and closing, letting the wearer know that you have indeed switched it.

The top vent switches are another matter entirely. They are relatively narrow strips of plastic with round, raised "peaks" allowing you to get a decent grip with your finger on them to slide them "out" to open them and "in" to close them. The switches however, are a bit of a let down, not very "solid" and not wanting to slide smoothly, making their operation rather cheap feeling. Despite the "also ran" feeling I have towards the top vents, they at least are quiet as I have not noticed and whistling or other noises coming from them open or closed.

Ventilation overall I feel is a little above average. When at speeds over 30-40 mph, one can feel some air moving over the top of your head. It's not a blast but it is present and noticeable when hot out. The chin vent does a little better with some air being directed up to the visor and two small holes that go through the chin bar. Switching on and off the chin vent, one can feel the air moving around your chin and jaw. Keep in mind that my results as far as venting results may be quite different than yours depending on your bike's seating position, windscreen size and shape, as well as your height.

Noise

The S900 is the quietest helmet I have owned. Not to say that there aren't better ones, but this one can't be far from the top. First off, it is practically devoid of the low down, booming type of noise one usually encounters at highway speeds. They only noise I hear is the wind rushing noise in the mid range and even then it is well controlled and easily dealt with with decent earplugs. I'm a proponent of wearing earplugs when riding, but I admit I don't wear them all the time. The bad thing is that I might be even more prone to not wear them due to the quiet nature of the S900.

As mentioned above in the Venting section, I didn't notice any high pitched whistling from the vents. The S900 also has a chin curtain pre-installed (these are showing up everywhere these days) and this no doubt can help with reducing noise. Overall I  give the S900 an excellent rating for noise which is a very important aspect in my book.

Conclusion

The Shark S900 is a (nearly) excellent helmet in most ways that is let down a bit by some small issues with the internal sun shade and mechanism. The cheap feeling top vents also don't do much for it either. Those issues aside, the S900 looks very good, has a comfortable liner, is very quiet, and the main visor is excellent in both optical quality and the mechanics of removing/replacing the shield. The 5 year warranty Shark offers on the helmet is nothing to sneeze at either.

Shark helmets also excel in the safety ratings and though this particular model has not been tested yet, I've got a good feeling about it.(I'll follow up on this when the SHARP rating is available). Overall the S900 is an above average helmet that could easily reach excellent if the above issues are addressed. Despite those issues, I'm very pleased with my S900 and looking forward to putting some serious miles on it this year.

Maker:      Shark
Model:       S900 "Glow"
Size:          Large
Color:        Black/Red
Price:        $269.95
Made In:  Portugal
Purchased from: Sportbiketrackgear.com