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As most of you ladies know, there isn't a lot of options out there for female riders when it comes to helmets. The market is demographically catered to men. Suomy has a flowery pinkish helmet, Icon has one as well, but that's about it.

Well, I happen to be in the helmet industry now, working directly for a company known as ACSAS Technologies with a helmet line known as Akuma. Within the week (waiting to get Verisign to be compatible with the website) our website will be up. We currently only have 3 helmets for road racing, but will be expanding to 15, which is where you come in.

If you ride a bike, race, do trackdays, ride on the back or whatever, I want your inputs. Tell your girlfriends about this too, cause we want their inputs. Doesn't matter what bike you or they ride.

And let me start by saying the our helmets come with a system built into the helmet that allows you to turn on and off red LED lights in the back of the helmet for better night time visibility, a white LED in the front of the helmet to allow you to look at maps, cell phone or whatever you want at night (while pulled over on the side of the road obviously), photochromic visors in any color you want are available (this means they are clear in cloudy and night time conditions, but get dark automatically when it is sunny, which means no changing visors between day and night riding) and have killer paint schemes. (All under $300 and these are ECE 22-05 and DOT approved) Here is the website: http://www.akumahelmets.com/ (Please give us a week to get it up and running)

Now, what kind of colors would you like to see? Pink will be a primary color, but what else?

Is there a certain design that females relate to? If not, what kind of design or pattern. Please post up images.

Is there something that you like about another brands helmet that you would like to see in ours?

What else? We appreciate your help.

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_____________________________________________
2008 Triumph 675
My Website = http://www.3knucklesracing.com
BSS #88
TTC #88

No responses yet? hmmm...

Here is an example of one of our helmets reviewed by Webbikeworld.

Review with lots of pics: http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/motorcycle-helmet/akuma-helmet/

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_____________________________________________
2008 Triumph 675
My Website = http://www.3knucklesracing.com
BSS #88
TTC #88

Well, Duc, I guess I can give a few suggestions. At least on what I like. I just got a Shark helmet for  my birthday last year, and they offered a few color variations that all had sunflowers and butterflies. I LOVE butterflies. I'm not really a girly girly girl though. I would like a purple helmet with a Camaro on it LMAO .

It's hard to say what all girls would like, I mean I know that as a female rider I want to be recognized as a female, yet I also can't stand the oogling and jackazzed-ness of the tardos that are staring cause "OH MY GOD!! THAT"S A CHICK!!!" (the earth better stop rotating cause a girl can ride a sportbike LOL)

Pink is a tough color to sell for girls i think, i mean girls either like pink or they don't. I don't think there are too many females in between with that color. I guess I would say stick to flowers, but give them an edge, and dare I say it?? Maybe go with tribal type designs that are more feminine???  I mean she's a chick on a sportbike, I think she wants to be alittle bad- azzed and a girl all together? Idunno.. hopefully i helped at least a little? If not, sorry for the lame-o post!

~Camarogrl

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I'm with Camarogirl on this one...........I'm not a girly girl and no matter what I do I always get noticed as a female rider (being 5' tall and 94lbs) but pink is certainly one color I would't be caught dead wearing.  I like purples and greens but as to design thats pretty tough.  Obviously I like seahorses so maybe something 'ocean' like would be a good seller but as with anything taste is all so individual. 

For me the the bigger part of making a decent helmet would be weight and size.  I have only found the Arai Quantum II XXS to be a really good fit.  I also don't want to spend the $750 (CDN) that it would cost for me to get one.  But bottom line for any helmet should be fit.  Second would be one that doesn't weigh a ton. 

I've never heard of these helmets or the company that your with and will they be available in Canada??   I am very interested in hearing more about this.  I read that your website will be up and running within a weeks time so I will have a better look then.

Thanks for taking the time to ask what our opinions are.........that right there to me is a start

 

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Thanks Sylv and Camaro,

      The company is new, but we are already getting noticed and in a huge way. We have the patent on Photochromic visors (dark tint in sunlight and go clear at night or in cloudy conditions) and we already have a couple of companies trying to steal what we have created (two of the largest helmet companies!)

     The helmets are lighter than 99.5% of the full faced helmets on the market, and that is with our power system installed (system weighs 30grams), which runs the LED lights to make you more visible at night. For helmets sized XS and Small, we should be right at 3 pounds even. Our XL helmet weighed in at 3 lbs., 8-1/8 oz.

     We currently have two helmet shapes and our helmets are built in the same factory as many of the other helmets on the market, and they are ECE 22-05 and DOT approved.

     If you fit Shoei or Arai helmets well, then these will fit you. But before we decide on a 'female' design I need to canvas a large portion of the female demographic. (Oh yeah, I'm the VP for product development and testing, which is why I'm doing this.) So based on your inputs, I'm leaning towards purple and green as possible primary colors, and although these might be prevalent on the helmet, I'm still inclined to see a hint of pink somewhere on the helmet. Even if it is very subtle.

    But I do kinda like the possiblity of seeing two 'female' style helmets. One with an underwater theme to it and one with a flying/sky theme to it. Please keep the idea's coming. More and more woman are starting to ride motorcycles and this is a demographic we at Akuma would like to cater towards. (And yes, the helmets will be made available to our Canadian brothers and sisters. Prices would still be $320-340 Canadian Dollars. Add a photochromic visor and you are looking at another $80 Candian Dollars.)

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_____________________________________________
2008 Triumph 675
My Website = http://www.3knucklesracing.com
BSS #88
TTC #88

Duc, if you do pink I would recommend a pink like this.. or more flourecent not a pink like this.

Besides, see this pink looks better with purple and green.  Okay, are you dizzy from the colors now? LOL

That's all for now. Letme know if I can help, and your helmets sound awesome, too bad I don't ride at night!

~Camarogrl

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Dont forget a retractable makeup mirror.
Sorry I had to throw that one in. 

I cannot say for all girls but all riders that I know, including my gf, are all tom-girls and hate that barbie style BS, so they really like the same stuff theat guys wear. 
If you want to get some really good input why dont you offer a free helmet for a good color scheme.  A girl submits a drawing (and maybe also a helmet) and you proffesionaly paint it and send it to her in exchange for the rights.

Fulcrum,

    Although that seems like a good idea, we actually have a famous artist that does our graphics and part of the contract with him allows him to have full creative rights. This means we give him a concept and ideas and he creates the paint scheme based on that. So far, he's never let us down. I just wish our internet guy would activate the website. It's all done, we just need him to push the button and activate it.

     As for the makeup mirror, you actually just gave me a really good idea. We can actually get small makeup mirrors with the same style paint scheme from the helmt put onto the back of the mirror and include that with the helmet. This is similar to what we do with the F-14 helmet. Every one of those helmets comes with a "Remove before flight" keyring. This would be a similar idea. I'll have to discuss this with the CEO. 

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_____________________________________________
2008 Triumph 675
My Website = http://www.3knucklesracing.com
BSS #88
TTC #88

Make up mirror doesn't impress me.  But thats just me.......I'm sure the girls that like pink will be happy with it

I think the whole idea of a helmet built around female ideas is an excellent one.  I for one can't wait till they are available to view and try on.   I had a friend who went out and tried on leather pants (riding pants of course) and she couldn't believe the difference between the mens and the ladies fit.  It was truly like night and day.  Now I'm not expecting the helmets to fit that much difference but I'm sure the differences will be amazing.  The helmets also look awesome.  Price is a good deal too.  I can't imagine that these helmets won't be a great hit.

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Sylvia,

      Make up mirror is just a small gimmick, much like the "Remove before flight" tags we include with the F-14 helmet. Something like that is low cost, and gives the consumer just that little bit more for their money. And mirrors are always useful. Doesn't matter if it is for men or women. Hey, maybe you'll get lost someday and you can use the mirror to signal an airplane or something. he he

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_____________________________________________
2008 Triumph 675
My Website = http://www.3knucklesracing.com
BSS #88
TTC #88

DucRacer748:

Sylvia,

      Make up mirror is just a small gimmick, much like the "Remove before flight" tags we include with the F-14 helmet. Something like that is low cost, and gives the consumer just that little bit more for their money. And mirrors are always useful. Doesn't matter if it is for men or women. Hey, maybe you'll get lost someday and you can use the mirror to signal an airplane or something. he he

 I sorta figured that but as a female and that being very stereo typical it annoys me more than amuses me if you see my 'female' point of view on it.  As for getting lost...........thats what my cell phone with GPS is for

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Okay, so what would be a good small item you would want included with your helmet? Throw me some ideas. Remember, we are looking for something that is small, but still cool and useful.

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_____________________________________________
2008 Triumph 675
My Website = http://www.3knucklesracing.com
BSS #88
TTC #88

Decent cloth to wipe it and/or some visor cleaner that you would recommend to use on your faceshield.  Would be my preference.

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Ok first off.. a makeup mirror??? Fulcrum you are an ass.

Okay now that I said that... Duc.... how about a bike safe keychain.. like the ones with the rubbery pictures... um I don't know how to explain it..... but make a chick on a bike or something.. but the chick would be that rubbery plastic so it wouldn't scratch the paint.. make the bike in the same colors that you choose for the scheme for the helmet. That my idea for the "free gift" LOL

~Camarogrl

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Good responses from the girls so far.  For me, I am a girlie girl and I love pink.. .but I would prefer something neutral with pink accents (on the helmet or something like the visor clips)..  Too much pink can be over the top and brings too much unwanted attention (some guys can be total jerks when they see women on sportbikes).

Overall, I think the current helmets are fine.  We could use more diversity in graphics, but it's got to be done right.

The one thing that the industry needs to work on is gear for women riders, especially tall women.  I'm 5'9 and have a really hard time finding something that fits properly.  They make the jackets too short.  Not so great for protection.

Good luck with the helmets.

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My Ride: yellow 99 F4
Location: Toronto, Canada