Today at the MotoGP test in Jerez, AGV debuted its next-generation helmet: the AGV PistaGP. The fruits of the Italian company’s Project 46, the PistaGP is the first helmet to come from AGV’s new AGV Standards program, which seeks create products with an inside-out approach. You have likely already seen Valentino Rossi testing the AGV PistaGP in the recent Sepang tests, and I have already waxed poetic about how excited I am about this product.
Generally I am not a big fan of AGV sport bike helmets (though I do have a torrid love affair with the AGV AX-8 Dual Sport helmet), as I find the field-of-view (FOV) on AGV lids to be far too limited for my riding tastes, but the PistaGP promises a host of improvements to AGV’s helmet design, especially an improved FOV, which should allay my complaints. For AGV, the company hopes the PistaGP, and its progeny from the AGV Standards program, will reposition the helmet manufacturer once again as again the pinnacle maker of motorcycle helmets.
Releasing details on the PistaGP to the assembled GP paddock press at Jerez, we can finally publicly talk about this new lid and AGV’s new approach to designing motorcycle helmets. Details after the jump, along with more photos than you can shake a stick at.
Since we have already broke down how AGV scanned Rossi and other riders’ heads into a 3D modeling system to create these custom-fitting helmets, we won’t rehash the process again, though there are some interesting diagrams and technical materials in the galleries below. Making a number of improvements over the company’s already well-selling GP-Tech, the AGV PistaGP’s main features break down into the following measures:
- +15° wider field of vision
- 9% larger visor area
- 36% less g-force transmitted to the head (compared to the ECE regulation)
- 48% less HIC index standard (Head Injury Criterion)
- 71% smaller visor movement area (area devoted to visor movement)
- 3.3mm visor thickness
- -6% lateral section aerodynamics, -3% front section
- -44% z-lift (force of helmet lifting because of aerodynamic forces)
- 193% more ventilation area
“I consider the PistaGP helmet a tribute to Gino Amisano, an entrepreneur I admired for his ability to innovate, the records he achieved, and the competitive spirit with which he faced every challenge,” said Lino Dainese President of Dainese and AGV. “The new helmet is part of the AGV Standards project, which, in line with the qualities established by Amisano, revolutionises the way helmets are designed, setting new records for protection and ergonomics that are clearly evident. The next generation helmets arising from this project are intended to place AGV, once again, in a leading market position with its technology.”
AGV hasn’t explained how it plans on taking the AGV Standards methodology and expanding it into consumer-level products, which could create a challenge for the Italian company. Thus, there has been no word on availability or price, nor has there been word if this will be a custom-only type of product. More info on that as we get it, though we hope we won’t have to wait long to try a PistaGP out in person.
AGV Pista GP Press Conference:
AGV Pista GP Studio Shots:
AGV Pista GP Technical Diagrams:
AGV Pista GP Tested by Valentino Rossi:
Source: AGV
If AGV can find a way to bring custom molded helmets to market, I will be first in line (assuming I don’t have to sell one of my children to afford it). My oddly shaped melon has always made picking helmets off the shelf quite difficult, although Arai has been kind to me over the years.
I just like the idea of being able to see out of the upper edge when I’m in a race tuck.
Nice Lid, now…..where do we have to drop off our vital organs in order to afford it ?
I’m just worried that my ugly face would break the scanner…the cost wouldn’t worry me. I don’t mind selling a kidney and part of my liver and a lung.
The chin guard design not really that appealing, though it seems very aerodynamic…
@Ken C: For decades I wore only Bell helmets, not out of brand loyalty so much as they were the ones that best fit the shape of my head. In the years they were out of business (or making shite lids), I struggled with Arai’s giving me a hot spot on my forehead and other brands that were too tight on the sides or just prohibitively expensive (and AGVs just don’t let me SEE).
I can understand why manufacturers don’t offer helmets in more incremental sizing than S, M, L and XL but why don’t they offer helmets as also R (round) and O (oval)? Head shape is as big a determinate in proper fit as diameter.
Hey Irksome,
Try Arai again; they now come in three different head shapes, (they used tohave a different shape for different markets; Asia, Europe and North America) depending on the model. Round, intermediate oval and long oval. the only downside is you are limited to the choice of designs that the particular model offers.
For the non-racers, has anyone heard anything about peripheral vision? I’ve noticed there is a fairly wide array of cutoff angles that are much more important on the street (if you shoulder check).