If you’ve seen some of the photos from the Losail International Circuit, you’ll see that Nicky Hayden has been going out in some of the sessions with a piece of plastic affixed to his helmet. As the MotoGP paddock gets ready for the Qatar GP, the wind has been a factor here in Doha, fueled by the Arabian Gulf which is only two miles away from us and the desert the surrounds the area.

Originally we thought that Arai was perhaps experimenting with some sort of new aerodynamic package here in Qatar, but Carlos Checa ran a similar setup during the World Superbike races at Phillip Island with X-lite helmet. Talking to Arai Helmets about the odd clear piece of plastic, they disclosed that it’s something that Ducati has been experimenting with on its race package.

We’ve had more than a few Bell Helmets rolling around the A&R office these past months, and one of the things we’ve really liked from this American-based company is how it has teamed up with notable designers from inside and outside of the motorcycle industry to bring attractive and fresh looks to consumers. While it’s been the Bell Star and Vortex that have been keeping our brains firmly in-between our ears, it’s the designs by Roland Sands and Jona Cerwinske that have been attracting us to Bell, and propelling the company back into the motorcycle helmet market as a whole.

Taking some time to talk to Roland Sands at his new Southern California shop, Bell Helmets has put together this short video with the former motorcycle racer turned designer. While Bell and RSD are obviously out to hock the new gold-leaf-over-carbon fiber “Speed Freak” helmet they’ve created for 2011, Roland has some interesting stories about his process and growing up around motorcycles…the photography is spectacular too boot.

With Bell in the process of restoring its name after having its motorcycle helmet division operated overseas by another company, we expect to see more videos in the future like the one after the jump that engage riders with this once-defunct American brand.

At Misano this morning, Valentino Rossi debuted another of his famous helmet designs for his home crowd. Adorned with a painted clock on the top of helmet, Rossi will use a different helmet for each session during the San Marino GP. The time on the clock is set to five minutes before the session’s start, and labeled with “wake up and get going,” which for Rossi is both a literal and figurative reminder.

Critical of his results lately, Rossi is acknowledging that he needs to start turning around his season at Misano, and once again ride at the front of the pack. Hopefully these helmets (last year Rossi was the donkey) will be a reminder to the Italian rider, who has struggled since returning from a compound fracture to his leg.

For the past four days, we’ve inundated you with our coverage of the Red Bull US GP race weekend, and while we do love us some racing here at Asphalt & Rubber, we like to think we’re more than a one trick pony. So let’s switch gears and mix it up a bit…and by that we mean, let’s showing you this awesome helmet prop designer Volpin made for Daft Punk. Where not sure if it’s channeling Eurofunk or Disco fever, but it’s seven shades of awesome on a Rocketeer helmet. Harder, better, faster, stronger videos/photos after the jump.

Phrenology is a passé theory in psychology that centered around the belief that you could understand a person’s mental faculties and character traits based on the shape that person’s skull. Phrenologist used to make a healthy living rubbing the temples of patients, and examining the various bumps and lobes on their cranium, before things like the scientific method starting infiltrating the medical field.

Phrenology reached it’s peak during the late 1700′s – early 1800′s, and was superseded by the next fad in the industry: psychoanalysis. This vastly superior theory of psychology was dubiously famous for claiming cocaine as a panacea; and for a fun factoid, Sigmund Freud did enough nose candy to kill a small elephant.

With so many great connections between personality types, motorcyclists, and of course head injuries, we were tickled pink when we saw Death Spray Custom’s latest helmets titled “Head Set”, which features a trio of brainy paint schemes. Check them out after the jump…and no, we don’t know why this model isn’t wearing a shirt.

There’s so many things going on in this video, we’re not certain where to begin. Filmed on Mulholland Highway by the same fine folks who brought us video footage of the guy who crashed in front of a CHP officer, this new saga takes a different approach to riders exceeding their limits on city streets.

Take an unsuspecting white Honda Elite scooter, a pair of Crocs shoes, and some invisible knee pucks, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a bizarre Sunday morning lowside that could have been much, much, much worse.

While we’ll give bonus points for good dirt-tracking technique, be sure to check the slow-mo footage for the exact moment the rider’s shoes depart humanity, and dive over the cliff. Video after the jump. Thanks for the tip Jelly!

Overshadowed by Rossi’s highside and subsequent injury, one thing we missed at Mugello (besides the Italian himself) was Rossi’s traditional custom helmet for the Italian GP. Always one to pander to the home crowd, Rossi has made it a tradition to have a special helmet designed for when he races at Italian tracks (with Mugello in particular), and this year was no different.

For twelve years in a row, Arai Helmets has topped J.D. Power & Associates motorcycle helmet rankings for customer satisfaction. This is important because J.D. Power also found that highly satisfied owners are more likely to buy their brand of helmet again (that’s a no brainer, right?). The kicker though is that the likelihood of a repeat customer is nearly 10x more likely when they are highly satisfied with their helmet. In a world where it’s cheaper to keep an existing customer than to find a new one, a 10x multiple is a staggering figure on how product quality plays into a company’s sales and growth strategy.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Tech has taken the concept of transition lenses to its next logical step, tint transitioning helmet visors. For the rider that’s had to pack a clear shield when going out on a long ride, or for the time you wore sunglasses under your clear visor, now there’s a helmet visor the eliminates the need pack multiple shields for changing light conditions (and to comply with Johnny Law).