Nolan N100-6 helmet review

I have come in for a bit of criticism from customers recently about our decision to offer products that might be considered to be less than truly premium. And I understand what people are trying to tell us; namely that you can't sell Rolls Royces and Kias in the same showroom. Well, you can, but when you do so you risk sending out a mixed message.

But we do feel a bit of an obligation to have gear for all types of biker. If somebody has made the effort to come and see us, it just feels a bit rude not having anything to offer them. And when it comes to helmets not everybody can afford an Arai, a Shoei or a Schuberth; especially so if they're looking to upgrade their suit and other bits at the same time. Now, for us, there is a threshold. We are not going to start offering helmets from the likes of LS2, Caberg, MT and Airoh, but we do feel we need to have a small range of helmets that sit, perhaps, a rung below Shoei et al.. It's why we are going to be enlarging our selection of Nolans, Sharks and Scorpions in the coming months. As ever, we're not just going to throw the complete ranges up on the site indiscriminately. We'll pick only the particular models we rate, and that we think will fill a gap in our offering.

Truth be told, we have long been after a good-quality, flip helmet that we felt we could, hand on heart, recommend to customers if the Neotec and C5 were a little too punchy on the price front. We think Nolan's N100 is potentially just such a helmet, although we won't be offering the cheaper Nolan N90, because we think it simply represents too many compromises.

So what we are going to do here is talk in some depth about the N100. Now it's not really, in any meaningful sense, a competitor to the Shoei, but in that the Neotec is the benchmark in this category we are inevitably going to be measuring the Nolan against the Japanese helmet.

The Nolan N100-6. And how it stacks up

The first thing to say is that the Nolan has a shell made from Lexan. Now Lexan is a brand name for a type of polycarbonate, although we are told that it's a very superior one! In turn, of course, polycarbonate is just a fancy name for plastic.

Polycarbonate shells often perform well under impact testing, because they are softer, and so tend to absorb energy very effectively. But this softness is less beneficial when it comes to multiple impacts, which don't form part of ECE. Such shells also tend to deform in an impact, meaning they don't 'glance off' in the way that, say, an Arai does. What needs to be understood is that, even though all helmets have to meet ECE 22-06, that doesn't mean that they are all equally protective. They are not. Far from it!

Whilst doing my research, I watched one YouTube review where it was suggested that polycarbonate helmets had to be swapped out more regularly than composite ones. Three years rather than five, it was suggested. This is made-up nonsense. The N100-6 comes with a five year warranty, and will last as long as a composite helmet.

In terms of weight, there's not much difference between the plastic Nolan and the composite Shoei. In Medium, the Nolan, at 1800g, was 50g. heavier. So no difference really.

Obviously, the distinguishing feature of the Nolan is its lift-up chin bar. But the mechanism for raising the visor moves in an elliptical fashion, meaning that when raised the chin bar sits closer to the shell than the chin bar does on the Shoei, for example. And this is impressive. It makes for a more streamlined profile, but I cannot say that this makes much of a difference for us because, as far as we're concerned, one doesn't ride at speed with the chin bar up. These are not open-face helmets. In our view, you raise the chin bar only when travelling at very low speeds, or when you're stationary.

The chin bar release mechanism requires a pinching action to operate, but we can't see a problem with that. It seems to work fine. It's a tad fiddly, but it wouldn't take long to get used to. There's a locking mechanism for the chin bar, as is required under ECE 22-06.

The visor is scratch resistant, but it's not Class 1 optical quality. Nor is the sun visor. The detente mechanism for the outer visor is not bad. You get four distinct positions, but the lowest leaves the visor too high to be considered a 'crack' position. The sun visor has five lock-in positions, and a very clever spring release mechanism that sends it flying up into the shell when you don't need it. There's a neat, quite discreet catch for locking the visor closed; and we think it works really well.

The helmet comes with a dark visor in the box, but we don't see a point in having a second, darker visor with a touring helmet like this that's equipped with a sun visor. You are never going to look 'bad-ass' in a flip helmet, so personally we think the drop-down sun visor should be enough.

But there's another issue here if you do decide to wear a dark visor, and carry the clear one with you. The mechanism for removing and replacing the visor is not straightforward. In fact, it's darned tricky.

The helmet comes with a Pinlock; and that's important because the helmet is quite well sealed underneath, and fogging could be an issue. Sadly, it looks to be a Pinlock 70, and not a 120; and that is less impressive.

The venting itself is acceptable, but nothing to write home about. A single vent on the chin, and a one-position vent on the brow. At the back of the helmet there's a permanently-open exhaust vent.

The interior is comfortable, without being luxurious. There is a system for adjusting how high or low the helmet sits on your forehead. But you can do nothing to change the dimensions of the headliner, or its shape. And although the cheekpads can be removed for washing, you cannot change the thickness of the padding in and around the cheeks.

Now the fit is quite oval. It's actually pretty similar to the fit on the Neotec, but therein lies the issue. The fit won't work for some people. And if it doesn't work there's nothing to be done about it. You can't get different cheekpads and headliners as you can for the Neotec. And of course Nolan doesn't offer anything like Shoei's computerised, Personal Fitting System. So if, when you put the N100 on, you feel any kind of pressure on the sides of your head, move on; this is not the helmet for you. It's the wrong shape. And very rarely would you be able to solve the problem by going up a size. That just risks the helmet being too loose, front to back.

One thing we do like about the helmet is the neck roll. Now clearly the folk at Nolan looked at the Neotec before they put the N100 into production. It's widely accepted that the Neotec is the quietest helmet on the market, and what Nolan will have worked out is that the neck flap that seals the helmet around the rider's neck on a Neotec has a large part to play here. And so they have basically copied it. Ditto the chin curtain.

So will this make the Nolan as quiet as the Shoei? The answer is 'no', because Shoei has put a huge amount of effort into addressing all those other areas where noise was a factor. Nolan will not have been so rigorous. But I think we can still predict that the Nolan will be a pretty quiet helmet. Just not, perhaps, the quietest!

The chin strap is adjustable from one side only, and fastens by means of a ratchet mechanism. The mechanism, I have to say, feels a bit flimsy. It works, but it doesn't make that VW Golf door clunk sound that leads one to believe that the engineers have laboured over its design.

Again in one of the reviews I watched on the N100, the videographer suggested that he had noticed that, as with all new 22-06 helmets, the chin strap had moved rearwards a little. Well, this isn't the case. What he was noticing here was the fact that, because the chin piece on a flip is not fixed, the strap on all flip helmets sits further back. And indeed this can be an issue, especially for those with prominent Adam's apples. If the strap on a flip helmet is uncomfortable, you may need to accept that a flip is not the helmet for you. We come across this quite a lot in the shop. You may, of course, find that another brand may overcome the problem.

Nolan comms.

Now comms. and flip lids tend to go hand in hand; and that's probably because, as flip-helmets are quieter, comms. work better in them. And indeed integrated comms. are very much part of the proposition both with the Neotec 3 and the C5.

And so, on one level, it's good to see that Nolan too has developed an integrated comms. solution. The problem is that some of the the technology is a bit below parr, and somewhat behind the time.

Nolan offers three different levels of comms., all powered by Sena. The M951 series is Mesh only. The B902 series is Bluetooth only. The B602 series is aimed at those who only want rider to pillion communications.

The Mesh-only system is based on Sena's own Spider unit and, to be fair, that it is pretty much up to date. But the speakers, whilst still 40 mm, are not HD like the ones in Sena's own Spider series; and this speaks, in our view, of cloth cutting.

The Nolan Bluetooth system is based the Sena 10S series; and that's pretty ancient, given that we've now moved through the 20 series, the 30 series, the 50 series, to the most recent 60 series.

The rider to pillion system is actually based on the 5 series, which in truth is fine because the demands upon it are going to be pretty rudimentary.

The control unit that clips into the shell, it has to be said, feels less than properly robust.

But this is where we get to.

Nolan's comms.' offering is not state of the art. Their units tick most of the boxes, although there's no unit that offers Bluetooth and Mesh. But the technology in the units fitted into Shoei and Schuberth helmets is much more advanced.

And so if comms. are important to you, if you want the greatest talk distances, the longest talk times, all the latest trickery and the best quality sound, you should maybe look at the Japanese and the German brands. And specifically the latter if you want Cardo.

In normal circumstance, we might recommend going for a low-profile, Sena-powered 'stick-on' unit from UCOM. It would have to be a 'stick-on' one because a clamp won't work on the Nolan. But the problem here is that, given the curvature of the helmet's shell, there's almost no surface that's flat enough to deliver the necessary purchase.

In summary

The N100-6 is not a Neotec. And it's not a Schuberth.

It's made from cheaper materials, and pretty much everywhere you can see why and how the Shoei is better. But the difference in cost is significant. In white, the N100-6 costs £320. The Neotec costs £600. Almost double!

The Neotec is unequivocally a better helmet in just about every respect, but many bikers out there don't need what the Shoei offers that the Nolan doesn't.

If most of your daily driving involves pottering around town, you don't need a Range Rover. A Hyundai, a Fiat or a Citroen will be more than up to the job. The Range Rover would be wasted.

But if you're somebody who does big miles in all weathers, then you might feel the extra investment in something more capable would be worthwhile.

No two ways about it, though, the Nolan offers excellent value for money. If your budget won't stretch to a Shoei, and if you don't really need what a Shoei offers, the Nolan is not to be sniffed at! It's a great package.

You can buy a Nolan N100-6 helmet with free next day UK delivery online, or visit our store in Guildford to try one on.