I like BMW Motorrad safety helmets; having a big head I struggled to get helmets big enough to fit and getting a size 64 BMW System 5 years ago got me started. Since then I’ve had a System 6 and currently have a BMW Motorrad System 7.

One issue I had with the current helmet was a leak in heavy rain. This would typically happen on my commute home which has a short stretch of motorway in a Westerly direction. It’s also fairly open so would conspire to add a headwind to the rain that frequents Scotland all year round. At roughly the same stage in my short ride home it would start dripping inside the visor from roughly at the center. It would drop straight down without impeding vision and not splashing – I think it would just soak in to the fabric at the front closure of the flip front.

When it came to the end of the riding season I mentioned it to the local dealer and they told me there was now a kit to fix the issue, which was a combination of a new visor plus new surround. Unfortunately I was a few days out of warranty but the cost wasn’t that bad compared to the amount I had spent combined on the original helmet and getting the communications unit fitted. When I got the helmet back it had a brand new shiny visor which is much the same with a pinlock but it now has a little latch at front center which engages with a matching hook in the surround – to make closure more positive I guess.

With lockdown I am just back on the road and being a lovely sunny day to get out on the bike I haven’t ridden since the helmet got it’s change so I’m not in a position to comment whether the fixes have dealt with the problem. What I did do however is make the same mistake that I did when I invested in the BMW pinlock visor for my System 5. The new visor comes with a protective film on the pinlock (blue coloured) and I didn’t realise this properly until I was several miles up the road. Top tip, remove the protective film!