Caberg Droid review – one of the best protecting flip-front helmets around.

It’s pretty easy to see why Caberg called their new modular helmet the Droid: with it’s modern, angular design, it could’ve come straight off a Lucas Arts set.

But, if you take a look at the spec sheet below, there’s more to this helmet than it’s cool looks.

Sure, it’s a polycarbonate flip-up helmet, which might put you off a bit because polycarb helmets are generally cheaper helmets. But in the case of the Droid, it just means it’s on sale at a very affordable price point but also has a few features that’re more usually associated with more expensive helmets.

Caberg say the droid is 100% made in Italy, and it’s dual homologated and includes a Pinlock Max Vision anti-fog insert in the box. Which is always great to see.

So, if you’re in the market for a new modular helmet, here’s our full review covering what the Caberg Droid offers and how well it performs in the real world, taken from owner comments from around the web.

• Polycarbonate modular helmet
• Weighs 1.55Kg (light for a modular)
• Sun visor
• Eu ECE 22-05 certified (not DOT certified for US)
• SHARP 4 star safety rated
• Pinlock Max vision insert included
• Micrometric fastener
• Caberg Just Speak bluetooth ready
• Sizes XS-XL
• Expect to pay around £200-£250
  

Best places to buy a Caberg Horus?

Please click below to visit the Caberg Horus helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

Overall/Summary

The Caberg Droid is a real contender. It’s not expensive and with features like dual homologation, Pinlock, quick release visor – not to mention that excellent SHARP 4 star safety rating (and 100% chin guard!), we say if you’re in the market for a reasonably-priced flip-up helmet, you should definitely take a look at a Droid.

OK, it’s not the best venting helmet in the world – and it is noisy. But owners say it feels really well built and is a particularly comfortable helmet. Plus the visor system – that includes a Pinlock Max Vision antifog insert – works really well. That includes the integral sun visor that most owners find very useful.

Overall, the Caberg Droid is a great helmet that’s well liked by owners and is excellent value for money. Highly recommended.

Having said that, there’s some cracking alternatives out there too (see our alternatives section at the bottom of the page).

Safety

If you’re a regular reader of our reviews, you’ll know that Caberg historically do incredibly well on safety.

They’re consistently in the top 10 of our safest crash helmets brands because their helmets have scored an average of 4.6 out of 5 across all their helmets tested by SHARP, the UK safety helmet testing people.

That’s an amazing score and better than many of the premium brands.

As for their modular helmets, their movable chin guards score pretty well for staying locked and closed during those tests too – not as good as our top scorer, Nolan, who’ve scored 100% to date. But Caberg have an average score of their modular’s chin guards staying closed and locked in 89% of impacts, which is still very good.

Well the good news with the Caberg Droid is that when SHARP got hold of it, they awarded it four stars (max five) for safety – and that chin guard stayed firmly locked and closed during every single test!

That’s an excellent result and puts the Caberg Droid up there among the safest (SHARP tested) modular helmets you can buy!

The Droid is also also dual-homologated. That’s an ECE 22-05 European thing meaning it’s legal to be used both with the chin down (as you’d expect) but also with the chin bar up. Push the chin bar all the way up and there’s a locking slider that you can use to lock the chin guard up in place so it doesn’t accidentally come down while you’re riding.

But if you buy a Droid, it’s great to know you’re riding in one of the safest modulars on the market.

Helmet Noise

If you’re after a quiet helmet, the advice is to stay away from a modular as they’re broadly quite a bit noisier than a full face helmet.

Of course, stick in a decent pair of plugs and you’ll be fine wearing a modular, but if a low noise helmet is a priority, then you’re best going for one of these helmets which owners universally say are quiet.

Back to the Caberg Droid, and owners generally rate it as a noisy helmet. A couple of riders, who’ve obviously come to the Droid via open face helmets or tend to ride slowly commuting, reckon it’s nice and quiet. Which just goes to show how subjective helmet noise is.

But if you’re used to full face helmets, you’ll probably find it a noisy lid. And it’s even quite noisy if you’re coming at it from another modular helmet. It’ll probably be fine if you stick in a decent pair of ear plugs, but helmet noise is the single biggest bugbear mentioned by Droid owners.

Ventilation

Looking at the Droid, you’d think it’s got ventilation covered.

Those two round ‘turbine-style’ chin vents take air to the rear of the chin bar and onto the back of the visor.

The top vent is closeable too and routes air through the helmet shell and around the scalp using channels cut into the helmet liner.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any rear exhausts to help air flow through the helmet, and that gives you the first hint about how well the Droid vents.

The best comments we found say that venting’s okay – not great but adequate. The chin bar vents do pull some air onto the visor but a few owners reckoned that you can’t really feel air coming through the vents.

Which is not the end of the world, because many flip-front helmet owners don’t mind a bit of bimbling along with the chin bar up, and that’ll keep you properly cool. Just don’t expect the Droid to keep you really cool in the summer with the helmet in full face mode, because it probably won’t.

Thankfully, because there’s a Pinlock Max Vision included in the box, you don’t need to rely on air being pushed onto the back of the visor to keep it fog free.

Visor

The visor on the Caberg Droid works on a ratchet and it comes with a Pinlock Max Vision anti-fog insert in the box. That’s their largest size of Pinlock which covers most of the inside of the visor and will sort out all but the most extreme visor-fogging problems.

It’s also quick-release to help with cleaning. Just open the visor with the chin bar down and pull the lever at either side of the visor pivot to pop the visor out.

There’s a visor-opening tab on either side of the visor too. That’s really handy for opening the visor while you’re riding, or opening with your right hand when you’re stopped.

We’ve not heard of any problems with the Droid’s visor at all so it sounds like they’ve got everything sorted here.

Sun Visor

As usual with most Cabergs, the sun visor is operated with a slider right on the crown of the helmet.

It feels like a bit of a weird position at first, but allows more direct routing of the sun visor controller than at the side of the helmet – plus you get used to it after a while.

According to Droid owners, the sun visor’s easy to flip down, though a couple of people complained that it could do with dropping down a bit lower (a common complaint with many sun visors).

Also, we found a couple of owners saying it sometimes doesn’t quite retract fully, leaving a centimetre of sun visor sticking down at the top, which can be distracting (see video below to see what it looks like).

Other than that, most owners seem very happy with how the sun visor operates and find it a really useful addition.

Chin Guard

The chin guard is opened by a single button at the bottom. The guard is raised until it hits the guard-stopper at the top of the helmet at which point the P/J slider can be used to lock the guard in place so you can ride in open face mode.

That’s well worth having if you think you’ll ride in jet mode much of the time – the last thing you want is your chin guard accidentally dropping down while you’re riding!

If riding with the guard up is something you want, we recommend buying a modular that’s dual-homologated as that means it’s safer and legal to ride with your helmet in open-face config. Click the link above for a look at all the dual homologated lids we’ve reviewed or previewed.

Conversely, if you do have an accident while riding with your helmet in full face mode, you want to be pretty sure the chin guard’s gonna stay locked and closed.

Thankfully, that’s something that SHARP test for with modulars and when they tested the Caberg Droid, the chin bar stayed locked and closed 100% of the time – making it one of the select few flip-front helmets where you should be able rely on the chin guard to give a decent amount of protection.

Droid owners seem happy with how the chin bar on the Droid works. Several owners said it closes and locks with a nice positive ‘clunk’ which helps them know it’s full locked and is reassuring.

They also reckon it feels like it’s a good quality chin bar and most find it reasonably easy to find the opening button, even in gloves.

It’s worth mentioning that you’ll have to open the chin bar up before putting the helmet on as it seems quite a few people who bought a Droid were surprised they couldn’t put it on while in full face mode.

Comfort & Sizing

The internals of the Droid are removable and washable, moisture-wicking and hypoallergenic.

There’s also glasses grooves cut in the sides to stop the stems of glasses digging in while riding – and while a couple of owners comment that the glasses groove doesn’t work as well as they’d hoped, other said they work fine. So I guess it’ll be a bit of a ‘suck it and see’ with your own glasses.

Caberg have designed the Droid to work with their Just Speak bluetooth communicator so that’ll mean speaker pockets plus space for your microphone to sit in too.

And if you’re looking for a helmet to fit your own bluetooth headset, we found several owners who said fitting their kits was easy – with plenty of space for speakers and mic.

Overall, sizing seems to be true, so use our fitment guide to work out how to measure your bonce and order the correct size. Oh, as always, buy from a retailer who accepts no-quibble returns in case it doesn’t fit quite right – like one of our recommended retailers using the links below.

But if you get the right size, Droid owners overwhelmingly say it’s a lovely, comfortable helmet.

The Droid will come with a chin curtain in the box and has a micrometric fastener.

Looks & Graphics

At the time of writing, there’s a matt black/white version of the droid – called Metal black or white, and a classy gun metal matt version. They also do a hi-viz green version called Hi Vizion. Aside from those plain colours, there’s three colour schemes using the Blaze design. They’re all shown on this page.

If you’re looking to buy a Droid, feel free to click through to the Caberg Droid helmets pages of our trusted retailers below to see any new designs and get the latest prices for the Droid. Click here to find out more about our recommended retailers and why you should trust your hard earned money with them.

Best places to buy a Caberg Horus?

Please click below to visit the Caberg Horus helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

Caberg Droid Video

Here’s a 10m look around the Caberg Droid.

Other stuff – fasteners, weight, warranty

The Droid comes with a micrometric fastener. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re really easy to use and safe as houses.

It weighs around 1.55Kg (+ or – 50g depending on size) which is surprisingly light for a polycarbonate modular.

Finally, warranty. Caberg only give a one year warranty on all their helmets. Which isn’t great because lots of makers now give a five year warranty which covers their helmets up to the point at which most makers agree it’ll need renewing. Come on Caberg, time to up the length of your warranty!

Overall/Summary

The Caberg Droid is a real contender. It’s not expensive and with features like dual homologation, Pinlock, quick release visor – not to mention that excellent SHARP 4 star safety rating (and 100% chin guard!), we say if you’re in the market for a reasonably-priced flip-up helmet, you should definitely take a look at a Droid.

OK, it’s not the best venting helmet in the world – and it is noisy. But owners say it feels really well built and is a particularly comfortable helmet. Plus the visor system – that includes a Pinlock Max Vision antifog insert – works really well. That includes the integral sun visor that most owners find very useful.

Overall, the Caberg Droid is a great helmet that’s well liked by owners and is excellent value for money. Highly recommended.

Having said that, there’s some cracking alternatives out there too (see our alternatives section at the bottom of the page).

Alternatives to the Caberg Droid?

We’d say have a look at the HJC IS-Max II – that’s SHARP 4 star rated with most of the features of the Droid but for less money – same goes for the AGV Compact and the Lazer Paname which are both 4 star safety rated with sun visors too.

Going up the price scale from the Caberg Droid, there’s the X-Lite X-1003 – SHARP 4 star, 100% chin guard locked, Pinlock, a wee bit heavier than the Droid and a bit more expensive too.

And if we’re looking at modular helmets then we’ve got to include a Shark – in this case the 4 star Shark Evo One 2 with its chin guard that rotates to the back of the head – it’s dual homologated too and includes a Pinlock Max Vision.

And of course, there’s the hugely well rated duo of the Caberg Duke and Tourmax – they’re both cheaper than the Droid and both are SHARP 5 star safety rated (that’s the maximum!) though the Tourmax is more a dual-sports style modular and a bit heavier.

Best places to buy a Caberg Horus?

Please click below to visit the Caberg Horus helmets pages at our recommended stores. And if you buy from one, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you – a massive THANKS! (it’s how we finance the site).

Crash Helmet Buying Guides & Top 10s

For (hopefully!) other useful information to help you when buying your next helmet, check our various Motorcycle Helmet Buying Guides - or have a look at our Top 10 best helmet lists where we've got the top 10 best rated helmets overall along with Top 10 Best Budget/Top 10 Safest/Top 10 Best Full Face/Top 10 Best Modular/Flip-up/ Top 10 Best Sportsbike/Track helmets.

Definitely want a Caberg?

Here you'll find all our Caberg crash helmet reviews and previews including full face, flip-up and open face helmets.