A quick look at the Roof Desmo crash helmet

roof-desmo-fluo-noir-orange

I’m thinking of getting one of these myself (probably try one on at the next bike show). The Roof Desmo was designed to solve some of the ‘problems’ found with the Roof Boxer and the Boxer V8. Both these helmets are, of course, ace and iconic. But there’s always niggles and Roof reckon they’ve sorted them out with the Desmo…

The first niggle was that some folks moaned you couldn’t open the visor very easily. It needed a couple of pushes and pulls and that’s a pain when you’re riding along. The desmo takes just one hand and can be done in one movement. Niggle solved. Secondly, when the visor or chin guard was down, ventilation could be pretty poor.  So Roof uprated the air channels and vents on the Desmo, so cooling’s improved and misting reduced. That’s coupled with an anti-fog visor being provided as standard. Bang on.

roof desmo black crash helmet
Chin bar rotates to make an open faced helmet. Now that’s magic.

There’s also some thought gone into improving the mechanism of the visor. It seals better than before and when the chin guard’s pushed up, cunning things happen to the hinges and the visor moves closer to the face to give more protection. Nice.

The Roof Desmo is also dual-homologated which means it’s been ECE 22.05 tested and approved as being OK and safe to use with the chin guard up as an open-faced helmet as well as with the guard down as a full-faced helmet. That being said, we can’t be sure quite how well it performs as it’s not been SHARP tested yet – however, previously tested Roof crash helmets have scored either three or four stars out of five, so we’d guess it’ll probably perform pretty well in the tests and in an accident.

roof desmo black and red
sweet/cool/mean/funky etc.

 

That being said, it’s the look of a Roof helmet that’s going to sell it to you. If you want sensational performance from a modular, flip-up helmet, there’s a gazillion out there that perform as well or better. But there’s something about the Roof that’s stylish, funky and cool. They come in XS (54cm) to XXL (63cm) and cost about £300, if you can find a dealer as there aren’t that many about (sort it out Roof!) but well worth finding one out.

Update: I did buy one! Check out the full review here.

To check out reviews of other flip up helmets, check out our flip up crash helmet section.

 

Best place to buy this Roof crash helmet?

Please click below to visit the Roof helmets pages at our recommended stores - all highly rated for excellent service and keen prices. And if you buy from either, we get a small sum from the sale at no extra cost to you - a massive THANKS! (it's how we finance the site).

Buy Roof from Sportsbikeshop

Click above to drop onto their Roof helmets pages or *quick view retailer T&Cs here.

Definitely want a Roof?

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

1 COMMENT

  1. I have one of the first Desmos and its a great helmet , the newer ones have more room front to back which give you a bit more room from in between the chin bar and your face .Gorgeous bikes in London have been selling Roof,s for a long time and have all models and colours .I had to go a size up and i normally take a large .Just remember that the chinbar goes all the over to the back of the helmet and if you are using an internal mic for comms then this will be an issue.

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