Nexx X.Vilitur modular motorcycle crash helmet review.
The X.Vilitur is the first modular helmet made by composite fibre helmet maestros, Nexx.
Like most of the lids made by the Portugese helmet maker, it’s got that distinctive Nexx look – lots of folds and angles running across the helmet shell that give it the Nexx vibe while also helping with structural strength.
They’ve designed the X.Vilitur to work as a safe and stylish touring helmet. They also say they’ve optimised aero and added in quite a few sound-insulating features to make it a comfortable and quiet helmet.
And they’ve made the visor mechanism so it’s nice and wide and integrated the Nexx N-com bluetooth unit in there.
So, if you’re after a touring lid with integrated bluetooth, then the Nexx X.Vilitur might be right up your street.
- Modular touring helmet
- Composite fibre shell
- Dual homologated
- Drop down sun visor
- Pinlock-ready visor
- Micrometric fastener
- Nexx X-Com 2 bluetooth headset integration
- Mounts for action cameras
- Sizes XS-XXXL
- Expect to pay £370-£499
Best places to buy a Nexx X.Vilitur?
Please click below to visit the Nexx X.Vilitur 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
Nexx has produced a good quality touring helmet that’s a nice modern design.
It’s useful that the X.Vilitur has been dual homologated too, because that means you can ride legally with the chin bar up, which not all modulars can.
There’s a quality visor system on the X.Vilitur that includes an optically correct main visor with nice strong detents that’s Pinlock ready (sadly no Pinlock insert included – that’ll be another £40) and it’s backed up with a UV protecting sun visor.
Nexx has designed the X.Vilitur to be a quiet modular, and so far it seems they’ve done OK. So too the ventilation: it’s a standard setup but should give enough venting for all but the most extremes of heat.
So far, it looks like Nexx has made a nicely designed, modern looking touring helmet that retails at a decent mid level price point and has a range of useful features for touring riders.
Safety
(more about helmet safety)
The Nexx X.Vilitur comes in two flavours – either a composite fibre or full carbon fibre version.
Nexx has heaps of experience with producing complex composites – it was one of their founding principles: to take advantage of composite materials to make strong and highly protective motorcycle helmets.
And the Nexx X.Vilitur uses their X-matrix 2 composite which combines six layers of fibreglass and organic fibres to produce a strong yet reasonably lightweight helmet.
Actually, if you’re after a particularly light weight modular helmet, the full carbon fibre X.Vilitur Carbon Zero helmet is the one to go for as that weighs around 1.55Kg which is light weight for a modular helmet (though still a tiny bit heavier than the average full face, non-modular helmet).
The composite fibre version is around 100g or so heavier (depending on size) which takes it towards the average weight for a modular.
Nexx has given the X.Vilitur a visor with good peripheral vision, which makes for a more enjoyable ride as well as being better for all-round general visibility and safety.
The visor is Pinlock ready but it doesn’t come with a Pinlock in the box. And there’s an integral drop down sun visor in there too.
Pinlocks and sun visors are great for safety (as well as comfort) but I think most folks would’ve liked to see a Pinlock insert included for this price (like many of the Pinlock helmets here). But looking on the bright side, if you do buy a X.Vilitur, at least you can invest in a Pinlock without having to buy a new visor.
Nexx has included a micrometric 2 metal ratchet fastener on the X.Vilitur, plus they’ve ensured all the chin bar locks are made from metal for added security.
They’ve also had the X.Vilitur dual homologated when it was certified by the ECE which means the chin bar locks open and you can ride with the bar up and still be legal.
So, all these features look good for making a helmet that gives you good protection. But how will it perform in an accident?
Truth is, we don’t really know. It’s been ECE tested/approved in Europe and it’s DOT certified if you buy one in the US.
SHARP has tested two composite fibre Nexx helmets to date, where they both scored three stars out of five. They’ve also tested one carbon fibre Nexx – that also scored three stars.
But the last Nexx helmet was tested in 2017 (at the time of writing) and they’ve never tested a Nexx modular – so I guess their score could go either way.
On paper, it looks like the X.Vilitur should work well and give decent protection. And should either SHARP (or Snell in the US) test it, we’ll let you know how well it does on this page.
Helmet Noise
(more about helmet noise)
From Nexx’s marketing bumf, it seems they’ve put quite a lot of effort into making a modular that’s a quiet and calm place to ride.
As you may (or may not) know, modular helmets tend to be noisier than your typical full face helmet.
So, Nexx has stuck in a generous neck roll to stop air and noise getting into the X.Vilitur from below.
And they say they’ve included some ‘vortex generators in the chin area’ – could be that sticky-out rubber gasket at the bottom, but I’m not entirely sure.
Also, they’ve used a double rubber gasket to tightly seal the visor to the helmet and stop noise getting in that way. And Nexx says they’ve also used anti-noise cheek pads – there’s no details but I guess that means they’re pretty thick so they stop noise getting to your ears?
Does it all work?
Well apparently opening vents can let in quite a bit of noise.
But if you ride with the visor and vents closed and, apart from the usual caveat that any rider’s opinion on helmet noise will depend on a million different factors (speed, bike, riding style, etc. etc.) owners seem to think it’s quite quiet for a modular – which probably makes it about average when compared to full face helmets.
Ventilation
(more about helmet ventilation)
The early word on ventilation is that the X.Vilitur vents a reasonable amount of air – enough to keep you cool on all but the hottest days, though not enough to keep your visor fog-free on colder days without a Pinlock (mind you, not many helmets will manage that).
Obviously, it’s a dual homologated modular helmet, so if you ever find yourself getting overheated, you can pull over, push up the chin bar, and you’ll get pretty much all the ventilation you can cope with.
There’s a forehead vent with a large, two position slider covering it. That’s easy to find and means you can fully or half open the vent. It lets air into the helmet and there’s some deep venting channels inside the internal EPS lining to let air circulate around your head.
A pair of closeable rear exhaust vents let the warm/moist air out of the back of the helmet.
In the chin bar, there’s a single central vent with a large tipper-panel covering it. Again, that’s easy to use and directs air onto the back of the visor to help with demisting.
It’s a bit early to have too many views on how well the venting works, but early opinion seems to be that upper helmet air flow is pretty good – not class leading but OK. Similarly, the chin venting is OK but if it’s cold, you’ll need the help of an antifog solution (like a Pinlock that isn’t included in the price).
Visor
(more about visors)
There’s a class 1 optically correct, Pinlock-ready visor up front, backed by a drop down sun visor.
That main visor is quick release for easy cleaning/swapping out and it’s got both left and right side opening tabs on there.
That’s a good thing and something that not enough helmet makers add in – as long as you’ve not gone electric, it makes it easier for the rest of us to open the visor when you come to a stop and you’re holding the clutch in.
Apparently there’s also a very positive-action ratchet visor on there – meaning each detent is very solid and you can ride with the visor at any position and it’ll stay there until you reach silly speeds.
A couple of useful links…
– All our sports touring helmets reviews –
– Looking for our safest modular helmets? –
That first position is a cracked-open city riding position too – great for getting a bit of air into the helmet while still keeping your face protected by the visor.
And while having a class one optically correct visor’s not massively essential, because all visors have to have a pretty minimal level of distortion otherwise they’ll not get ECE approved, it should mean that the visor’s particularly clear.
As mentioned, the visor’s Pinlock-ready (meaning it’s ready to accept a Pinlock’s Max Vision antifog insert) but there isn’t a Pinlock included for the buy price.
That’s a real shame because quite a few cheaper brands manage to squeeze one in for less money than the X.Vilitur costs – and we recommend that you invest in a Pinlock as they do go a long way to keeping things clear on the coolest, rainiest days.
Finally, Nexx has designed the visor to be particularly wide for good all-round vision. That’s always worth having as it helps with giving you better situational awareness and makes for a more pleasant ride.
All in all, Nexx seems to have made a pretty fully-featured visor system for the X.Vilitur…
Sun Visor
(more about sun visors)
…that includes the inclusion of a drop down sun visor.
It’s probably fair to say that no touring helmet worth its salt comes without a sun visor these days (sorry Arai!) and it’s good to see one included on the Nexx X.Vilitur.
It’s operated by that big slider behind the visor pivot and, besides making it easier to ride when things get bright, Nexx says it’ll cut out 99% of UV which is well worth having to protect your eye sight.
Don’t expect it to be massively dark though – legally they can’t be too tinted – but we’ve heard from owners who say it drops down nice and low and it’s pretty effective.
Chin Guard
(more about chin guards)
Obviously, one of the great things about any flip-up helmet is that you can push the chin bar up and out of the way.
And in the case of the Nexx X.Vilitur, if you do that, the chin bar will lock in place up and out of the way because it’s dual or P/J homologated – meaning it’s legal to ride with the chin bar up.
The chin bar’s operated by a single central button – push it in and the chin bar slides up easily. All the main locking elements are corrosion-protected metal which is always good to see.
Other than that, there’s not much more to say. We usually like to check SHARP data to see how strong and secure the chin bar lock is but since it hasn’t been tested, there’s no data to look at so we can’t be sure.
Surprisingly, it’s actually rare that the chin bars on modular helmets manage to go through all the SHARP tests without unlocking a few times. So to find the safest modulars, including a few that scored 100% for chin bar security, visit our smart filters pages and choose Safest and Flip-up helmets and you should be able to find them (or click this link 🙂)
Comfort and Sizing
(more about comfort and sizing)
The Nexx X.Vilitur is a medium oval fitment but with a nod towards longer head shapes. So it should fit most of us and if you have a slightly longer head a few riders reckon it might well fit you too.
Inside is a fully removable/washable comfort liner. Nexx calls it its X-Mart Dry liner – saying it dries out twice as fast as cotton, and that’s about all they say. It’s not a mega bold claim as I’m guessing lots of synthetics will probably dry out faster than cotton.
Still, it’s supposed to be a nice and comfy helmet with soft material – and they’ve usefully included glasses grooves in there so the stems of glasses should slot in without pushing into the head.
Behind those (noise cancelling) cheek pads, there are speaker pockets and there’s also some cut-aways for wiring which could be useful whether you’re fitting the integrated X-Com system Nexx sells or your own 3rd party headset.
Looks & Graphics
At the time of writing, there’s just the one full carbon X.vilitur – the Carbon Zero. Mind you, it’s a class act so who needs more than one?!?
If you want the composite fibre version, there are several plains and three different graphics to choose from. In plain colours there are several blacks, greys, a white and a blue.
In graphics, there’s the Hyper-X, Paradox and Latitude – most available in a multitude of colour combinations.
As always – please click through to our highly recommended partner stores below to find any deals or new designs that may have hit the shops since we last checked.
Best places to buy a Nexx X.Vilitur helmet?
Please click below to visit the Nexx X.Vilitur 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).
Nexx X.vilitur helmet Video
Here’s an 11m look around the Carbon Zero X.Vilitur.
Other stuff – fasteners, camera mounts, build quality, warranty
Nexx X.Viliturs come with a metal micrometric 2 fastener. Easy to use and secure – but make sure you regularly adjust them as the straps do stretch over time.
If you’re thinking of mounting a Go Pro or similar camera onto your helmet a) that’s probably not a great idea from a safety perspective and b) Nexx has included a couple camera mounts in the box with the X.Vilitur. There’s one that attaches to the top air vent and another to a side panel for a side mounted camera.
Again, doesn’t seem the best of ideas to mount a camera on your head (potential to compromise the shell and/or help rotate your head in an impact) – still, if you desperately want to mount one, Nexx has handily included them.
A few owners say the helmet feels well built with nice quality materials and a quality finish.
In Europe Nexx X.Viliturs come with a standard 2 year warranty that you can extend to 5 years if you register your helmet online with Nexx. That’s just about as long a warranty as you’ll get with any helmet.
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.
Good Alternatives to the Nexx X.Vilitur?
Here’s a selection of our best-reviewed modular helmets that you really should consider if you’re looking to buy a new flip-front helmet.
First up, how about the Shark Evo One 2 – it’s a SHARP 4 star safety rated modular where the chin bar flips over to the back of the helmet. It comes with a Pinlock in the box too for around the same price as the Nexx.
Also, you should consider the Caberg Duke II. It’s cheaper than both the Nexx and Shark but it comes with a Pinlock and it’s 5 star safety rated.
If you’re looking for something on the sportier side, the AGV Sport Modular will work better with a sportsbike. It’s a carbon fibre flip-up, has an optically correct, Pinlock visor and is a belter of a helmet – not cheap though.
Finally, there’s the X-Lite X-1004; a dual-homologated composite fibre flip-front lid that has a sun visor, is priced around the same as the Vilitur and is SHARP 4 star safety rated. Plus that chin bar scored an outstanding 100% in their safety tests. Well worth a look.
Other ways to find the Best Modular Helmet
If you're after a new modular/flip-up helmet, they've never been more popular and there's a ton of choice out there. You can find our latest top 10 modular helmets list here or check out all our modular helmet reviews here. You can also visit our Safest Modular Helmets page or our smart filters page where you can click the flip-up/modular check box then choose a few other features to find the best flip-up helmet for you.
Best places to buy a Nexx X.Vilitur?
Please click below to visit the Nexx X.Vilitur 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).
It’s also got a chin bar lock so you can lock it open when raised and there’s no possibility of it dropping down when you really don’t want it to – like when you emergency stop.
