Caberg Drift full face motorcycle helmet review

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What do owners think of their Caberg Drift crash helmet?

Note: The drift has now been replaced by the Drift Evo so you might want to check that out instead.

The Caberg Drift is a composite fibre full face helmet that’s designed to suit most riders – think sports/touring and you’ll not go far wrong.

So what makes the Caberg Drift different from all the other sports/touring helmets out there?

Well, the main selling point of the Drift is that you’re getting a composite helmet with a Pinlock anti-fog and drop down sun visor at an extremely reasonable price. I mean, really really reasonable. How does £210 for a tri-composite sound? Or £299 for a carbon fibre version? Thought so.

But price is far from the whole story. It’s gotta work well too.

The great news is it looks like Caberg have designed-in some very useful features that could well make it a really nice helmet to live with too.

  • Composite fibre full-face
  • Full carbon version also available
  • SHARP 3 star safety rated
  • 1.35Kg (3lbs) (lighter than average)
  • Drop down sun visor
  • Pinlock Max Vision anti-fog insert included
  • Size XS-XXL
  • Expect to pay £210-£230 (composite) £299 (carbon)

    caberg-drift-gloss-white-motorcycle-helmet-side-view
    Plain white version of the Drift

Best places to buy this Caberg?

Please click below to visit the Caberg 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).

Buy from SportsBikeShop

Safety

The shell of the Drift is made from a composite of  carbon, kevlar and fibreglass to make a helmet that should, on paper at least, be strong and light. And the scales bear this out – the Drift is around 1.35Kg for a medium size (the average weight across all full face helmets tested by SHARP is 1.48Kg).

That’s good for both helmet safety performance and comfort.

And if you want a Drift that’s even lighter, there’s the full carbon fibre drift that shaves a further 100g off the weight of the composite version (and looks pretty mean as well!). It’s only about £70 more too which is amazing value for a full carbon helmet.

caberg-drift-carbon-motorcycle-helmet-side-view
Full carbon version of the Drift – a real bargain

In the past, Caberg have produced some really safe helmets – in fact at the time of writing they’re our joint first place safest brand with their helmets scoring a massive 4.6/5 stars for safety across their tested range.

That said, most of their helmets tested to date by SHARP have been polycarbonate so their SHARP score isn’t massively useful when we’re talking about a composite fibre helmet.

In fact, the Drift is the first Caberg composite helmet that we’re aware of that’s been lab safety tested by SHARP. It scored three stars (out of a maximum 5) in their safety testing, dropping a couple of stars for average side impact protection.

If you’re after a helmet with a higher safety rating, you should click through to our Safest Crash Helmets pages where you’ll find all our SHARP 4 & 5 star rated helmets.

Of course, like all helmets in the EU, it’s been ECE 22-05 certified; and that’s no walk in the park. It’s a very comprehensive testing regime meaning the Drift should give at least an acceptable level of accident protection.

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Caberg Drift in Shadow black/red design.

One final note on the shell and safety is that the Drift’s only manufactured in one shell size. That’s not ideal for either fitting or safety – for those with smaller heads it may mean the helmet looks overly large on you and for those with larger heads, comfort and/or polystyrene lining will have to be reduced in thickness to compensate. Potentially, that’s not great.

Helmet Noise

Word is that the aero and padding on the Caberg Drift work pretty well and combine to make a helmet that’s slightly above average for helmet noise suppression.

Of the owners who mentioned helmet noise, three quarters thought it’s reasonably quiet, with one saying it gets noticeably noisy above 70 mph and another saying it’s noisier than average. One comment a couple of people said was that whether the vents are open or not doesn’t seem to make much difference to the noise levels – which is unusual (and welcome!).

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Classy looking Caberg Drift Armour

As usual, everyone’s perception of helmet noise is different and it’s dependent on lots of factors (type of bike, riding position, fairing, speed) so you’ll have to take any review’s findings with a pinch of salt.

Ventilation

Onto ventilation, and there’s a single chin vent and single crown vent to bring air into the helmet and a single rear exhaust vent to help remove it.

All three have a large slider covering them, and word is they’re nice and simple to use and are great for using in gloves. And while it doesn’t sound like the most comprehensive ventilation system in the world – indications are that it works well.

Owners reckon it pushes a decent amount of air onto the rear of the visor and the top vent channels a decent amount of air around the scalp.

Visor and Sun Visor

The main visor is quick-release and has a spring loading mechanism that’s designed to pull the visor onto the rubber seal and create a nice tight joint against wind and rain.

It’s also nice and large and has a potentially useful visor lock/opener just to the rear of the left-hand visor pivot. In one position it locks the visor; or flip it backwards and it’ll crack open the visor about half a centimetre for defogging.

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If you’re a fan of Tron, you’ll probably be a fan of the Drift Flux

I say it’s potentially useful because no-one mentioned they actually used it. And besides, most of us probably won’t really use the cracked-open position too much because if you need a bit of air, I suspect most of us will crack the visor open in the conventional way – i.e. open the visor a bit. And also because there’s a Pinlock Max Vision antifog insert included free with the Drift, that should see the visor being fog-free in all but the most extreme circumstances (i.e. think slamming down with rain in near-zero conditions and stopped at traffic lights!).

And even then you’ll usually be fine with a Max Vision in place.

The visor works on a ratchet (as opposed to friction alone) and has a couple of tabs on the bottom for opening with either left or right hands. That’s good.

Underneath the left visor pivot is another slider – this time for the drop down sun visor.

Word is that all’s well with the sun visor. It comes down nice and low and, while it can be prone to fogging, that’s not uncommon with sun visors. And because the sun visor slider works on friction, that means you can have the sun visor either fully-up or down or any position in between.

caberg-drift-white-motorbike-crash-helmet-rear-viewComfort and Sizing

Inside the Drift, you’ll find the usual removable/washable lining found in all but the most budget helmets these days. The drift’s lining is both removable/washable and hypoallergenic. It also comes with a neck roll to reduce turbulence and a chin curtain to reduce noise.

And owners overwhelmingly say that the Caberg Drift is a comfortable helmet. They reckon it feels light to wear, is a roughly neutral shape and, as long as you get the fit correct in the first place, should be all-day comfy. Sizing seems to be true, so if you don’t know what size you are or would like to double-check, just follow our fitting guide to find the right size for you.

Looks and Graphics

There’s a stinkload of graphics options available for the Drift. We’d say the most-eye catching are probably the raw carbon version (when are we gonna tire of carbon fibre!? It’s just timeless!) and of course the moody black versions.

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This one’s the red/white/blue Caberg Drift Tour

Of the rest, the Shadow Italia is pretty striking, as is the Armour and it’s subtle Union Jack design. And we’d have to give a nod to the excellent Drift Tour – which’d go very nicely with any non-Repsol Honda HRC Racing bikes out there!

Other than these, please check out our recommended retailer links below to see all the latest designs and deals for yourself.

Best places to buy this Caberg helmet?

Please click below to visit the Caberg 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).

Buy from SportsBikeShop

Caberg Drift Video

Here’s a short video looking at the Caberg Drift (a Drift Shadow orange/grey in fact) from those funsters over at WebBikeWorld. He can barely contain himself can he 😉

Other Stuff – fastener, communicators, build quality, warranty

The Drift comes with a double-d ring fastener – which are a little fiddly compared to micrometric fasteners but are nice and safe. If you’re buying in the UK for use on a track, it should come with an ACU gold sticker on the back too.

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Caberg Drift Shadow Italia

The Caberg Drift has been designed to work with a range of bluetooth sets. There’s fairly generous speaker and microphone pockets/spaces included, so hopefully it’ll fit a wide range of communicators – along with Caberg’s own Just Speak range.

If you’re thinking of buying one, it’s worth noting that Caberg helmets come with just a one year warranty against manufacturing defects. Many manufacturers offer a 5 year warranty these days so if you’re after a bit more protection on your purchase, click the link and check out one of those helmets.

Overall/Summary

The Caberg Drift looks to be a smashing helmet – it’s got a great spec with some quality and useful features – all for not very much money at all.

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Rear view of the Drift Shadow

It is of course ECE certified – meaning it’s been tested to European safety standard level – though it did drop a couple of stars when safety tested by SHARP. But owners reckon it’s a good helmet to live with that’s comfortable, reasonably quiet, has a good visor with Pinlock anti-fog, has great build quality and decent ventilation. In fact, there’s very little that owners seem to find fault with their Caberg Drifts. And it’s a great route to composite fibre or carbon fibre crash helmet ownership for not very much money. Well worth a look.

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.

Alternatives to the Caberg Drift

At this price point, there’s lots of great alternatives to the Drift.

Around the same weight and price is the X-Lite X-702, another composite fibre helmet but this one’s been tested by SHARP and rated a maximum 5 stars for safety.

Again around the same price as the Drift is AGVs K5 – another composite fibre crash helmet with a sun visor and this one is SHARP 4 star rated.

Finally, if you can afford another £150 on top of the price of the Drift, you’re into the territory of the more exclusive Schuberth SR1. It’s a little more track focused but this carbon composite helmet is SHARP 4 star rated and has great build quality (and of course there’s now the Schuberth SR2 to contend with).

Best places to buy this Caberg?

Please click below to visit the Caberg 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).

Buy from SportsBikeShop

Star Ratings

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Safety
Comfort
Noise
Features
Value
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caberg-drift-full-face-motorcycle-helmetAt this price, can you go wrong? For the money you get a great-looking composite (or carbon fibre) street helmet that gets well rated by owners. Good ventilation, comfort, Pinlock visor, sun visor, build quality - and decent noise suppression - the Drift's got it all. It dropped a couple of stars in the SHARP safety test but owners like it and say it's easy to live with as a daily lid. Well worth a serious look.

1 COMMENT

  1. I bought this helmet in October 2016 and now after 9 months of use, winter, spring, summer and track, I think that I can give an honest review. I was with Caberg helmets before, since two times they did a great job for the crashes.
    So to go back to Drift carbon and positive and negative stuff:
    + weight
    + lateral field of view great
    + double D
    + pinlock works well – no fogging even in the heavy rain and after 30 minutes in heavy traffic stop and go
    + acceptable noise. I drive Tuono which is a loud bike and no need to have earplugs all the time

    – System for slight opening of the visor not a progression. You can open it, but for me it is not enough if you want to use it as additional ventilation entry. When the lever is pulled you cannot open fully visor if you want to. You have to disengage lever it in order to open the visor. I had also Caberg Ego and old school one point crack “demist” opening is better in my opinion.
    – Quality of padding in retreat compared to Ego. Adding artificial leather on the bottom of the cheek pads was not a good idea. Cracked after 4 months of use.
    – When using just a sun visor with opened main visor there is a lot of wind coming from down directly to my eyes, so it becomes unbearable at higher speed (legal), which was not the case with Ego
    – I did track day on a hot day and all vents opened it was almost unbearable inside. I didn’t feel any improvement with all vents opened. As well, when you are tucked there is a poor vision on the upper part of the visor. So not bad for road ride, but deceiving for track.

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