The 10 Best Adventure Motorcycle Helmets

Welcome to the Top 10 Best Adventure Bike Helmets Guide of 2023. You’ll find info, features, pros, cons and links to the best adventure motorcycle helmets on the market as well as handy helmet buying advice.

Motorcycle Helmet in Cappadocia, Turkey
Sporting the Schuberth E1 adventure helmet while overlooking Cappadocia, Turkey.

Contents

Adventure Bike Helmets

You know the drill… your helmet is the most important bit of protective motorcycle gear you can buy because your brain is priceless. So, picking the right helmet for the job, making sure it fits, is comfortable and safe are incredibly important. 

We’ll explain the different types of lids you can go for, offer further reading, discuss adventure bike helmets and then get to our top ten. This article will be updated yearly to reflect the best helmets on the market. Let’s get to it!   

The different types of motorcycle helmets

You don’t have to go for an adventure bike helmet, you can use whatever type of motorcycle helmet for adventure bike travelling you like. Popular options include road helmets, touring helmets, enduro helmets, open face and flip-front modular helmets.

If you’re interested in any of the above and want to know more about their pros and cons, then check out the helmet section in comprehensive guide Choosing your adventure bike riding gear – it also includes our top tips for buying a motorcycle helmet. And if you’re looking for a more road focused helmet, then take a look at our touring helmets guide too. 

READ MORE:

Why adventure bike helmets?

But for this article, we’re specifically looking at the best adventure bike helmets on the market today. We’re concentrating on adventure motorcycle helmets because they’re an excellent blend of road and off-road helmets with wider view openings, peaks, more ventilation and extra features all geared towards dual-purpose riding. They’re the best of both worlds, perfect for long distance motorcycle travel and adventure riders. Here’s the 10 best adventure bike helmets on the market today.

The 10 Best Adventure Motorcycle Helmets of 2023

Klim Krios Karbon Adventure Helmet

The Klim Krios is a full face, peaked adventure helmet with a visor. It’s made from carbon fibre and Klim claim that the Krios is the lightest adventure helmet ever made. You can switch the Krios between street (remove the peak), adventure (use the peak and the visor) and off-road (leave the peak, remove the visor and use goggles instead).

Shoei Hornet ADV Helmet

The Shoei Hornet comes with three vents (chin, forehead and rear exhausts). The visor and peak are both removable (although not as quickly removable as its competitors), however, the peak is not adjustable but still works brilliantly regardless. The helmet’s interior is plush and all day comfortable and the helmet sits on the lighter end of this list.

Arai Tour X4 Helmet

The Arai Tour X4 is the daddy of adventure bike helmets. It’s well known, has been around for a long time and hugely popular. The Tour X4 comes with a new, tougher outer shell, a five-year warranty and Arai premium quality.

The peak and visor are both removable (although time consuming and not as easy as the competition) and the X4 is goggle friendly. There are three vents in the chin, two for the forehead and two scoops on the top and exhausts at the rear.

AGV AX-9 (replaced AGV AX-8) Helmet

The AGV AX-9, which replaced the AX-8 Dual Evo, is a carbon fibreglass lid with a super wide visor opening. It comes with a pin-lock anti-fog insert included and both the visor and peak can be removed. As with most of the helmets in this list, the AGV has a removable and washable interior. The AX-9, like the Klim Krios, is also an extremely light helmet and feels more like a motocross lid when compared to its competition. The chin bar is far more pronounced too allowing for way more air circulation.

LS2 Pioneer Helmet

LS2 say that their Pioneer helmet was originally made for professional enduro and off-roading and this version is for road users. The visor can be removed and it is also goggle friendly with the visor left on if needed. The LS2 Pioneer comes with plenty of vents and exhausts but only the chinbar can be closed. Overall, the LS2 is a fantastic entry level adventure motorcycle helmet.

Bell MX-9 Adventure Helmet

The Bell MX-9 is an entry level adventure bike helmet that comes with a five-year warranty. The peak and visor are both removable, which makes for street, adventure or off-road use. It has what you’d expect: a moisture wicking, removable washable liner and chin, forehead and rear vents.

NEXX X.WED 2 Helmet

The X.WED helmet from Nexx is a mid-range adventure motorcycle helmet. It has a three-position upper vent, dual side intakes and a large chin intake. The Nexx is packed with features for a middle-weight lid. The peak and visor are removable and while the visor opening can take goggles, it’s not as wide a fit as some of the competition.

Schuberth E1 Helmet

The Schuberth E1 is the adventure version of the Schuberth C3 Pro road going helmet. Just like the C3, the E1 is a modular flip-front helmet. The front face is lifted using an easy to reach button under the front chin. It has an easily removable peak and sun visor and an internal sun visor. There’s a large chin vent, visor vent and vent on the top of the head but no rear exhaust ports. The visor opening is just about wide enough to take a pair of small goggles. The E1 sits further towards the touring than off-roading side of lids, but is still an excellent choice. If you’re interested in the E1, check out our Schuberth E1 45,000-mile review.

The E1 has now been replaced by the Schuberth E2. We are currently riding with the new E2 and will update this article and add a review soon. 

Nolan N70-2 X Helmet

The Nolan N70-2 is the latest addition to this list. We decided to add this new lid in because of its versatility. The chin bar can be completely removed to make it a jet helmet. You can also remove the peak and visor so it can be worn as an everyday helmet without the peak or as an off-road helmet with the peak and a pair of goggles. So, it can be worn in multiple configurations. It’s a stylish lid and comes in nine different colour options and is also prepared for Nolan’s N-com intercom system.

The Best Adventure Bike Helmet Winners

The Best Budget Adventure Motorcycle Helmet:

Bell MX-9

5/5

The Bell MX-9 is one of the cheapest helmets in this list, but it still packs a punch. It has a five-year warranty, removable peak and visor, moisture wicking material, removable and washable liner, decent vents and it comes in three shell sizes for a good fit. That’s very good value for money. 

The Best Long Distance Motorcycle Helmet: 

Schuberth E1 

5/5

The Schuberth E1 takes the win here because it’s a brilliant modular helmet which takes its roots from the super comfortable C3 touring lid. The E1 is built ready for intercom and Bluetooth, has an internal visor, plush interior padding, very easy to remove and wash pinlock visor and can be worn easily in multiple configurations. When travelling long-distance and in foreign lands, a flip-up makes a world of difference too.

The Best Off-Road Focused Adventure Helmet:

Klim Krios

5/5

Made from carbon fibre, ultra light weight, packed with ventilation and specifically geared towards the more hard core adventure bike rider – no wonder the Klim Krios takes this win. The only thing letting this helmet down is the lack of an internal drop down sun visor, but to make up for it, it does come with both a clear and tinted visor.

Read more on Motorcycle Kit and Gear

Thanks for checking out our 10 Best Adventure Bike Helmet Guide Guide. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more articles on adventure bike kit that we recommend you read next. 

ps. We may receive a small commission, at absolutely no cost to you, if you purchase any products using the links on this page. We’re not sponsored by anyone, are completely impartial and don’t run ads. So this helps us keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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Let us know what you think of this Top 10 Adventure Bike Helmet Guide in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you if you ride with any of these helmets or reckon we’ve missed a great helmet. 

4 thoughts on “The 10 Best Adventure Motorcycle Helmets”

    • Hey Alex, will look into it!
      But in the meantime, why do you think it should be added to this list?
      Cheers,
      Andy

      Reply
  1. Hi Andy,
    I‘m currently in the process of researching, to replace all my old ADV.-Enduro gear and I discovered online, that the AIROH Commander is probably one of the best new mid-range ADV helmets out there, packed with features. I haven‘t try it out myself yet, I plan to do so within the week.

    It‘s not just this one though, I discovered a few more helmets that should be in this list, to be considered being some of the best.

    Cheers,
    Alex

    Reply
    • Hi Alex,
      Interesting! We are due an update on this page as we update all the gear articles once a year as new kit comes out. So will look into the Airohi and all the new contenders on the market.
      We’ve just upgraded our helmets as well to the Schuberth E2.
      Good luck with your helmet and gear search.
      Cheers,
      Andy

      Reply

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