Axxis Wolf DS

Tested by Jonathon Schofield | £149.99 | www.axxis-helmets.com

It was with a small amount of trepidation that I took delivery of this new lid from Axxis. I have never worn an Adventure-style dual-sport crash helmet and straightaway a few things caught my eye. Now, it’s not like I have never seen one. I don’t live under a bridge you know, but to actually have one in my hand was different to seeing someone else in pictures! First off was the size of the visor aperture. It was akin to a pair of French doors compared to what I have been used to, and the visor is scratch-resistant optical polycarbonate. And the distance between my chin and the front of the helmet was considerably more than I had expected. First time putting the helmet on, I found it more than a touch snug past the old lugholes, but once my bonce was enveloped it was very comfortable. The first surprise was the space around my ears once in. Loads of room to fit my old Sena 10C's speakers. Was this going to mean that the helmet would be noisy, though? Again, the first time removing the helmet I believed that the God of Ears wanted mine as a sacrifice! That was until I realised that there was just enough give in the shell, allowing me to keep them for the time being. Phew. So far so good. With the inbuilt sun visor, I found that the fitting of the Sena was a little trickier than my previous Arai as the slider to deploy said sun visor is on the left just where the mount would go, so for the first time I have fixed a sticky mount rather than the clamp plate.

The amount of unrestricted visibility was almost enough to make me fall in love straight away. But what about the wind noise? Well, yes, it is more noticeable than the last two sportsbike helmets that I have owned. Mainly down to the reduced amount of internal sound deadening/padding compared to what I have been wearing (not quite as much hamster cheeks), but with that said there is a good amount and the helmet for my head shape is very comfortable, and I don’t know that many riders who don’t wear some sort of ear protection such as plugs or custom made. When at speed there is a little more resistance (obviously with a bloody great peak you idiot) and when looking about for oncoming tractors, etc., you can feel that peak. The chin skirt that comes as standard helps to cut down on a breeze whipping up and the vents do a good job of keeping the visor clear, but once I dropped below 30mph, I soon found that I needed to crack the bottom of the visor open to stop misting up. The visor is Pinlock and Mist/Off ready and I am waiting for mine to arrive, which will fix that issue straightaway.

So, first impressions of this 1550-gram helmet are positive. A neck tube to help smooth the flow of ears in and out and when it arrives a PinLock to stop misting up and I will have no issue picking this up on a regular basis. I may have a new favourite.