First, let’s get any confusion about pronunciation of the name out of the way; Think Alfred Hitchcock and not Michael Moore when you pronounce SYKO.

This is not going to be a full fledged helmet review as these are only demo helmets and not fully representative of DOT and SNELL specs. The red helmet (the Yakuza) was a DOT certified helmet but the blue helmet (the Comet) was certified to English standards (evident in that it had a quick release instead of a D-ring for the chinstrap).The Yakuza (red) was noticeably smaller (shell size) and lighter than either my old HJC (CL-14) and my newer KBC (VR-2). The Comet (blue) was even lighter than the Yakuza but was of course not certified in the USA.

Even still, I risked my USA head and wore the British helmet to work and back without any ill effects, nor did I start to crave fish and chips or begin to speak with an English accent. Which makes one wonder exactly why, when a helmet gets DOT and SNELL certified, it has to gain weight? Are American’s heads softer and therefore need a harder, more rigid helmet? Or, could it be that it is just another case of bureaucracy running amok?

Anyway, the Comet helmet was the more comfortable of the two for me mostly due to my head shape (long oval). Noise level wise, it was better than my KBC and on par with my HJC.

The amount of airflow was standard for a helmet in this price range which means it pretty much didn’t exist. This is not neccessarily a slam against SYKO helmets as my more expensive KBC also flows the exact  same amount of air. I have yet to really find a helmet that flows air over your head and not just at your chin (usually from under the helmet and not through any vents).

Noise levels in this helmet were not bad. It is noisy but the noise seems to come from around the bottom of the helmet. This type of turbulence  normally produces a lower frequency noise than say vent noise from the top of the helmet which tends to be higher pitched.

The noise was right on par with my HJC and quieter or at lower pitched than in my KBC. I wore earplugs on the ride home and it quieted down nicely. Noise however is subjective and your experience may differ depending upon your bike and what changes are made to certify this helmet in the US.

Last but not least I wanted to give you a look at what the inside of the Comet looked like. Again, the plushness level is on par with other helmets in the price range. It certainly is no Arai or Shoei but you also aren’t paying that kind of money either. Once again the nearest I can come to a comparable model is my HJC CL-14.

Here we have the SYKO Yakuza, a pretty helmet if I do say so myself.

This helmet was DOT certified and noticeably heftier than the Comet. It of course also had the standard D-ring for the chin strap.

I wore this helmet to work even though it didn’t fit my head as well as the Comet. The Yakuza seems to be more of round design instead of a long oval. It wasn’t as bad as some other round designs as it didn’t give me too much of the old red mark on the forehead that some helmets do (you know the mark I mean).

FYI, in the view from the rear the lines are really not that wavy looking in real life. Apparently, the camera angle and lighting distorted them quite a bit.

The Yakuza is definitely a sportier looking helmet than the Comet especially with those two big vents on top. Once again though, the air movement was just not there. Those of us that buy helmets in this price range are used to that though, so no real blame on SYKO’s part any more than on any other lower priced helmet manufacturer.

Those big vents up top do produce some higher pitched noise from the turbulence they cause. It still wasn’t as bad as my KBC VR-2 that I wear most of the time, but it was louder inside than the Comet.

This helmet was sent to me with a very dark tinted shield on it compared to the clear shield on the Comet. I really like dark tinted shields so I swapped it onto the Comet when wore that helmet.

Which brings me to the shield mechanism. Having never seen one of these helmets before I was still able to remove and replace the shield (the clear one) in about 15 seconds flat. The tinted one takes maybe twice as long because you can’t see what the heck you’re doing. You rotate the shield to the full up position, press a little arm in, and pull the shield off that side. Do the same thing on the other side. Voila! You have removed the shield. To put it back on, just snap in one side, press the arm in again to lock it over the tab, do the same thing to the other side and go riding. Easy as pie.

Here is the inside view of the Yakuza. It looks and feels much plusher than the Comet does on the inside which leads me to believe that it will probably be more expensive.

In lower priced helmets you sometimes have to make allowances in certain aspects of quality. Usually two of the things that you don’t get are clear coated graphics and fully removable liners. Guess what? You get them in these helmets! Yep, both helmets have fully removable liners AND the graphics are under a layer of clear coat. I was very surprised when I first took them out of the box and saw that I couldn’t feel any ridges where the lines of the stickers were. Very impressive.

Keeping in mind that these were only loaner/demo helmets I wanted to be very careful about what I pulled apart on them. I decided to see how easy the cheek pads came out, so I unsnapped them and out they came. This of course led to me taking a closer look at the liner itself. Lo and behold it came right out too!