Coming from an LS2 and going to a Shoei RF-1400 was a larger improvement than I thought. Same for my wife going from a Sedici to an Arai in the same ~$600 range as my Shoei. Comfort, quietness, fidelity of external audio
I like to carry this little helmet lock that I keep tied to my handle bars. My other gear is rather plain and entry level. I have a nice Kriga tail bag, but my new MC does not have good mount points for it :(
I've been looking at getting an intercom system, probably looking at a Cardo Spirit but I know Scorpion have the ExoCom that is designed to work with their helmets (I have a Scorpion helmet). However I think I prefer the Cardo so that I have something that is helmet agnostic and should work with any helmet I get in the future.
The rest of my gear is pretty entry level, I've only been riding since September 2024 so I haven't felt the need to upgrade my gear, first thing is to upgrade the bike once I get my full licence
I can chime in and say the cardo spirit is great, I've used mine on two helmets which I have some tips for. When you use the sticky base, assume you're never getting it off, cause I couldn't haha. The helmet clip although seems flimsy at first holds up really well too, but it's difficult to install.
You may have noticed already that putting on your helmet already folds your ears pretty bad. The extra speaker width makes it 2x worse and a lot harder to unfold your ear. I recommend a ski mask always.
Lastly these systems work well with ear protection, or at least cardo does, but as you could imagine the speakers are almost screaming at you at full blast. Although it sounds like a moderate volume to you, when you walk around it's blasting music and sounds to everyone else. I remember accidentally forgetting this and taking my helmet off walking into a petrol station with hearing protection still in, I only found out when I pulled one ear out to talk to the attendant when I was already in line for a minute, felt like a total douche haha
Overall though, the spirit is great, music is great, calls are great, speakers are great, battery, volume, durability, water resistance, all great.
Looking at my accident history. What would have saved me from a crash would have been ABS. That's not gear per say.
Most impressed with a Stars smx boots but I haven't really tested those hard in my crash.
Dainese jacket, dainese pants, helite turtle 2 air bag and arai regent x helmet did great in crash. Did not break my collar bone or hip. No injuries. I guess astars gauntlet leather gloves got tested slightly also.
Seems like people are a bit annoyed about the subscription for traffic and other relatively basic features. I lane split, police be damned, so... Nbd for me.
I just bought the Leatt ADV rally 5.5. Only tested it on one ride so far, but the initial impression is great. I really feel in touch with the seat (I come from riding with some BMW jeans). The clothes feel light and barely there. Can't wait to test them out properly off-road
Bought a set of Halvarsson Flon gloves for this season. Really happy with them! Perfect for most temperatures, apart from really cold(like 1-7C). Comfortable, and the positioning of the mesh between the fingers means I can angle my hands a bit depending on if I want air passing through or not!
https://halvarssonsmc.com/product/flon/