AGV PistaGP Helmet - The Next Generation Helmet

Today at the MotoGP test in Jerez, AGV debuted its next-generation helmet: the AGV PistaGP. The fruits of the Italian company’s Project 46, the PistaGP is the first helmet to come from AGV’s new AGV Standards program, which seeks create products with an inside-out approach. You have likely already seen Valentino Rossi testing the AGV PistaGP in the recent Sepang tests, and I have already waxed poetic about how excited I am about this product.

Generally I am not a big fan of AGV sport bike helmets (though I do have a torrid love affair with the AGV AX-8 Dual Sport helmet), as I find the field-of-view (FOV) on AGV lids to be far too limited for my riding tastes, but the PistaGP promises a host of improvements to AGV’s helmet design, especially an improved FOV, which should allay my complaints. For AGV, the company hopes the PistaGP, and its progeny from the AGV Standards program, will reposition the helmet manufacturer once again as again the pinnacle maker of motorcycle helmets.

Releasing details on the PistaGP to the assembled GP paddock press at Jerez, we can finally publicly talk about this new lid and AGV’s new approach to designing motorcycle helmets. Details after the jump, along with more photos than you can shake a stick at.

Since we have already broke down how AGV scanned Rossi and other riders’ heads into a 3D modeling system to create these custom-fitting helmets, we won’t rehash the process again, though there are some interesting diagrams and technical materials in the galleries below. Making a number of improvements over the company’s already well-selling GP-Tech, the AGV PistaGP’s main features break down into the following measures:

+15° wider field of vision
9% larger visor area
36% less g-force transmitted to the head (compared to the ECE regulation)
48% less HIC index standard (Head Injury Criterion)
71% smaller visor movement area (area devoted to visor movement)
3.3mm visor thickness
-6% lateral section aerodynamics, -3% front section
-44% z-lift (force of helmet lifting because of aerodynamic forces)
193% more ventilation area

“I consider the PistaGP helmet a tribute to Gino Amisano, an entrepreneur I admired for his ability to innovate, the records he achieved, and the competitive spirit with which he faced every challenge,” said Lino Dainese President of Dainese and AGV. “The new helmet is part of the AGV Standards project, which, in line with the qualities established by Amisano, revolutionises the way helmets are designed, setting new records for protection and ergonomics that are clearly evident. The next generation helmets arising from this project are intended to place AGV, once again, in a leading market position with its technology.”

AGV hasn’t explained how it plans on taking the AGV Standards methodology and expanding it into consumer-level products, which could create a challenge for the Italian company. Thus, there has been no word on availability or price, nor has there been word if this will be a custom-only type of product. More info on that as we get it, though we hope we won’t have to wait long to try a PistaGP out in person.