The new SENA Smart Helmet is the world's first, and possibly the quietest helmet ever.
We'd heard rumblings of this, but had no concrete information about a possibly revolutionary helmet from SENA, until now. This is the first time SENA has made any piece of protective gear. It's a carbon fiber helmet, and is said to be one of the lightest on the market, although we don't have the weight specs to prove it yet. It'll be offered in 5 colors, and all sizes feature ample front and rear vents along with a EPS foam interior and an adjustable multi-zone foam pad system. The padding is removable, washable, and features an adjustable head-liner and cheek pads made of soft COOL-Quick Dry fabric. From the outside it appears as though this will be a solid helmet in itself, but the real specialty of the helmet is the tech inside. That is, noise-canceling.
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Watch the above video, which has a voiceover like a Skynet program, for a quick overview of how it works.
We've written about the dangers of noise while riding. Most of the smart riders run ear buds, which reduce permanent damage to hearing, but are not ideal as you can often not hear sirens or horns. Highway riding with wind noise over 100 decibels can cause irreversible damage to your ears. SENA's new helmet can greatly reduce this noise and damage.
How it Works
At the moment we don't know everything about the tech in this new helmet, but we do know the basics. SENA's smart helmet uses four microphones that measure noise. The ear cups then use sound waves to essentially cancel out the wind noise. But the important thing to note, is the system will cancel out wind noise, but not important noises like RPMs, sirens, horns, or your passenger yelling at you to slow down.
There's an ambient noise button that allows you to hear the outside noise from the microphones. This comes in handy when you're pumping gas or around town, listening for sirens and horns.
We'll have more info on exactly how this new tech works soon.
Bluetooth Features
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No need for the big device hanging off the side of the helmet, SENA's new helmet allows for a plug-and-play insert on the bottom rear. It's not standard on the helmet, but does have a super low profile and plugs into the existing head phones and electronics in the helmet. So, if it's us,
we're definitely picking up that option.