Behind The Scenes: Here's How Motorcycle Helmets Are Made

We get a peek behind the curtain at the AGV factory in Movena.

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It All Starts With A Shell...

It all starts with carbon fiber shells. For AGV, the shells are outsourced, molded by a third party before being delivered to the Movena plant for assembly.

This is what a helmet looks like devoid of all its components.

The Good Old Tape Trick

Even future helmet need some taping before a paint job. The carbon fiber lids are sanded down by hand before masks and tape are applied to cover certain areas of the shell that will receive a different treatment.

For instance, in the case of the Valentino Rossi 2019 Winter Test design, the chin of the lid needs to remain black, while the rest is painted bright yellow.

Bake In The Oven For 40 Minutes

Once all the sections of the motif have been applied, the shells spend 40 minutes in an oven to set the graphics.

After cooling down, the protective film on top of the graphics is peeled by hand before the lids are given a thorough wash.

Time For The Protectors To Go In

The next step involves inserting each pieces of EPS foam shell into the lid and gluing them into place by hand. Each piece of high-density foam has its own homologation tag to ensure its quality.

Clamps are used to hold the styrofoam into place while the glue dries.

All The Tags!

This is also the step at which the helmet receives all its stickers and tags, once it passes QC of course.

Ready To Hit The Shelves

Each helmet is identified with a barcode which allows workers to follow its progress through the assembly process. At this point, the quality control technician scans the helmet one last time and weighs it to ensure it meets the standards.

The helmets are then placed in their pouch and packed in boxes, ready to be shipped out to future customers.

This special edition AGV Pista GP R 2019 Winter Test edition retails for about €1,500 ($1,700).

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Jun 21, 2019 at 11:01am ET

1 min read

Sabrina Giacomini

By: Sabrina Giacomini

Helmets are the most important piece of gear any rider can own. Beyond a simple shell meant to protect our head, there is a lot of thought and work put in developing this piece of high-tech headgear. It has to be light, comfortable, but also sturdy and capable of withstanding high-speed impacts. How do they do it? If you're like us, you've probably always wondered about that.

We headed to Movena, Italy where the team at AGV welcomed us into their world for a walk around its factory, where the AGV Corsa R and Pista GP R models are assembled. We showed up in time to see how the brand new Valentino Rossi 2019 Winter Test are made. The tour begins here =>

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Category	Gear
Tags	agv

Behind The Scenes: Here's How Motorcycle Helmets Are Made

We get a peek behind the curtain at the AGV factory in Movena.

Newest slideshows

It All Starts With A Shell...

Read More:

The Good Old Tape Trick

Read More:

Bake In The Oven For 40 Minutes

Read More:

Time For The Protectors To Go In

Read More:

All The Tags!

Read More:

Ready To Hit The Shelves

Read More:

Newest slideshows

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