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One of the guys on one of my other bike websites has started a company that is making helmets here is a little bit about him
Just some background here. I have been on the CBR board almost since it started up and know Mario well. I started racing about 5 years ago and am now getting ready to enter the AMA. As a result of me racing and into bikes, plus with my contacts in the AMA, a friend of mine and myself decided to get into the Helmet industry. We only started this about a year and a half ago and already are making waves. Do a google search for Akuma Helmets or Photochromic visors and you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, getting back on topic, as the VP for product development, one of my goals is to get the female demographic represented with our helmets. Right now, we have focused solely on male oriented styles, as that is where the money is, but I don't want to exclude women. So now that we finally got our production line going, Quality Assurance in place, customs issues sorted out, visor production going, and staff hired (this took a while, let me tell ya), now I can start concentrated on developing helmets for women. Like you said, most helmets come in Small or larger. Well, with these helmets we are gonna start with XXS and work up to Medium. I also need to give our painter (Mike Lavelle from Killer Paint) ideas to go on. We give him a basic idea and he creates the scheme.
Also, since we don't go through distributors that mark up helmets 100% we keep the costs down. This is why you won't see one of our helmets costing $500 plus Canadian dollars.
Remember though, I need general ideas or themes. I don't want to go with specifics, because we need to cater to all women, not just a select few. (Kind of like the comment you gave me on pink helmets. You were right, either you like pink or you don't, so I changed my ideas based on what you said.) If you could also tell them, that right now I'm looking at an underwater styled helmet and a sky/birds/butterflies/flowers themed helmet. (Obviously, both styles would have a kick-ass edge to it, but yet still be feminine in nature.)
Anyway, any and all help is appreciated and just know that this is a chance for women from all over to actually have an input on how a motorcycle product is developed... by women and for women. And of course, all the same safety standards would apply as with any of Akuma Helmets.
~ Lloyd
So that was his pm to me about this idea.......here is the general post he made on my other forum
As most of you ladies know, there isn't a lot of options out there for female riders when it comes to helmets. The market is demographically catered to men. Suomy has a flowery pinkish helmet, Icon has one as well, but that's about it.
Well, I happen to be in the helmet industry now, working directly for a company known as ACSAS Technologies with a helmet line known as Akuma. Within the week (waiting to get Verisign to be compatible with the website) our website will be up. We currently only have 3 helmets for road racing, but will be expanding to 15, which is where you come in.
And let me start by saying the our helmets come with a system built into the helmet that allows you to turn on and off red LED lights in the back of the helmet for better night time visibility, a white LED in the front of the helmet to allow you to look at maps, cell phone or whatever you want at night (while pulled over on the side of the road obviously), photochromic visors in any color you want are available (this means they are clear in cloudy and night time conditions, but get dark automatically when it is sunny, which means no changing visors between day and night riding) and have killer paint schemes. (All under $300 and these are ECE 22-05 and DOT approved) Here is the website: http://www.akumahelmets.com/ (Please give us a week to get it up and running)
Here is an example of one of our helmets reviewed by Webbikeworld.
Review with lots of pics: http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/moto...t/akuma-helmet/
I have gone and checked out their review and it looks very promising........I like the idea of having the lights on the helmet to make us more visible at night and to help with reading a map or using a cell phone when needed. I will be PM him any and all comments you can give. Or if you would prefer to go to the other forum and post your comments there please feel free to do that too......the other forum website is CBRWorld.net http://community.cbrworld.net/
Prices would still be $320-340 Canadian Dollars. Add a photochromic visor and you are looking at another $80 Candian Dollars.)
Thanks for your input ladies.........I know they are really hoping to hear lots of ideas and suggestions.......so post them up and I'll pass them along.
Sylvia
Just some background here. I have been on the CBR board almost since it started up and know Mario well. I started racing about 5 years ago and am now getting ready to enter the AMA. As a result of me racing and into bikes, plus with my contacts in the AMA, a friend of mine and myself decided to get into the Helmet industry. We only started this about a year and a half ago and already are making waves. Do a google search for Akuma Helmets or Photochromic visors and you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, getting back on topic, as the VP for product development, one of my goals is to get the female demographic represented with our helmets. Right now, we have focused solely on male oriented styles, as that is where the money is, but I don't want to exclude women. So now that we finally got our production line going, Quality Assurance in place, customs issues sorted out, visor production going, and staff hired (this took a while, let me tell ya), now I can start concentrated on developing helmets for women. Like you said, most helmets come in Small or larger. Well, with these helmets we are gonna start with XXS and work up to Medium. I also need to give our painter (Mike Lavelle from Killer Paint) ideas to go on. We give him a basic idea and he creates the scheme.
Also, since we don't go through distributors that mark up helmets 100% we keep the costs down. This is why you won't see one of our helmets costing $500 plus Canadian dollars.
Remember though, I need general ideas or themes. I don't want to go with specifics, because we need to cater to all women, not just a select few. (Kind of like the comment you gave me on pink helmets. You were right, either you like pink or you don't, so I changed my ideas based on what you said.) If you could also tell them, that right now I'm looking at an underwater styled helmet and a sky/birds/butterflies/flowers themed helmet. (Obviously, both styles would have a kick-ass edge to it, but yet still be feminine in nature.)
Anyway, any and all help is appreciated and just know that this is a chance for women from all over to actually have an input on how a motorcycle product is developed... by women and for women. And of course, all the same safety standards would apply as with any of Akuma Helmets.
~ Lloyd
So that was his pm to me about this idea.......here is the general post he made on my other forum
As most of you ladies know, there isn't a lot of options out there for female riders when it comes to helmets. The market is demographically catered to men. Suomy has a flowery pinkish helmet, Icon has one as well, but that's about it.
Well, I happen to be in the helmet industry now, working directly for a company known as ACSAS Technologies with a helmet line known as Akuma. Within the week (waiting to get Verisign to be compatible with the website) our website will be up. We currently only have 3 helmets for road racing, but will be expanding to 15, which is where you come in.
And let me start by saying the our helmets come with a system built into the helmet that allows you to turn on and off red LED lights in the back of the helmet for better night time visibility, a white LED in the front of the helmet to allow you to look at maps, cell phone or whatever you want at night (while pulled over on the side of the road obviously), photochromic visors in any color you want are available (this means they are clear in cloudy and night time conditions, but get dark automatically when it is sunny, which means no changing visors between day and night riding) and have killer paint schemes. (All under $300 and these are ECE 22-05 and DOT approved) Here is the website: http://www.akumahelmets.com/ (Please give us a week to get it up and running)
Here is an example of one of our helmets reviewed by Webbikeworld.
Review with lots of pics: http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/moto...t/akuma-helmet/
I have gone and checked out their review and it looks very promising........I like the idea of having the lights on the helmet to make us more visible at night and to help with reading a map or using a cell phone when needed. I will be PM him any and all comments you can give. Or if you would prefer to go to the other forum and post your comments there please feel free to do that too......the other forum website is CBRWorld.net http://community.cbrworld.net/
Prices would still be $320-340 Canadian Dollars. Add a photochromic visor and you are looking at another $80 Candian Dollars.)
Thanks for your input ladies.........I know they are really hoping to hear lots of ideas and suggestions.......so post them up and I'll pass them along.
Sylvia
