What happen to all the cool helmets..

Troy Lee is still painting, but my TL helmet is just a stock version. My cousin still has several 25-30 YO painted Troy Lee's on his shelf. They were badass!

@bigdogpaint401 Is doing some really nice work these days. Seriously considering buying a white SM-10 and having him do something, I just don't know what yet.

Grew up racing 80's in the mid-90's and everyone had 'em.   Always remember seeing the new bikes and white (q-ball) helmets showing up in their stock form in prep for the next season.   Even mini riders had painted lids back then! 

Shameless plug for what I used to do…. And yes, I absolutely took inspiration and creative license with what Troy Lee was doing. Many of us did. 

You mean like all of McGrath's..with the dingleberries and Mohawks...

Actually, his (McGrath) unique designs for helmet's were rarely if ever asked for. Mike Kiedrowski designs were actually more of an inspiration for me. As were Bradshaw's. Scott Russel's were another popular style.

As a painter you normally provided a design a client wanted vs your own. Troy Lee has always been the cutting edge in design. His vision was inspiration to anyone painting in the mid/late 80's and 90's. 

I agree.  I just bought a new helmet and couldn’t believe how bland they all look now.  I ended up going with a LS2 Subverter Evo helmet just because it reminded me of the old school edgier helmets. 

I found a good used late 90's Arai VX Pro in my area I was thinking of scooping and sending you to drag you out of retirement! J/K

Hahaha... I used to take Bell open face helmets since you could get those cheaply, plus removable liner, and add a Arai visor and mouthguard... Aribel.... I even grafted in mouthguards onto other helmets to change the appearance. 

Everything these days is acrylics, and water based in many cases. I shot everything in lacquer's. I'm old and out of my element in these new mediums... For you, I just might come out of retirement.

Helmets and gear used to be so much cooler. Now everyone has a billboard for Monster on their chest  or look like Neapolitan ice cream 

Energy shit drinks and their demands of the logos on helmets. Pretty much thats it. 
I miss custom helmets a lot. 

I started painting helmets in '91 for the MX industry but remember going to a trade show in around '95 and seeing the Bell McGrath off-the-shelf models and realising my work was going to dry up soon if all the manufacturers followed suit with cool production designs (which they did).

99% of my work is now car racing and the only MX lids I get coming in are for the vintage racing. I love getting to do some old school flames and skulls again! Have to agree with the other comments; MX lids are pretty boring now for a sport that used to be so cool, but a lot of that will be down to top riders having multiple helmets, all needed "yesterday". The elaborate, intricate designs take too long for todays' top end racing, and there isn't much room for cool stuff anyway with all the big logos.

Even though I never got why he would run visorless, Metz helmets looked so fucking badass

got some coming out of my shop every week 😀

Love the bottom one.

Same,  that one is MC esque for sure.

Jeff Long used to post here.  He did a lot of cool helmets in the Dallas area in the 90s, including mine.  Although it has seen better days, I will probably keep it til the day I die.  

This is bad ass!  I too took a lot of inspiration from Troy’s work and did a few one off things other than helmets.  Guitars, RC boats,  GXSR 750, batting helmets and cycling helmets. Fun times, and now that I have the time to do it again, I don’t have the facility.  

Unfortunately, I didn’t have pics of every one but the pics I did have may or may not still be at my X’s house…

Love seeing other Artists work! 

I think every moto guy needs a custom helmet at least once in their life. 

X3. Bottom one is sick 

Talk about taking creative liberties from Troy Lee, I painted one helmet once for my 7 year old who likes spiderman and popsicles... I may have taken some creative liberties as well.  I think everybody should paint a helmet, it's a cool project!  Even just paint an old helmet that you won't use for fun!

This one may be the most cutting edge paint jobs I've seen. Not my work