Scorpion Sports VX-R70 Helmet

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It’s hard to picture now, but there was a time when there were not many helmet options, when helmet technology was fairly limited, and when the best stock graphics you could hope for were some flames and racing stripes. Nowadays, there are so many helmets available, that it’s hard to stay up to date. Not only are there multiple options across all price points and sizes, there are also so many graphics that the custom paint market almost completely disappeared at one point.

The great thing about having so many options, is that there are more quality lids to choose from; so many, in fact, that there are some helmets that are not very well known. For the U.S. market, one of those helmets is the Scorpion VX-R70.

Scorpion Sports is actually a helmet manufacturer, producing many other name brand helmets, and about 10 years ago, they decided to begin branding their own line of helmets and protective wear. The thought was, since they had all of the necessary resources, why not essentially cut out the middleman, and offer quality goods at a more reasonable price than anyone else could. After all, they are the manufacturer, so they could basically set their own prices. Makes sense to me.

Scorpion first entered the MX market with low- to mid-price point lids, but the VX-R70 is their first offering that is firmly in the mid-range market with some high-end features.

Innovation

Certainly the most unique feature on the VX-R70 is the AirFit Liner Inflation System. Since many companies handle incremental fitment using different thicknesses of liners and cheek pads, Scorpion decided to eliminate the need to change out cheek pads altogether. AirFit uses a bladder system that is placed between the chin bar and the cheek pads, while a pump is at the front on the inside at the front, just underneath the mount piece vent.

After you plop the VX-R70 on, just reach under the mouthpiece and push on the pump with your thumb. If you ever owned a pair of Reebok Pumps, you’ll be right at home. The first time I used the system, I was surprised to find that each push of the pump makes a noticeable difference in both the fitment and security of the helmet. In other words, the AirFit works, and works quite well, and since the bladder is against the cheek pad (rather than inside of it, as I originally thought it was), air and sweat can move freely though the pads as you would expect in any other helmet.

Air Flow

The cheek pads and the main liner use Scorpion’s KwikWick II liner that is both anti-microbial and moisture wicking. In my experience with anti-microbial liners, they can make a world of a difference. When you’re a sweataholic like myself, you need every proprietary wicking, anti-ickyness gizmo available, especially in a helmet. There’s nothing worse than putting on a stinky lid at the beginning of a ride, and fortunately that has not happened with the VX-R70. The liner is doing its job of keeping odors at bay, however sweat is a different issue.

While the ventilation on the helmet is adequate, I cannot say that it’s superior. There are plenty of channels built into the TCT (Thermodynamic Composite Technology) shell, both at the front and rear of the helmet, but the problem is in the EPS liner. Five vents are molded into the EPS foam, a larger one at the top in the middle, two others towards the top and rear, and two more smaller vents at the back near the bottom of the shell.

Theoretically these should do enough to both pull air in and allow it to escape, and while they do work, I would say they do not work well enough in warmer weather. I found that after 10 minutes of hard riding, I could notice a bit more sweat build up than I am accustomed to.

Over several motos, I have continued to notice this issue and came to realize that there are actually two different factors at play: 1) The KwikWick liner is actually doing its job and wicking moisture away from the my skin, allowing air to hit it, which at first makes you think your heads is sweating more than average; 2) I probably would not be sweating as much if there was slightly more ventilation.

The actual increase in sweat over a more ventilated helmet is really not much at all, but the aforementioned factors seem to exaggerate the issue. The helmet does flow air, but I feel it could be improved upon.

Safety

In motocross, dual-density EPS foam has become standard because of its ability to more gradually slow the head in an impact. The VX-R70 not only has a dual-denisty EPS liner, Scorpion makes the foam, the rest of the helmet, in their own facility.

A simple, yet interesting, feature is the visor. Softer and more flexible than I am accustomed to seeing, at first I thought I had just left the helmet out in the sun for too long. In fact, the visor was designed to be pliable and shatter resistant. In the case of a crash, a visor should not factor at all into the movement of the head and this visor, along with the plastic shear-away visor screws, help ensure rider safety. At the same time, the shatter resistance will keep the visor intact in case of a small, non-threatening tip over.

One thing that is immediately noticeable when first wearing the helmet is the height of the shell at the rear. It is a bit higher up (meaning it does not come down quite as far around the back of your head), than other lids I have used. Moving my head around to the extremes with a neck brace on, the bottom rim of the VX-R70 still makes contact where I would expect it to, so the flare in the shell at the back and bottom of the helmet helps compensate for the higher design.

Finishing off this modern looking lid are the titanium D-rings for the chinstrap. Why titanium? I once had a helmet with stainless steel D-rings. Thanks to my severe sweataholism, after a couple years of use, those rings were so covered in rust that they looked like they were uncovered from a sunken pirate ship. Titanium won’t rust, is light, and…it’s titanium. That’s a 10 on the Awesome Materials scale.

Overall I think the Scorpion VX-R70 is a solid helmet offering. While my biggest gripe is with the ventilation, features like AirFit and KwikWick, which may sound gimmicky, actually do work quite well.

-Bayo Olukotun