Bollé - BACKLINE VISOR White Matte - Silver Gun S 54-56cm, Ski Helmet, Small, Unisex Adult

Used this for the first time @ Whistler - Canada over the December '15 / January '16 holiday. Thought i'd share my thoughts regarding the helmet in the hopes it will help you when making your own decision on whether or not to purchase this or something similar :)My head size is 59 - for those wondering what size to get for your noggin - never choose a helmet that is, say, 56 - 59 if your head size is 59. You will regret it. Always go one size up. A. with the click to fit system you can easily adjust the fit to sit snugly on your noggin, and B. for those cold days when you need to wrap your snood around your head (or wear a full hoodie) the extra space of the helmet will definitely help you, where-as your head would already be hurting if you'd not super-sized your helmet! Thankfully though i didn't have this problem with Bolle since my noggin size fell into the 59 - 61 category. The helmet itself is relatively soft and comfortable for its price. I've tried on more comfortable helmets to be honest, with a premium price tag to go along with it. But for the price of this helmet i was happy enough. The ear pads are lovely and soft. It's worth noting that the entire time i wore the helmet i didn't use the chin strap. I hate the feeling of straps under my chin. I mention this only because never once did it fall off.. even during my more entertaining wipe-outs in the snow park!As a glasses wearer (and of the slightly large nerd variety) this helmet allows me to wear them in absolute comfort. I had no problems with general fogging of my glasses either. I found this only tended to happen when i had my snood pulled up over my head and nose (so my hot breath leaking into the visor) or when i tried to cover the gaps (but more on this later!)The two Visor choices are a must, and a fantastic addition by Bolle! My advice: never purchase a helmet if they don't include a low visibility visor. That's a deal-breaker right there. Think i'm being over dramatic? Wait til the first time you use it - you will be nodding your head with a stupid grin on your face, marveling at the clarity and brightness.. going; 'that crazy fool on amazon was damn right! this visor is awesome!!'On clear (non snowing) days this helmet deserves a 7 out of 5. The padding on the visor sits perfectly over the bridge of your nose. It's a combination of ventilated plastic and soft padding that sticks out a centimeter and a half to two centimeters, and seals along the bridge of the nose and cheek bones all the way along the rubber that is visible from the outside (as a visual reference to you if you look at the picture again). There is a padded seal at the top of the visor as well that does a good job of sealing itself when the visor is fully down. Having a full unobstructed view of everything around you is worth the price of this helmet alone! Not having the pressure of goggles pressing against your face is even better. Trust me when i say - It. Is. Great. The helmet does not move around when you snowboard (i assume skiing would have the same result), and the vents do a great job at cooling (open) or retaining heat (closed). The temps dropped to - 15 degrees on some days - so the vents definitely did its job well ;)Snowy conditions is where the visor option falls somewhat short of its 5 star rating. Because it does not completely seal around your face snow will get into the visor and will require a quick cleaning every now and then. Taping up the gaps works - but produces the problem of steaming and fogging of the glasses - which is just swapping one set of problems for another. I did have my goggles to hand, but to be honest i never got frustrated enough to take the visor off and use them. It also only snowed for about 4 days.Aside from that one negative there's just far too many positives to having a visor helmet (personally) to not give it 5 stars. I am very happy i took the plunge. The range of visibility, the freedom of not having goggles pressed around your eyes, and the low vis visor for those overcast days are a no brainer.Ps. i went the blue and black. My friend went for the white. Both looked really good, though personally we both liked the blue visor of my helmet over the grey of his :)

I have just arrived back from my 2nd week of wearing this helmet.This is my 3rd ski helmet and I thought that I would go for the visor type. I decided to also try a supposed good make!!Lets start with comfort. After about an hour the adjustment strap starts to press on the ear which becomes fairly painful.The only way to stop this happening is to put a thick pad on your head first then put the helmet on, this lifts the strap above the level of the ears.The chin strap is a bit too wide and also after about an hour starts to dig into your throat.So not as comfortable as one should expect. Fine if you only want to ski for under the hour!!Now I come to the visor! I have been unlucky with the weather and both my weeks have seen a lot of snow fall. The 1st with very high winds and this is why I thought the snow was able to accumulate inside the visor. My 2nd week however was very light winds but heavy snow. This was even worse. I ended up having to ski with the visor in the up position as it was completely full of snow on the inside. I had on all occasions ensured that the visor was fully down.Looking at other designs in the ski shops Bolle is one of the only helmets that the visor does not make contact with the ear flaps.I was skiing this last week with another person also wearing the same helmet. His thoughts about it are the same as mine.The helmet comes with 2 visors so you can choose which best suits the weather. I have only tried the yellow visor and found it to be fairly good in both low flat light and also a bit of sun. To properly clean the inside of the visor you do need to remove it from the helmet. Yet another design fault the threads on the securing bolts are very poor quality and have all but stripped. I only just managed to re- attach the visor. I will not be able to remove it again.I will go back to my old helmet and googles for my next holiday.

The helmet itself it's great, super warm and quite comfortable when not wearing balaclava. Secure strap is very easy to clip on and adjust. Vents are great and they do seems to work and the fact that you can close them makes hell of a difference.The problem I have with it is the fact that the visor is not particularly scratch proof and I have managed to scratch it twice with my glove which is rather soft. My motorbike helmet takes loads of abuse and never scratches so bear that in mind.Still the mirror visor is incredible it's like having 4k TV in front of you, super clear and extremely wide field of view.2nd visor (yellow) it's great too yet I have managed to use it only once as I loved the mirror one.

Very comfortable helmet and great when the sun is shining.BUT if you experience any form of snowfall the visor is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.As I experienced it also becomes dangerous , due to the very poor seals around the visor snow builds up on the inside of the visor and reduces your vision to the point I had to lift the visor and use my Oakley sunglasses to be able to get down the windy snow ridden mountain.Apparently I am now out of my “returns window” however I would have no hesitation in returning this helmet as I feel for the price of £110 it isn’t fit for purpose.For this helmet to be fit for purpose the visors need much better foam sealing around the visor so snow can’t get blow in.Such a shame as at the start of the holiday I had great hopes,there is a good reason why ski instructors don’t use visor helmets.