Thursday, 22 November 2012

Review : AGV K3 Dreamtime Rossi Replica




I would compare the AGV K3 Dreamtime alongside the Nolan N104 N-Com and Caberg Konda, simply because all 3 are Italian brand helmets. The N104 and Konda impressed me with their design, quality and finishings- and therefore, I was expecting similar qualities from the K3.

Let’s talk about its design first. The K3 Dreamtime being a Rossi helmet replica, looked great and I still take time to marvel and gaze at its graphic every now and then. It simply looked marvellous, and put to shame some of the more expensive helmets that I have seen and tried. The paint was vivid and quite a no. of fellow riders and drivers complimented me on the K3. Not bad at all for a helmet costing less than RM900.

But scrutinise it in more depth and it starts to fall apart a bit. The N104 and Konda were made-in-Italy articles, the K3 was made-in-China. No biggie as lots of products worldwide are produced in China these days with good QC, but I don’t feel a sense of high QC with my K3. I took apart the inner fittings and noticed that the neckroll was coming off. It was put in place with a layer of glue, that’s all. I could glue it back easily; but still, that’s additional work and I was expecting more from an AGV.

The chin curtain fell off easily. A quick Google later, I found out that it was a normal occurrence worldwide and many riders had lost their chin curtain while riding or taking off their helmets. This could be a design flaw then- the ones on the N104 and Konda felt so much more solid and stayed in place. Still not a deal-breaker though, as many riders reported that the flimsy little chin curtain did not contribute much to masking the wind noise or turbulence. I won’t be putting this on then.

The clip for the strap (to prevent the strap flipping) came off all too easily. Most helmets with DD rings do not use the clip anyway; but the K3 had it and I was expecting it to stay in place then. It was simply not impressing me in this manner.

But fitting was good, and I have been using L-size for my Daytona, Shoei, Nolan and Caberg. The AGV’s L-size fitted well and comfortably. And the K3 was quite light at app 1.5 kg and the weight savings helped during riding.

The visor was easy to take off and re-install with the AGV no-tools-necessary-just-press-here system; and I believe I would be getting a AGV Iradium Silver/Blue visor to complement the looks of the K3.

If you’re getting this from overseas and paying the regular sub-USD200 price for this helmet, by all means it’s a good deal. Heck, just the design itself was well-worth the price- if you commission a painter to airbrush the same design on your fullface helmet, it would cost quite a few hundred RMs to do so already.

But local pricing as seen at Mudah seem to vary quite a fair bit- from as low as RM660 (lower price than overseas?) to sub-RM1k+. At the higher-end of the spectrum, I would rather top-up a bit more and get a Shoei instead. Do check that you are getting the real deal though with all the necessary AGV markings and manual pack though, as you wouldn’t want to pay low prices only to get “brand replica” helmets.

Would I keep this helmet? Well, I believe so- I just can’t stop marvelling at the graphics. In fact, I may be collecting more K3 Rossi helmets soon.


Enjoy the colourful artpiece!












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