The Triple 8 Downhill Racer was the first full-face helmet to ever boast both downhill certification as well as skate certification. It compares quite closely with the TSG Pass full-face helmet, and both are great for intense downhill biking, e-scootering, downhill longboarding, roller skating, regular skateboarding, and electric skating. If you’re looking to organize a complete set of protective gear for electric skateboarding, this Triple 8 Downhill Racer helmet review should help you, hopefully. In this T8 racer review, I take a closer look at the brain bucket in an attempt to reveal its greatness as well as flaws.
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About Triple 8, the Protective Gear Company
Triple 8 is among the best-known names when it comes to all things protective gear for DH cycling, DH skateboarding, DH longboarding, e-scootering, roller skating, and other protection-demanding outdoor disciplines.
Based out in the United States, Triple Eight has been perfecting their craft over the past 20 years. They make protective equipment such as open-face helmets, full-face helmets, knee pads, wristguards, elbow pads, and bum protective pads.
I’ve used Triple Eight’s products, and I can say without hesitation that these products are high-quality items that usually satisfy even the most quality-conscious riders. Most Triple Eight products look great, too, and the vast majority are a great buy as far as pricing when compared to many worthy competitors.
Now that the company and its many product offerings are out of the way, I’ll jump right into my Triple 8 Downhill Racer helmet review.
Triple 8 Downhill Racer Helmet Specs and Features
Outer Shell: Fiberglass
Design: Streamlined, aerodynamic design
Weight: I lbs
Visor: Yes, a flip-up visor
Replacement Visors: Clear and tinted visors available
Head Protection System: EPS foam liner for impact absorption with a velvet liner for comfort
Helmet certifications: ASTM F-1492 Skate Safety Standards & the U.S. CPSC Safety Standard for Bicycle Helmets for persons aged 5 and older.
Fit Pads: 2 Fit pads for fit customization
Color: Black (White also available)
Size: Large/X-Large (XS, S/M also available)
Shape and Design: Oval, quiet, streamlined, aerodynamic design
Made for: Unisex, for men and women DH riders
Sound Perception: Good
Helmet Styling and Design
This lid looks really cool out of the box. Helmets aren’t usually cute, but this one is the exception. It looks as cool as its close and fierce competitor, the full-face TSG.
Unlike some of the most popular Triple 8 helmets such as the Triple Eight dual certified that feature a round urban design, this one comes in an oval shape. While skateboard riders with a round head can certainly wear this bucket, it fits oval-shaped melons that are somewhat long much better.
If your head is a perfectly round circle like a full moon, this may not be the best helmet for you. If you buy this and fit it on a round melon, you’ll start complaining of tight pressure points after a while. Additionally, the helmet has a tendency of rocking back and forth all the time on a round noggin.
Triple 8 Downhill Racer Full-Face Helmet Protection Credentials
Many of the helmets on the skateboarding market aren’t meant for downhill skateboarding. The downhill community has been waiting for skateboarding-focused options for years. Fortunately, the Triple 8 Downhill Racer helmet meets the community’s downhill riding needs satisfactorily.
Now, there’s a wide range of helmet types that DH skateboarders have used over the years. I’ve seen paragliding helmets, motorcycle helmets, and downhill cycling lids on many skateboarding-loving heads.
But while these options are probably good enough helmets for downhill skating, they’ve not been designed with the needs of the downhill community in mind.
Take motorcycle helmets,for example. Motorcycle helmets protect really well, but they tend to be too heavy and tend to kill the rider’s neck. Plus, motorcycle helmets are typically bulky and don’t offer nearly enough visibility for skateboarding purposes. As for paragliding helmets, these ones aren’t the most protective even though they’re lightweight and provide a great field of view.
What about downhill biking helmets, are they suitable for downhill skateboarding? Well, they’re not bad. But that doesn’t mean DH biking options are the best choices out there.
DH biking lids aren’t too heavy, and their protection credentials aren’t bad at all for downhill skating. What’s more, DH riding helmets offer a decent level of visibility. However, these types of skull protection buckets don’t typically come with a visor. Besides, DH cycling helmets tend to be a little bulkier than most skateboarders would like.
In comparison, the Triple 8 Downhill Racer helmet comes with two critical protection-focused certifications. This brain bucket was designed with the riding needs of DH skaters in mind. While most competing lids offer only a CPSC 1203 certification for cycling helmets, this helmet offers the much sought-after ASTM F1952 certification for downhill riding.
Did you know the Triple 8 Downhill Racer was the first brain saver ever to offer the ASTM F1952 certification for downhill? I thought you should know.
Protection-wise, you have little to worry about with this head gear. You can bomb hills on a regular skateboard or an electric one all you want, and you’re going to be safe the entire time. But hey, safe riding also depends on you so stay keen every time you’re out there standing on a board that sits on 4 wheels.
Fit and Comfort
Is the Triple 8 full-face Downhill Racer helmet comfortable? This lid is super light (weighs in at just 1 pound) and comfortable. An EPS foam inside the helmet coupled with a velvety liner ensures your head not only stays out of trouble, but also feels comfortable when you’re out riding hills.
Well, you’ll probably look like some blinking spaceman in this bucket, and the thing does stand out. But what’s the problem when the product pushes head safety and crash protection to a whole new level?
Regarding fit, it’s great, provided you choose the right helmet size. The helmet you see in the image above is size Large/X-Large for downhill skateboard riders with relatively big melons. If your head circumference sits somewhere between 23.2″ and 24″, this helmet should fit your noggin comfortably.
Measure your head’s circumference accurately and match the reading with what’s in the Triple 8 full-face downhill racer helmet’s size chart. I’ve seen helmet size charts that are way off, but this one is pretty accurate.
Triple Eight includes two sets of fit pads (cheek pads) so you can customize the fit however you want. When Jason bought this product to protect his melon when doing risk-packed outdoor activities such as e-skating, he expected it to be pretty much like a regular motorcycle helmet. But, not only was this brain bucket much lighter than any motorcycle helmet he’s ever owned, but it also has a lot less footprint.
If you have a round head, though, fit may feel somewhat awkward. You may feel a few pressure points especially around the forehead. That’s because the helmet is designed for skateboarders with long, oval-ish heads rather than short, round ones. But that’s hardly the manufacturer’s mistake. It’s just that lids with this kind of shape are made for different a head shape.
The helmet sits on the head nicely. Unlike others, the brain bucket doesn’t keep riding up the back of the neck and head in an annoying way. That’s because its clever design allows for unrestricted head motion. You can point your face in pretty much any direction and not have the thing ride up. Overall, it’s an intelligent design that lets you ride quietly while enjoying full head protection.
Sizes and Colors — Think Safety First
This brain protection gear comes in three sizes namely XS for 18.9″ to 21.3″ heads, S/M for 21.7″ to 22.8″ heads, and L/XL for folks with a little larger heads in the 23.2″ to 24″ circumference neighborhood.
If you measure in between sizes, go with the larger size for the perfect fit.
As for colors, this product comes in two colors — white and black. The black one looks particularly cute, but there’s more to choosing head protection than just looks. Protection and safety should always be the most critical consideration. You’d be better off picking up the white helmet because brighter colored helmets have been proven to be safer than darker hued ones.
But did you know that yellow and orange helmets offer the best visibility to riders, even better than white ones? Now that this lid isn’t available in yellow or orange, I encourage you to order the white version.
Field of View and Visibility
The helmet provides a wide field of view for riding your thing during daytime. Triple 8 describes the visor as a “multiview flip-up visor,” but that’s just not true. My SO found that this visor just won’t ratchet. The only way to use the visor is to keep it either fully up or move it all the way down.
But Jason can get his lid’s windshield to stay somewhere midway between fully up or fully down. However, the visor does eventually move downward. No problem with the visor remaining down, except that when it’s in that position ventilation gets worse. More on the helmet’s ventilation performance in the next section.
Does the Triple 8 full-face downhill helmet fog up when riding in cool weather? If the weather is a bit cold such as in winter and you’re wearing this and breathing really hard after some intense riding, the helmet fogs up a tad. The company say the visor comes treated with anti-fog technology of some kind, though, but it seems that treatment needs a little improvement.
Maybe you think fogging up is kind of a normal occurrence for any type of helmet when the weather is a bit cool, right? Here’s something you might find surprising. Some helmets on the market such as the Charly No Limit don’t fog up no matter how hard you breathe after an intense run.
For that reason, you may want to give your bucket a better-quality anti-fog treatment. Still, I doubt you’ll want to ride your e-skateboard or e-scooter when it’s all wet and wintry outside.
Lest I forget, the visor that comes with the helmet is removable and tinted. It works well, but we all know there are times when a clear one works better. Luckily, Triple 8 offers two types of replacement visors, a clear and tinted version. But someone’s got to pay for that…YOU.
Ventilation Could Use Some Design Enhancement
Some of the best head gear Triple Eight provides offers decent ventilation. And that’s because those options come with adequate airflow vents.
But that’s not the case with the Triple 8 Full-face Downhill Racer. This lid offers pretty passive ventilation. In fact, the only vents I’ve seen are the openings around the ears. And those vents are designed for a different purpose altogether. I’ll explain that purpose in a short while.
I guess you could say this helmet offers poor ventilation. This isn’t what you want to ride in on a sweltering day of the hottest summer you’ve ever seen. Clearly, Triple Eight needs to do a bit of design improvement in future versions of this helmet.
Who’s the Triple 8 Downhill Helmet for?
This helmet is a unisex pick for men and women who like spending their idle time outdoors doing all kinds of fun stuff. Exciting and fun stuff such as downhill skateboarding, downhill mountain biking, e-skating, or e-scootering. This helmet should also be good for riding a hoverboard. If you want to still be able to form intelligent thoughts after each ride, buy this helmet.
Reasons to Buy the Triple 8 Downhill Racer Helmet
1.The Triple 8 Full-face Downhill helmet looks cool.
2.The product comes with an aerodynamic and streamlined design that makes for less drag pressure.
3.The helmet comes with cheek pads so you can tweak the fit just right.
4.The outershell is made of fiberglass, a high-quality material.
5.The helmet offers a visor for shielding the face from hard, direct UV glare.
6.The product offers two extremely important safety certifications: the ASTM 1952 and CPSC 1203.
7.The visor can be easily replaced with either a clear or tinted visor.
Reasons Not to Buy the Triple 8 Downhill Racer Helmet
1.Visor stays either up or down
The helmet doesn’t offer any kind of ratcheting mechanism to control the visor. The visor stays fully up when it’s not all the way down. That’s a bummer, but Triple Eight promised to work on this and improve the helmet’s architecture.
2.It’s not cheap: This helmet costs a couple hundred dollars. Now, you could get three good enough helmets that offer good enough protection such as the Triple Eight Dual Certified open-face helmet. But what would happen if you went flying off your skateboard after hitting a hidden obstacle and landed face-down? I’ll leave that to your imagination.
3.The helmet fogs up a little when the user rides in cool weather. But don’t most helmets fog up even when the manufacturer has clearly stated the visor has anti-fog properties?
4.The visor comes tinted, and if you want a clear one, you’ll have to spend more.
The Triple 8 Downhill Closure System
Some comparable helmets come with a D-ring closure, the kind commonly used in motorcycle helmets. And this type of closure works well. The good thing is that the buckle-type closure of this helmet works pretty well, too. Jason can operate the buckle pretty easily even with cold, gloved hands. The straps seem well-made, and they’re pretty durable.
One small gripe I have with the straps is that they offer little adjustability. You must rely on the tightness of the straps to maintain a solid fit throughout the ride. But if you choose the right helmet size, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. At least, I’ve not heard any riders complain about the issue.
Here’s something else that’s not exactly a deal-breaker but a source of constant irritation. The chin straps have this not-so-lovely way of waggling in the wind. And that can get you a little peeved. But you can always hide the mischievous chin strap ends inside the helmet.
Sound Perception
A well-built downhill racing longboarding helmet needs to support good sound perception. This lid comes with two ear vents designed to help the rider perceive sounds from the surrounding riding environment. You should hear ambient noise clearly.
And a helmet that lets you hear traffic with great clarity must be one of the safest products around. This product let’s you hear nearby moving vehicles so you can ride more safely and get home in one piece every time.When you move the visor all the way down, that gets things all sealed up. You won’t ask for a quieter ride as you adroitly bombs hills.
Add Stickers If You Wish
Do you love adding stickers off all kinds to your skateboard deck or helmet? If yes, that’s one more reason to choose this lid. The helmet’s exterior offers lots of room so you can plaster stickers so you can look all steezy as you fly down the gnarliest hills around wherever you live.
Triple 8 Downhill Racer Helmet Review: Verdict?
Is the T8 Downhill Racer helmet worth the money? Yes, this product is thoughtfully designed, looks nice, and offers a quiet, streamlined design. What’s more, the helmet is comfortable, fits well, and lets you make free movements with your head without hindrance. It also provides great visibility and a wide field of view during downhill rides.
But the helmet does have a few flaws such as the visor fogging a little and it not ratcheting. Plus, the helmet is only available in white and black.
Aside from these shortcomings, this product is a worthwhile buy and no rider should rue their spending. I recommend this helmet for people looking for an affordable brain protection bucket that boasts an extremely solid protection and safety credentials.