Schuberth C5 ANC Helmet | Noise Cancelling

In recent years there's been a lot of talk about noise cancelling in motorcycle helmets. And it seems like something that we should all want to take advantage of, but noise cancelling in a motorcycle helmet is not like the noise cancelling you get in a set of Bose headphones.

Frankly, we think a lot of people are going to be quite disappointed by the difference noise cancelling in a motorcycle helmet makes. The difference it makes is not nothing; but then again it's not huge. But what needs to be borne in mind is that noise cancelling will make nowhere near the difference that a set of even the very cheapest earplugs will make.

And so we counsel a degree of caution. Which is why we are going to adopt a different approach to other dealers.

Initially, certainly for the first few months until its capabilities and limitations are better understood, we are not going to make the C5 ANC available online. You can read all about it on the website, but you won't be able to buy one.

You can buy the helmet in the shop, but only after you have taken one for a test ride; and to that end we have a full set of ANC helmets for people to take out.

Yes, we're trying to manage expectations here, but more importantly we don't want anyone throwing pretty much a grand at a helmet only then to discover, after they've bought it, that it doesn't do what they thought it would.

The problem is that, wherever you buy an ANC helmet, if you ride in it and ultimately find its performance disappointing, you won't be able to take back. And it would be the same here at Motolegends.

If an ANC helmet develops a fault, we'll have it repaired or replaced, as is your legal right, but we won't take a helmet back merely because it's not as quiet as somebody hoped it was going to be!

Our thinking is that a 15-30 minute ride out from the shop should give you an understanding as to what the ANC helmet does, and what its capabilities are. If when you get back from your ride you like what you've experienced, then buy one; and if you do then the good news is that we are pretty much the only retailer in the UK to hold all the liners to customise the ANC's fit. And certainly we're the only company that won't charge for the liners.

But if you come back from your ride less impressed than you hoped you would be, then walk away. Don't buy the helmet. Invest in some earplugs, perhaps; or buy a Jag.

Listen, this way of going about launching the ANC helmet is going to lose us a lot of sales. We know that. People from all over the country, and indeed from all over the world, buy from our website. But for the first few months, and until such time as word has got around about how these helmets perform, we prefer the idea of making sure people go into this with their eyes open. Their ears too, I suppose!

Anyway, first let's tell you a bit about the helmet and how it works.