A grinning cartoon imp with a wide toothy mouth and one enormous eye, sprayed across a white shell in pink and violet with scribbled graffiti tags around it. IMP A8 is the most deliberately silly helmet MT makes, and the graphic is doing more work than it looks.

About the IMP A8 graphic

The base is a bright gloss white. The character sits across the flank in heavy black line work, its wide mouth wrapping forward into the chin bar; behind it are splatter shapes and hand-drawn tags in magenta, violet and pale lilac. The visor mechanism cover is black, and a small MT logo sits under the character's jaw.

What makes it work rather than look like a sticker is the wrap. The face is drawn to the shell's curvature so it is undistorted at the widest point, and the mouth continues onto the chin bar rather than stopping at the panel line — which is the hard part, and the reason most character graphics stay confined to a flat area.

What a graphic actually costs

Nothing structural at all. The pattern is printed onto the moulded shell and then sealed under the clearcoat; the HIRP shell, the EPS liner and the ECE 22.06 homologation underneath are identical to the plainest Stinger 2 MT sells. You are paying for a print run, not for a different helmet.

What it does cost is resale interest and, marginally, UV life: magenta and violet are among the least lightfast pigments in any paint system. Keep it out of a sunny window and it holds its saturation for years of ordinary riding.

Looking after gloss

Never wipe a dry shell. Road grit dragged across a gloss clearcoat leaves fine swirls, and on a white helmet with a dark graphic they show more than on anything else.

In exchange, gloss can be corrected — a light swirl comes out with a mild polish, where the same mark in a matt clearcoat is permanent. Soak insects off under a damp cloth laid over them for a minute rather than scrubbing; insect remains are acidic and etch clearcoat if a hot afternoon gets to them first.

ECE 22.06 · no DOT

The Stinger 2 clears the current European standard, mandatory since January 2024: 18 impact points against the 22.05's five, several speeds, an oblique impact against an abrasive anvil for rotational loading, and a Brain Injury Criterion limit. No DOT marking is published for this model.

No sun visor on this model

There is no drop-down shade. A smoked MT-V-28B is the answer and it is a separate purchase; MT-QVSS makes the swap a matter of seconds, but the screen has to be in your bag.

MT-QVSS

Two buttons, no tools, workable in gloves. MT's patented quick-change mechanism, and on a helmet with a graphic this detailed there is a second reason to value it: the screen is the part that scratches, and a scratched visor on a helmet you like is a compromise people live with for far too long.

The shell

HIRP — High Impact Resistant Polymer — injection-moulded, around 1,600 g.

A thermoplastic shell is heavier than a composite for the same strength and considerably more consistent unit to unit, because injection moulding is a repeatable industrial process where hand lay-up is not. At this price that consistency is worth more than the grams — and it is what lets a helmet costing this much clear the same standard as one costing five times as much.

Anti-fog and interior

The screen is prepared for Pinlock DKS435; the insert is not in the box. The lining is hypoallergenic, removable and washable, with room for a universal UCS intercom's speakers, and the closure is the MT-MDTC double-teeth ratchet.

Buying a first helmet

This is very often somebody's first helmet, so it is worth writing down what nobody says in a shop.

Buy for fit before anything else. A helmet that is the right size and the wrong colour protects you; the reverse does not. Do not buy a size up because it feels comfortable in the first minute — the padding gives two or three millimetres in the first hours and then stops, so comfortable-in-the-shop becomes loose-by-March. And do not buy secondhand, however good the price and however honest the seller: the EPS liner crushes once and does so invisibly, so there is no way to tell whether a used helmet has already done its job.

A character graphic narrows the second-hand market considerably compared with a plain shell. That matters less than it sounds — a helmet has a five-year life and a low resale value regardless — but it is worth knowing that you are choosing this one for yourself and not as an asset.

The other side of it: a helmet you like is a helmet you wear. That sounds trivial and it is not. The most common reason a helmet ends up unworn is not discomfort, it is that its owner never much wanted to put it on.

Who buys this one

In practice, two groups: riders who want a first helmet that does not look like safety equipment, and experienced riders who own something sober and want a second helmet that is fun. Both are good reasons. What matters is that the fun is entirely on the outside. The protection is exactly the same as the plain version — no better, no worse, and not a penny of the price difference is structural.

What it does not have

• No sun visor.
• No DOT marking published.
• No safety rating. The Stinger 2 is not in the SHARP database.
• No Pinlock insert supplied.

In the box

• MT Stinger 2 helmet — IMP A8, gloss white with a pink and violet character graphic
• Protective bag, user manual and MT Helmets stickers
• Clear MT-V-28B fitted; smoked screen and Pinlock sold separately.

Size guide

Specification

• Model — MT-Helmets Stinger 2 · Part number — 1334E12A81 (XXS–XL: …02 to …07)
• Colour / finish — IMP A8 — gloss white with a pink and violet character graphic
• Homologation — ECE 22.06 · no DOT published
• Safety rating — none published for this model
• Class — full-face, the entry point of MT's road range
• Construction — injection-moulded HIRP thermoplastic, about 1.6 kg
• Size range — six sizes, XXS through XL, covering 51 to 62 cm
• Screen — MT-V-28B on the patented MT-QVSS mechanism
• Anti-fog — Pinlock DKS435 ready · not supplied
• Sun visor — none on this model
• Retention — MT-MDTC micrometric double-teeth closure
• Interior — hypoallergenic, removable and washable
• Communication — universal UCS intercom slot
• Manufacturer — MT Helmets, Spain
• Fitting — snug on the cheeks when new; between two sizes take the smaller
• Care — never wipe a dry shell; soak insects off rather than scrubbing
• Replacement — immediately after any impact, otherwise after about five years

• 1x MT Stinger 2 helmet — IMP A8 — gloss white with a pink and violet character graphic
• 1x protective bag
• 1x user manual
• 1x sheet of MT Helmets stickers
• No sun visor on this model · no Pinlock insert included