Please note: sale to France is prohibited.

Basalt Grey is named after volcanic stone and behaves like it: a cool, slightly dark grey with no blue and no warmth in it. It is the neutral in this range that is not black, and on a helmet worn mostly in town that distinction is worth more than it sounds.

What an open-face helmet does and does not do

An open-face helmet is a deliberate compromise rather than a compromised full-face. What you gain is real: unobstructed sight lines into your periphery, air on your face in traffic, and a helmet light enough at around 1150 g that a full day in it is unremarkable.

🔵 What you give up is chin and jaw protection entirely. The ECE 22.06 open-face category covers the rest of the head; it does not cover that.

About the Basalt Grey finish

Grey is the most underrated colour on a helmet because it does the two things riders actually want at once. It is quiet — nothing about it competes with the motorcycle, and it does not date — and it is meaningfully more visible than black in exactly the conditions that matter, which is dull light against a cluttered urban background. A driver's eye resolves a mid-value object against dark tarmac faster than it resolves a dark one. It is also the most practical finish here for daily use: grey sits at the point on the value scale where road film, dust and water spots all show least. If you ride this helmet every day, all year, and do not want to think about it, this is the one that asks the least of you.

AIM, four shells and a double-D ring

Weight on a helmet is structural, not cosmetic, and around 1150 g is light for a fibreglass composite shell in four sizes. It comes from the AIM layup rather than from thinning anything: several fibre materials in one matrix let the stiffness be put where it is needed and left out where it is not.

The liner beneath is multi-density EPS; the strap is a double-D ring, adjusted by pulling rather than by clicking.

The CJ-4 visor — and the Pinlock that does not exist for it

Consider the photochromic CJ-4 if you ride at both ends of the day. It darkens under UV and clears again indoors or at dusk, which on a helmet with no drop-down sun visor removes the need to carry a second visor at all.

🔵 It behaves less well behind a car windscreen, where UV is filtered, and like every CJ-4 it cannot take a Pinlock lens — the visor is not Pinlock-compatible.

Press studs, peaks and goggles

🔵 A practical warning about peaks and visors used together. With the CJ-4 visor down and a peak fitted, your upward field of view is reduced — noticeable at traffic lights with high-mounted signals. Most riders who run a peak run it with the visor up or removed, and goggles instead.

The rear goggle loop exists for exactly that combination.

Ventilation without a single vent

The design brief here was clearly „nothing on the outside". No vent covers, no spoiler, no adjusters — the shell is one uninterrupted surface, and the airflow is routed through it rather than over it.

That is why the helmet photographs the way it does and why it looks like something from fifty years ago while behaving like something from this decade. The cooling comes overwhelmingly from the opening.

Interior, trim and getting the fit right

If you wear glasses, an open-face is the easy option and this one is easier than most: the liner has spectacle channels, and with no chin bar you simply put the glasses on afterwards rather than threading them in.

The rest of the interior follows Shoei's usual approach — fully removable, washable, and available in several pad thicknesses so the fit is adjustable rather than fixed.

Around 1150 grams, and the rest of the honest list

The J•O2's specification sheet is short, and that is deliberate. Around 1150 g, four shell sizes, one visor with three positions, three press studs, a double-D ring. There is very little on this helmet, and everything on it works.

🔵 Among the things that are not on it: any provision for a communication system. There are no speaker recesses in the padding.

Where it sits in Shoei's range

If your riding is genuinely mixed — town during the week, longer runs at weekends — look hard at the J-Cruise 3 before committing to this one. It is the jet built for distance, with a sun visor, communication routing and a visor that takes a Pinlock lens.

🔵 The J•O2 is the better helmet for short journeys, classic machinery and warm weather, and the worse one for two hours of motorway.

When something wears out

Genuine parts matter more on a helmet than on most things, because the visor, the padding and the retention system are all part of what was certified. A pattern visor with different optical properties is not the helmet that passed ECE 22.06.

Everything we stock for the J•O2 is Shoei's own: CJ-4 visors, base plates, peaks, and interior padding in several thicknesses.

In the box

• Shoei J•O2 helmet — Basalt Grey
• Shoei helmet bag for storage
• J•O2 logo stickers
• Instruction manual and the „Correct use of your helmet" booklet — worth reading rather than filing
• 🔵 No peak and no goggles — both are separate accessories
• 🔵 No Pinlock® lens — the CJ-4 is not Pinlock-compatible and none is made

Size guide

Specification

• Model — Shoei J•O2
• Part number — 13.11.028.2
• Colour — Basalt Grey — Gloss stone grey
• Homologation — ECE 22.06, open-face category
• 🔴 Chin protection — none — this is an open-face helmet and has no chin bar
• Independent rating — none — SHARP does not test open-face helmets, so no star rating exists for any jet
• Helmet type — Jet / open-face, classic styling
• Shell — AIM (Advanced Integrated Matrix) fibreglass composite; four shell sizes (XS–S / M / L / XL–XXL)
• Weight — approx. 1150 g
• Sizes — XS to XXL (six sizes)
• Visor — CJ-4, integrated, three-position drop limiter, rounded lower edge, tool-free change
• 🔴 Anti-fog — not Pinlock-compatible — no anti-fog insert is made for the CJ-4
• Visor tints — clear, dark smoke, Spectra Silver, Spectra Gold, High Definition Yellow, photochromic
• Sun visor — none — adapt with a tinted or photochromic CJ-4, or with goggles
• Impact liner — multi-density EPS assembled from elements of differing absorption
• Retention — double-D ring
• Ventilation — integrated, no external vent hardware; not adjustable
• Peak mounting — three forehead press studs — Classic, GT and Retro MX peaks plus V-480 shield (all also fit the Shoei EX-Zero)
• Goggles — imitation leather strap loop at the rear of the shell
• Interior — fully removable and washable; cheek and centre pads in several thicknesses; spectacle channels; PFS fitting available at a Shoei dealer
• Trim — imitation smooth and nubuck leather around the face opening
• 🔴 Communication — no provision — no dedicated speaker recesses, no designed-in system
• Serviceability — visor, base plates, peaks and all padding available as separate parts

• 1x helmet
• 1x Shoei helmet bag
• J•O2 logo stickers