Please note: sale to France is prohibited.

The Mike artwork in TC-3, a yellow-based palette — and the only graphic in the GT-Air3 range that puts a high-visibility colour into a designed scheme rather than across the whole shell.

Five stars from SHARP — and which GT-Air earned them

Price and measured protection do not track each other reliably in helmets — SHARP's database contains five-star helmets at a fraction of this one's price and three-star helmets above it. That makes a rating on an expensive helmet worth more scrutiny, not less.

The GT-Air3 stands up to it: five stars out of five, tested June 2024 under the current ECE 22.06 standard.

About the Mike TC-3 colourway

There is a real argument for a yellow graphic over a plain yellow helmet, and it is about how vision works rather than how it looks. An unbroken block of bright colour reads at distance as a shape without depth; the eye registers that something is there but resolves it slowly. A colour set into a structured pattern gives the eye edges to lock onto, which is why high-visibility workwear uses banding rather than solid panels. Yellow is also the most effective colour to do this with: human daylight sensitivity peaks around 555 nanometres, in the yellow-green region, so a yellow element is resolved faster than a red or blue one of equal brightness. Store it out of direct sun and the pigment will hold — bright yellows are among the less lightfast in use.

What ECE 22.06 actually tests

The oblique test is the change that matters most and the one manufacturers found hardest. Adding a rotational limit meant rethinking how a shell's outer surface behaves in a glancing impact — how much it grips and how much it slides — which is a different problem from absorbing a direct blow.

ECE 22.06 sets that limit, and the GT-Air3 is certified against it.

AIM, three shells, and the EQRS release

Six sizes on three shells puts the GT-Air3 at the well-tooled end of the market. Every additional shell size needs its own moulds, its own EPS tooling and its own homologation testing — a cost that is invisible in a photograph and entirely visible on the scales and in a mirror.

Shell material throughout is AIM: fibreglass and organic fibres in resin.

CNS-1C and QSV-2 — the two screens

Worth planning screens as a pair rather than one at a time. A clear CNS-1C for winter and night riding, a smoke or Spectra mirror for summer, swapped in under a minute. The one thing that does not migrate between them is the Pinlock lens, which is pinned to a single screen.

The QSV-2 sun visor behind them works with any of the six tints.

Air in, air out, and why it is quiet

Earplugs remain worth wearing even in a quiet helmet. A well-shaped shell lowers the level; it does not remove the exposure, and sustained motorway riding will still take hearing over decades. What the GT-Air3 does is start from a lower level than most — its aerodynamic work is the reason testers keep calling it out.

Ventilation is unaffected by that: intakes face the airstream, exhausts sit high.

Interior, glasses and talking to the helmet

If a helmet is otherwise the right size but moves when you shake your head, that is almost always a cheek-pad problem rather than a size problem. Thicker pads hold the jaw more firmly, which stops the shell rotating under braking and closes the route noise takes from below.

Cheek and centre pads are both available in several thicknesses, all removable and washable.

Where it sits in Shoei's range

The GT-Air3 replaced the GT-Air II, and the generational step is larger than the numbering suggests: a new visor, a new sun visor, a revised aerodynamic profile and a shell tested under ECE 22.06 rather than 22.05. SHARP rated the original GT-Air three stars and this one five.

Parts do not carry between generations, which matters when ordering spares.

Around 1700 grams, and the rest of the honest list

If you are choosing between this and the modular Neotec 3, the trade is about two hundred grams and a slightly lower price against the ability to open the helmet at every stop. That is the whole flip-up proposition, and it is worth being clear that the full-face wins on weight, price and structural simplicity.

The GT-Air3's own costs are roughly 1700 g and an SRL3 that is not included.

When something wears out

A scratched visor is a safety part rather than a cosmetic one, which is the argument for replacing it sooner than feels necessary. Scratches are invisible in daylight and scatter oncoming headlights into a starburst after dark — and the tool-free quick-change removes the usual excuse for leaving it.

🔵 The correct screen is the CNS-1C, with the Pinlock EVO lens.

In the box

• Shoei GT-Air3 helmet — Mike TC-3
• Pinlock® EVO anti-fog lens
• Breath guard and chin curtain
• Helmet bag, manual and ECE approval documentation

Size guide

Specification

• Model — Shoei GT-Air3
• Part number — 11.20.116.2
• Colour — Mike TC-3 — Mike graphic, TC-3
• Homologation — ECE 22.06
• Safety rating — SHARP 5 of 5 stars (tested June 2024) — the first-generation GT-Air scored 3
• Helmet type — Full-face, sport-touring
• Shell — AIM (Advanced Integrated Matrix) — fibreglass and organic fibres; three shell sizes (XS–M / L / XL–XXL)
• Weight — approx. 1700 g (Shoei figure; independent measurements vary with size and finish)
• Sizes — XS to XXL (six sizes)
• Visor — CNS-1C, tool-free quick-change, staged detent with gap-width first position, blocks over 99 % of UV; six tints available
• Anti-fog — Pinlock® EVO lens supplied
• Visor tints available — clear, mellow smoke, dark smoke, Spectra silver, Spectra blue, Spectra rainbow
• Sun visor — QSV-2, integrated, stepless, glove-friendly slider, EN 1836; optional yellow contrast version
• Impact liner — multi-density EPS assembled from elements of differing absorption
• Retention — micro-ratchet chin strap
• Emergency system — EQRS — Emergency Quick Release System for the cheek pads
• Ventilation — intakes into the airstream, high-placed exhausts, removable insect filter in the lower front vent
• Interior — contoured centre pads, 3D pre-shaped cheek pads, removable ear pads, chin strap cover — removable and washable, several thicknesses
• Head shape — intermediate oval
• Communication — SHOEI COMLINK with pre-routed cabling and recesses for the SENA SRL3 Mesh (sold separately)
• Serviceability — visor, sun visor, all pads and the Pinlock lens available as separate parts

• 1x helmet
• 1x clear CNS-1C visor (pre-fitted)
• 1x Pinlock EVO anti-fog lens
• 1x set of spare pins
• 1x maintenance tool
• 1x breath guard