Please note: sale to France is prohibited.

Fragments is one of two graphic families offered on the Neotec 3, and TC-2 is its light blue colourway. The TC code is Shoei's own designation — a two-part system where the graphic name identifies the artwork and the TC number identifies the colour combination it is printed in.

Five stars from SHARP — and the number behind them

SHARP publishes more than a star count, and on this helmet the detail is worth reading. The rating is five out of five; the shell is recorded as fibreglass at 1.7 kg; the format as System, meaning modular; and the chin bar stayed fully locked through 93 % of impacts.

That last number is the one specific to flip-ups, and it is close to the best achieved by any of them.

About the Fragments TC-2 colourway

Understanding Shoei's TC numbering makes ordering spares and matching parts far less confusing, and almost nobody explains it. TC stands for Team Colour, and the number is a fixed colour recipe used across Shoei's whole range rather than one model — which is why TC-2 on a Neotec 3 and TC-2 on a different Shoei will share the same palette even though the artwork differs entirely. For you that has two consequences. Replacement parts are ordered by graphic and TC number together, never by one alone. And if you already own another Shoei in a TC-2 scheme, this helmet will sit alongside it deliberately rather than accidentally. A light blue base also does something practical: pale colours read as further away and larger to an approaching driver than dark ones of the same size.

P and J, and what ECE 22.06 actually tests

A modular helmet has two states, and a homologation that covers only one of them is an incomplete answer. The Neotec 3 carries P for the closed configuration, chin impacts included, and J for the open one, under ECE 22.06.

Shoei is explicit that closed is the recommended state — the raised bar creates real drag above about 30 km/h — but open is certified, not improvised.

AIM, three shells, and the steel that holds the chin bar

Three shells, six sizes — and it is worth saying what that does not fix. Shell count solves size; it does not solve shape. The Neotec 3 follows Shoei's intermediate-oval head form, and a long narrow head will still feel brow pressure in it no matter how many shells the range uses.

What the three tools do decide is proportion, weight and EPS thickness, inside an AIM fibreglass shell.

CNS-3C and QSV-2 — and the Neotec II trap

The QSV-2 can be exchanged for a yellow, contrast-enhancing version without tools, and it is worth knowing that option exists. A yellow shade does not darken the scene; it lifts contrast in flat light — dusk, fog, heavy overcast — which is precisely when a tinted shade is useless and a clear view is hardest to get.

The outer screen remains the CNS-3C, with the DKS301 Pinlock lens supplied.

Quiet by design, and what that costs in airflow

Worth being plain about who this helmet suits acoustically. If your riding is long motorway hours, or you have any degree of noise-related hearing loss already, the quietness here is worth real money and is the strongest single argument for the Neotec 3 over cheaper modulars.

🔵 If your riding is slow, hot and urban, the ventilation compromise will annoy you more than the quiet will please you.

Noise Isolator, glasses, and talking to the helmet

The three-dimensionally shaped centre pad is not a marketing phrase: it is a pad formed to a compound curve rather than cut flat and bent to fit. A flat pad pressed against a curved EPS surface creates its pressure unevenly, which is where the hot spot at the top of the forehead comes from on cheaper helmets.

It removes for washing, as does everything else that touches your head.

Where it sits in Shoei's range

Three of the helmets in this table carry integrated sun visors and three do not, and that single feature explains more of the price differences than shell material does. A drop-down shade has to be designed into the shell from the start — it cannot be retrofitted, because ECE 22.06 tests everything fitted as fitted.

The Neotec 3 has one, the QSV-2, and it is among the largest Shoei makes.

1750 grams, and the rest of the honest list

If you are choosing between this and a full-face, the trade is roughly two hundred grams and some airflow against the ability to open the helmet at every stop without removing it — with glasses, with a beard, at a border post, at a fuel pump. That is the whole modular proposition, and it is worth being clear that it costs something.

Here it costs 1750 g and ventilation tuned for quiet rather than volume.

When something wears out

The chin strap cover is the smallest serviceable part and the one that gets the worst treatment — permanently against the jaw, permanently damp, and worked on by stubble. Most riders do not realise it detaches at all. It does, it washes with the rest of the interior, and it costs very little to replace when it has gone hard.

Centre pad, cheek pads and ear pads are equally removable and separately available.

In the box

• Shoei Neotec 3 helmet — Fragments TC-2
• Pinlock® EVO DKS301 anti-fog lens
• Helmet bag
• Instruction manual and ECE approval documentation

Size guide

Specification

• Model — Shoei Neotec 3
• Part number — 12.07.110.2
• Colour — Fragments TC-2 — Fragments graphic, TC-2
• Homologation — ECE 22.06, dual P/J (protective and jet)
• Safety rating — SHARP 5 of 5 stars (tested February 2024, ECE 22.06); chin bar fully locked in 93 % of impacts
• Helmet type — Flip-up / modular
• Shell — AIM (Advanced Integrated Matrix) — fibreglass and organic fibres in resin; three shell sizes (XS–M / L / XL–XXL)
• Weight — 1750 g (size M)
• Sizes — XS to XXL (six sizes)
• Visor — CNS-3C, tool-free quick-change, central lock, gap-width detent, angled upper edge
• Anti-fog — Pinlock® EVO DKS301 supplied
• Sun visor — QSV-2, integrated, stepless, covers below the eyeline; optional yellow contrast version
• Impact liner — multi-density EPS assembled from elements of differing absorption
• Retention — micro-ratchet chin strap; stainless steel chin bar locking mechanism
• Ventilation — intakes into the airstream, branched internal network, removable insect filter in the lower front vent
• Interior — 3D centre pad, Noise Isolator 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 EPS recesses for the SENA SRL3 Mesh system
• Serviceability — visor, sun visor, all pads and the Pinlock lens available as separate parts

• 1x helmet
• 1x clear CNS-3C visor (pre-fitted)
• 1x Pinlock EVO anti-fog lens
• 1x set of spare pins
• 1x maintenance tool
• 1x breath guard