As unintelligent as it may be, our hot and humid weather is a big reason why many motorcyclists avoid wearing full-face helmets or helmets altogether. To tackle the hot weather, we saw BluArmor launching an external helmet cooler in India and yes, it did work but required you to fill water and charge to use (read the full review here). Now, there’s another solution, and this time around, it’s a lot more expensive at 599 dollars (around Rs 42,000). That would be the new Feher’s ACH-1 which promises to be the world’s first and only self-contained air-conditioned motorcycle helmet.
The helmet uses thermoelectric technology and evenly distributes filtered, cooled air throughout the entire interior of the helmet. Integrating Feher’s patented Tubular Spacer Fabric with the helmet’s comfort liner allows it to provide a consistently cooler internal temperature. The company claims that the temperature variance will be more significant in higher temperatures and can be up to ten to fifteen degrees cooler than the ambient temperature.
Feher has used technology from a thermoelectric cooling device that has been designed and developed for car seats. This technology is currently utilised in vehicles built by Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Infiniti, Lexus, and GM, among many others.
It’s not fully wireless though and the helmet is powered by your motorcycle’s battery. It comes with a harness to connect to the battery and a quick-disconnect cord that connects the helmet to the battery and powers the AC unit. If you do not wish to wire the helmet to the bike, the device can also be used with an external 12V battery pack (not sold by Feher) that can be purchased separately. Feher quotes that a 3,000mAh battery pack should power the helmet for two hours, there’s also a 12,000mAh unit that should work for six hours.
The ACH-1 is constructed out of fiberglass and it is impressive that Feher has managed to keep the weight to just 1,450 grams (+/- 30 grams). This is in the range of many high-end helmets and like them, it is DOT and ECE 22.05 certified. With a price tag of around Rs 42,000 (excluding Indian taxes), this helmet sits alongside similarly-priced, high-end helmets from the likes of Arai, Shoei and AGV.
What are your thoughts on a helmet like this? Let us know in the comments below.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
