Is Alpinestars About To Take Over The Sportbike Helmet Market with the Supertech R10?
Alpinestars Supertech R10 testing at Misano
Alpinestars is known for a lot of things, but helmets may not necessarily be one of them. That’s about to change.
This may sound like old news if you’re in the motocross community, because in January 2018, Alpinestars introduced their off-road helmet to the motocross crowd, and to say that they entered the marketing swinging for the fences would be an understatement. What they introduced was an instant hit and clearly a top-tier helmet. That now insanely popular helmet is the Supertech M10, a full carbon fiber helmet with a ton of features. You’d be hard pressed to find anybody with first hand knowledge of it and has something bad to say about the helmet. Not only does it flow a ton of air and look pretty dang cool, but the safety features baked into the construction of the helmet make it one of the top choices in the category. It features a special Mips system to reduce rotational motion of the brain during impact, an adjustable headliner, emergency removable cheek pads, and an extended EPP section at the bottom of the shell to reduce collar bone and shoulder injury - just to name a few. Each of those being well thought out features that aid in both comfort and safety of the rider.
Alpinestars packed the Supertech M10 full of so much proprietary design and technology that you would think the helmet was from a experienced helmet manufacturer, but instead, the M10 was their entry into the market. They have a reputation for making some of the best gear available, and it’s clear that they wanted to uphold that notion when it comes to their helmet offering. Since the introduction of the Supertech M10 four years ago, the helmet has become highly regarded in the Motocross crowd and is popular for many reasons.
Now, let’s fast forward to present day and turn our eyes to MotoGP, because if it’s a sign of things to come, there may be a new top dog on the sportbike helmet food chain. That’s because Alpinestars began testing their Supertech R10 helmet in late 2022; a full carbon fiber helmet designed specifically for sportbike use. Our first real glance at the helmet was when Andrea Dovizioso dawned a full gloss carbon helmet specifically for testing and development at the Misano Circuit, but we are seeing more of the Supertech R10 as we inch closer to the start of the 2023 season with two more riders revealing the Alpinestars Supertech R10 in full race livery.
MotoGP stars Jack Miller and Jorge Martin both debuted the Alpinestars R10 during their team presentation and will be wearing them for the 2023 season.
From what we can see, the new Alpinestars Supertech R10 looks like it can live up to the success of the Supertech M10. It’s full carbon fiber shell, air vents, and large rear spoiler are about all of the features that we can confidently discuss, but our hopes of a Mips headliner, adjustable padding, easy to use visor system, and overall light weight are things we fully expect to see as more details emerge.
If Alpinestars is able to deliver the Supertech R10 in the same fashion as they did the Supertech M10, top helmet manufactures such as Arai, Shoei, and Bell may be getting nervous. Both Arai and Shoei have stuck to older technologies and almost pushed against moving forward for many years now. Arai has relied on their spherical R75 shape to reduce head trauma for decades now, only progressing in materials and air venting, while Shoei has developed new shapes, venting, and tried to appeal to the masses. Bell has performed some amazing things in the past few years when it comes to safety advancements, like their integration of Mips headliners, but their odd fitment, lack of color schemes, and low availability have kept many Arai and Shoei diehards from giving them a shot. Now there may be a new guy in town though, and perhaps Alpinestars has what it takes to disrupt the market. After all, most sportbike riders are already extremely familiar with the Alpinestars brand and reputation. Only time will tell, but things are already getting spicy.
View high resoltuion images of the new 2024 Repsol Honda MotoGP machine with it’s new livery and paint scheme.