AGV Pista GP

**WORDS: Aaron Frank
PHOTOS: AGV **

Conventional motorcycle helmets are designed from the outside in, starting with the exterior shell and then constructing an inner structure to fit. AGV’s new Pista GP turns this traditional process inside-out, beginning instead with a digital representation of the rider’s head and then designing the helmet outward from that. This revolutionary lid is the first product resulting from AGV’s ambitious Standards project, an effort three years in the making with MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi serving as the test subject.

Starting from a “digital head” created with cutting-edge CAE/CAD digital mapping technology allowed AGV engineers to design the structural components as precisely as possible. This maximizes protection and minimizes material requirements, resulting in a helmet that’s lighter, more comfortable and safer than ever before. According to AGV, helmets built to Standards protocol reduce brain trauma risk by 48 percent and residual impact force by 36 percent compared to current ECE-prescribed limits. The improved design also allows the visor window area to be enlarged 9 percent and the field of vision to extend 15 degrees further upward. Meanwhile, air intakes have almost tripled in size and aerodynamic lift is reduced by 44 percent.

[Debuted by Valentino Rossi at Jerez, AGV’s Pista GP is the first helmet designed from the inside-out using the Italian manufacturer’s new Standards protocol.

The results, Rossi claims, are dramatic: “Like switching from TV to the cinema.” Are you ready to upgrade to digital? AGV says the Pista GP will be available from authorized dealers as soon as this fall.