Shoei Personal Fitting System – Full Process Explained – Get the right fit!

Shoei has just launched their P.F.S. or Personal Fitting System in the UK, and I went along to the first event, held at Bikestop in Stevenage. The PFS is a highly technical method of ensuring you get the perfect fit for your Shoei Helmet. It’s the same system used by professional racers from MotoGP, the Isle of Man TT, BSB etc. You too can now get this sophisticated offering via a network of premium Shoei retailers, so I took the opportunity to go through the whole process with Chris from Shoei UK to show you exactly what’s involved, and what the results are. A massive thanks to Chris and Martin for allowing me to hijack the launch event to bring you this video.

If you’re shopping for gear, use the code “MANCAVE’ to save 10% on all orders over £100 at BikeStop – https://www.bikestop.co.uk/

A big thanks to my channel partners for their support;
SW-Motech – https://sw-motech.co.uk/?ref=MANCAVE (Affiliate Link)
Dunlop Moto – https://www.dunlop.eu/en_gb/motorcycle.html#/
Ultimate Ear Protection – https://ultimateear.com/ (Use the code ‘MANCAVE12’ to save 12% )

00:00 – Introduction
00:27 – What is PFS?
03:29 – The measuring process
07:24 – What goes into the helmet
10:17 – Test Fit
12:47 – Fixing the adjustment pads
15:40 – Final Check
17:50 – First Ride in the Helmet & Conclusions

Hi Tony here welcome to the channel where I’m at a rather noisy Bike Stop in stevenage High Street and I’m here because showy are today launching their PFS or personal fitting system so I’ve come along to find out what it’s all about and I’m going to show you exactly what’s [Applause] involved okay so I’m now inside the store I’m here here with Chris from showy who is running this launch event um an expert fitter I’m not going to tell you what’s involved in this because obviously I have an expert sat next to me so Chris can you just uh explain to

Us briefly exactly what the PFS system is uh well the PFS system has been uh used in Japan for a number of years now and the data that they’ve collected is now being converted into the European fit helmet models uh essentially what it is it’s using this measuring tool uh to

Measure the uh the L length of the skull the width of the skull and the fitting height of the helmet and then we also measure the circumference across those contact points we feed that into show his PFS system and what it will do is it will suggest a recipe as the Japanese

Call it for the um size of the helmet but also which of these pads which are in front uh would need to be placed in which quantity and in which density and in which location that will then do is it will compensate for the shape of the

Wearer’s head and the size within the Apper of the helmet and hopefully when they put it on they go perfect fit perfect okay yeah so that’s quite different to some of the others I’ve seen where they’ll just generally measure the circumference of your helmet that’s right well if you think of me do

It by feel almost if you like indeed if you if you measure a circumference a circumference say of a hat for example you can have a 56 CM circumference but it doesn’t um compensate for it being a round head or an oval head it just tells you what the distance is around the

Outside what this system does is it will actually be a little bit more specific than that co uh and it will uh compensate for the the shape as well as the size okay and you touched on as well that um the the Japanese helmets are a different shape they have a different

Head form in yeah so the Japanese helmets are a rounder shape okay um they also conform to Japanese industrial standard JIS um and uh the actual top of the uh head is is slightly different shape as well to the European I’ve seen people say well I’ve a helmet’s been

Launched and it’s not launched in the UK and I’ve ordered it from Japan and it’s a terrible fit yes and that’s the reason why if you’re unless you’re you’ve got a round head and you’re very lucky that it fits you indeed yes so um sh we actually produce different shapes for different

Regions so the Japanese helmets will be uh smaller sized and rounder the European helmets are an intermediate oval and then the American helmets are larger size and a more of a longer oval they also conform to a different uh dot standard so not ecce like the European

Ones perfect so I’m here to get a helmet fitted and this will be interesting because normally I can put a large showy helmet on and say it fits perfectly Chris might be able to tell us otherwise it’ be interesting to see for me that thinks yep a large in any show helmet is

Going to work well so we’re going to go through the process with the GTA3 to see how that actually fits as I said I think I should be able to put that on and it’d be perfect we’ll find out what the computer says uh so let’s just crack on

With the fitting okay right then turn I must warn you that I am going to touch your head in a rather intimate manner so um yeah just be you can at least want me a drink first so the first thing you need to do is find your occipital

Protuberance which is uh the technical term for the knobbly bit on the back of your head which is is around about here um so with this measuring tool I’m just going to take a a measurement of your length Okay so it’s important for me to get the line of the

Tool level with that and then can you just put your chin up a little bit for me thank you so this is effectively measuring the contact points front and rear so I’m measuring you there at 2011 mm okay now next I’m going to measure the

Width and the height now you can see the width of this tool is a little thicker than perhaps the arms of sunglasses would be okay but uh if you could just um position this using your your hands to where it would feel comfortable if that was a pair of sunglasses for

Example okay it’s about there y yeah so let’s do that okay then you can let go so I’m going to say 157 okay your width and your height measurement there will be 96 okay um so the next thing we’re going to do is measure your circumference now what’s slightly different about this is

That we’re not measuring the normal circumference say where we would measure here okay we just need to go a little bit more over the contact Point okay that we measured previously so with that I would say you bang on 600 mil okay so and we’ll pop

That into here and then we press check on the system what that suggests Tony is that you are a good fit in the medium so she previously thought you were large not a problem so um basically a medium or a large is a is a suggestion right

Okay um generally what I do is to try you in both just to see uh which feels more comfortable do we have a medium GTA 3 there there we go GT 3 should be all yeah sure so let pop that one on for me okay you’re in looks it looks a little snug

In there yeah is a little bit yeah okay so in which case we’ll work with the large cuz that does look uncomfortably a bit too SL yeah it was immediately it’s it’s snug but it’s snug that in half an hour yes will be an issue okay we’ll be we’ll be um having

Problems so well that’s the beauty of this system is that it what it does is it also caters for people who’ve perhaps bought the wrong size helmet so it will give the um it will give the suggestions for sort of sizes either side okay um this is the large so that with yourself

There were two two possible sizes the medium or the large right okay so with the large um effectively it’s going to be reduced in size in certain points on the inside okay so you look a a lot more comfortable in there yeah so imediately still feels snug yeah but but it’s not as

Okay crushing so your eyeline within the helmet there is good so you just lock your head for me so I mean it’s not sliding over the the top of your head there and then if you could just push the helmet forward a little bit from the

Back yeah I mean you’ve not got a huge amount of Gap there I would say that needs some uh minimal refinement but on the whole that’s that’s quite a good fit okay uh out the box um but anyway let’s T some pads in you can see the

Difference so this is a PFS set which is um shootable for near Tech 2 or GT2 um some of the pads have some commonality with the newer models the GT3 and the nech 3 the main difference is that on the newer models these Crown pads are exchanged for uh some

Oval-shaped ones which are similar to use the ones that are used in the XS spr Pro so with each of the pads there are different densities so there’s a soft uh density and there’s also a firm and what the uh shy PFS system recommends is which pads in which quantities and which

Location you affix to the inside of the crown liner in order to compensate for the wearer’s size and shape head so just to run you through what the uh the different pads are these are the front pads um these are the crown pads so these go down the middle the left and

The right these are the rear pads these are the side lowers or the whales as the uh Japanese like to call them and these are the fish which are the upper sides perfect um there’s lots of different pads for different helmets so I can show

You another set maybe for an XS spr Pro or a uh a glamster or a j and you’ll see that whilst whilst they are similar they are different shapes cuz each one is bespoke cut to match the liner for the front it suggested one firm and one soft

Pad so we’ll just place that in Loosely these are just test fitting pads so this is just to give us an idea of how the helmet fits before we actually commit to all right so you just put them in place and then they’ll actually be stuck in

Once always making sure that the soft side is uh next to the rider’s head so I’ll just Place those in so that’s the rear and then for the sides we have the whales so that’s interesting actually the medium I probably if i’ have put that on I probably could have quite easily said

But as you say I’m somewhere in between the two either would work I could put that one and go yeah let’s bear with this and and bed it in yeah I presume you could then go for could you go for thinner pads you could could you could

Have had a um a standard it comes with a 9 mil Crown liner you could have gone down the size to the five if you wanted to have a smaller shell size as possible then um that might have been a solution but the difference between the large and

The medium shell in terms of white isn’t huge right okay um you might also be better having the larger the large shell versus the medium just to give you a bit more room around the face as well okay yeah okay so that’s uh the suggestion in

Let’s give it a try Okay okay so this is with the suggested PFS recipe in Okay so we’ve got one hard one soft in the front one hard one soft in the rear and a set of softs in the side so how’s that feeling yeah largely the

Same I can feel a little bit more grip on the front not pressure as such but there’s a bit more grip there yeah and a fraction more in just under that that hump of your y on your head whatever you what did you call it what did you say it

Was the ospital protuberance that’s it yeah so it sort of fits I can feel it underneath that there there’s some pressure there so the pressure that you’re feeling at the front and at the rear is that equal to the sides or you say it’s perhaps a little bit more

Little bit little bit more on the front perhaps okay all right so what we’ll do now is we’ll just refine that I’ll take out maybe the hard one from the front and we’ll just leave the soft one in and then we’ll do a comparison it’s a bit

Like the Opticians one or two one or two perfect so we’ll take that one out the front uh and then we’ll replace that with just a soft perhaps okay so that goes that way yeah you can feel the difference all right then Tony that’s with the one of the hard ones removed

Out of the front okay still the hard one in the back soft one in the front uh so you got a hard and a soft in the rear and then a soft one in the front right here is that feeling a bit more balanced yeah yeah definitely yeah the the amount

Of pressure on the not really pressure but that feeling of grip on the front m is just slightly backed off now yeah but it’s still feels like it’s gripping me for sure so one one thing that we can do let’s say for example um it was too

Close around the the the mouth we could actually take the pads out the back and then move them to the front which would move the helmet on your head to give you a bit more room around the face but yeah that’s sometimes a problem I do have but

I think not with this yeah I think if it was a medium helmet y yeah watch CH I can’t really touch on the gim bar okay even if I’m trying so again just lot you had for me so that’s that’s gripping really nicely now um just push the

Helmet forward for me so yeah just like a tip of a finger in there with your cheeks have you open and close your mouth are you just nipping your insides of your cheeks slightly a little bit yeah a little bit okay and uh pressure front back left right and the top all

Feels equal all feels very yeah very much and even pressure all the way around excellent well in which case I’d say you’re good to go so we’ll stick your uh pads onto your crown liner perfect fantastic okay that’s amazing actually how different that felt yeah I mean it’s we’re talking like fraction of

A millim uh these are 3 mil um these are also 3 mil but compar they compress down to like one and a half right so we’ll now take your crown liner out uh and then just make a note of what we had which was that that that that and

These what I quite like about this system is it is a bit more scientific than just a a a feel yes in terms of how does that feel when it sometimes if you’re particular I suppose if you’re buying your first helmet you won’t necessarily know how it should feel yeah

Right then Tony so now we’ve uh done your test fit what we’ll actually do is we’ll replicate the test pads that we fitted onto the crown liner of the helmet so we’ll position these on so that’s your uh one soft and this is your one hard

It’s not the first time you’ve had a hard one in the rear so once these have been on for a few minutes um that it should be good uh for the rest of the liner’s life you can still uh wash the liner as you as uh as

Normal you just give it a hand wash uh around about 30° 40° okay it uh should remain firmly attached so that’s your front and Rears on pop your whales on the side so these are very subtle adjustments but hopefully the adjustments will make all the difference

Obviously it will bed in a little bit over time yeah round about 10% is yeah not not a huge amount but actually as you say going in to the larger shell size meant I’ve got more room in the in the chin and potentially I’m going to

Use this helmet for filming and I want to fit a microphone and stuff inside so that’s that’s quite important for me so that’s kind of uh um how it attaches I’ve got one more fish to add which I need to go and get from the uh

From the stock but uh yeah perfect all right okay Tony so that’s those uh pads fully fully sticked in y Ming up my hand fisted attempts of putting on a helmet okay so so good we’ll just uh click you in there at the bottom okay yeah that is spot on that is perfect

Like a glove to use an expression but it’s definitely different from when I first put this on with as as a standard helmet it felt like it fitted nicely mhm now it feels like it fits properly all around the head MH it’s a subtle difference but one that certainly can uh huge difference

Make an effort so we’re suggesting that the charge for this service is £50 okay if you think of it as like uh instead of just going into a trainer shop and trying on some trainers it’s kind of the equivalent of having a gate analysis and having some

This is the service that we offer to our our Racers so the TT and the BB guys have this so for the customer that wants that perfect fit wants to go that extra mile maybe somebody that commutes or uses the helmet a lot they’re wearing it

For a long period of time where Comfort is the the most important thing then uh this could be the service also maybe if you’ve got a like a particularly odd shaped head or you’ve had uh like brain surgery maybe you’ve got a bit of your skull missing okay um we can also comp

Fall out with the PFS program no I think from from from that point of view it’s not a ridiculous price if you’re going to invest what’s this helmet 60050 650 if you’re going to invest that in a helmet an extra 50 Quid M to make sure it fits properly and is super

Comfortable it’s a bit of a no-brainer really isn’t it indeed well sh we do offer uh an exchange program on the cheek pads and Crown pads on a helmet from new that’s actually a service not offered by shy themselves but by farx the UK importer where we can go up P

Down at a cheek pad size but it’s not as bespoke or as tailored okay excellent perfect lovely thanks Chris all right you’re welcome wow that’s amazing okay so that is the fitting process done very comprehensive and it’s amazing how just a little bit of uh change to that padding what a

Difference that makes to the helmet so I’m done here at Bike Stop thing I’m going to do now is get out and ride in that helmet and give you a bit of feedback on how that feels and we’ll wrap up the video after That okay so I’ve now racked up a couple hundred miles in this helmet and what are my thoughts well it the fit is absolutely perfect I’ve got no hot spots I’ve got no kind of red marks when I take the helmet off I just get that

Really nice snug fit all around my skull um it doesn’t move around it it is it’s perfect and because it fits so well it is actually very quiet and that’s one of the things I talk about in my helmet reviews when people ask is it a noisy

Helmet is it a quiet helmet depends on how well it fits you this now fits me absolutely perfectly and this is I would say a very quiet helmet but I will do a full review on the GTA 3 that will be coming up on the channel once I’ve had

Time to do lots more miles in it wear it in the rain all that sort of stuff um but having that personal fitting definitely makes a difference not only to the Comfort but also to the noise adding the extra 50 Quid into get a customized fit is I think a no-brainer

So um yep really really good definitely worth doing if you’ve got any questions about the process uh or if there’s anything that you’re unsure of let me know in the comments section down below and all that leaves me is to say thanks for watching take care ride safe and I’ll see you soon Bye