Retro helmet

Buying a full face retro or vintage helmet to match your new retro café racer is harder than actually building the café racer in the first place. If you want the partial protection of a 3/4 helmet the world is your oyster, there are companies like Bell, Biltwell and a million others who build beautiful lids and you can even get them custom painted to match your delicate, snowflake-like uniqueness.

Retro full face helmets are a whole other ball game. Obscure helmet maker Tachibana out of Japan makes great looking full face lids based on the vintage Bell Star and after a few weeks of research, I’m here to tell you they might just be your best bet. The helmets are tough, safe and handmade. By all accounts these helmets would probably pass the DOT test, but no one has actually tried. This model, the Tachibana GT-750 retails for 29,400 Yen, that’s about $360 USD. It’s available in white, black or sunset orange and is available for international orders through motobike.jp here.