Oakley DTR5 Helmet | Garage Finds
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Presented by Backyard Design
Mountain biking is a large part of our lives here at Swapmoto Live. In addition to being a great source of exercise that makes riding and racing motocross easier, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. As it is.on a motocross bike, a high-quality helmet is the most important piece of safety equipment while riding a bicycle. Recently, our belief about this was reinforced a hundred times over.
During the Salt Lake City Supercross Marathon, mountain biking the amazing trails in Utah was the most popular past-time for riders, racers, other team personnel, and the media. In the 26 days we spent in SLC we rode 21 times!
The Bobsled Trail in SLC is easily one of the best we’ve ridden.
Best known for its amazing eyewear and goggles, Oakley entered the bicycle helmet arena a couple of years ago, first with a pair of road helmets, then with a mountain biking trail helmet a few months later. The Oakley DTR5 helmet is quite unique and boasts several design features that set it aside from every other MTB helmet we’ve seen. Oakley incorporates the internal MIPS slip liner in a different manner than we’ve seen on other MIPS bike helmets, as it is incorporated into the helmet’s fit system and X-static liner. The forehead liner has a clever foam piece that has four channels that run across the forehead. When the adjustment dial is cranked down sufficiently, the pad channels sweat down the sides of your forehead and out just above your ears. Lastly, the DTR5 has a pair of clips built into the rear that securely holds your sunglasses when they’re not in use. At $200 the Oakley DTR5 is not the most affordable MTB helmet, but it’s not the most expensive, either.
Back to our time in SLC… at the very end of our last ride of the trip, I lost control and veered off the side of the trail in the tall grass/weeds. To be honest, I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned, as I applied the brakes and began to regain control. And that’s when it happened. I clipped a rock that was hidden in the grass and was catapulted over the bars and headfirst into a pile of basketball-sized rocks. I went from about 10 mph to zero in an instant, and the sound my helmet made when it struck the rock was sickening. That’s right…I remember the sound because I was not knocked out, foggy, dizzy, or in pain. The helmet did its job and spared me from any type of head injury.
The DTR5 was already my favorite bike helmet, but after it saved my life and proved its worth, I now value it for more than its design and aesthetics. I’ve since replaced it with a new all-back DTR5, but the all-white Minnaar signature edition is starting to look pretty sweet during this SoCal heatwave…
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Backyard Design was founded in 2010 by two privateer Supercross racers: Jared Hicks from Alabama and Philipp Klakow from Germany. What started off as a project to fund their Supercross racing efforts has now grown into a worldwide graphics manufacturer, with dual headquarters in the United States and Germany. Backyard Design is known for being one of the first custom graphics makers to have a completely interactive website, where customers can design their own kits with a few clicks on a computer mouse.
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