Bell Bullitt vs Torc T1 (Which one to get?)

Bell Bullitt vs Torc T1 (Which one to get?)

by

Jeffrey
September 6, 2020
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Today, we’ll be doing a comparison between Bell Bullitt vs Torc T1 to see which one is better overall and which one you should get out of these two.

Let’s hit the road!

Bell Bullitt vs. Torc T1

Torc T1

Torc T1

We believe that the Torce T1 is clearly the better choice between the two. For less money, it provides you with the same features as the Bell Bullitt.


Wait…

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The Torc T1

Torc T1

“I bought both the Torc T1 and this Bell Bullitt helmet to compare the shell size ultimately. I like the look of the Torc T1 better, honestly, and who can argue that the price is much better than Bell Bullitt.”

Torc T1 is sort of a knockoff of the Bell Bullitt. I’ve had this helmet for about three weeks now, and in those three weeks, I’ve traveled about 2,000 miles wearing it, and so far, really enjoying it. It’s about half the price of the Bell Bullitt, which is nice, and it has a few features that I think are superior to the Bell Bullitt so I did try on a Bell Bullitt.

Design

One of the differences that this has and the bell helmet did not have was the only locking system. The bell helmet was a magnetic strap that came down about where this is and just hooked like a regular magnet would hear so the Torc T1 actually has a lock position and an unlock position which is pretty good.

Although, I will say I’d never put it on the lock because I have not had trouble with the shield flying up while going down the road.

The typical chinstrap on the average full-face helmet is gonna come to about right where your nose is, while the chinstrap on these retro-style helmets is going to be a lot thinner you know, so one thing I did notice on my trip was it was very easy to eat while wearing this helmet.

Take a sip of a drink just, do some different things that you could obviously do in a half helmet but you couldn’t do in the typical full-size helmet, so that’s nice.

All the liners do pop out for easy cleaning so that’s pretty good.

Ventilation

The ventilation on this helmet, if you’re someone that is used to a full-size helmet I’m gonna say that it has pretty darn good ventilation. You’ve got the two front vents obviously, and then if you look at the back, you have two mesh ones, which you cannot close.

I can’t say if they’re going to leak or if the profile is set far enough back where that’s not gonna be an issue. But, so far, I’ve been very pleased with it.

One of the things that I wasn’t crazy about, was the vents. The Torc T1 actually has closing Vince it’s a very positive click. If you’re going down the road, you can definitely tell when you close it. The same thing goes for the bottom.

Bell Bullitt had an open vent system which is not a problem if it’s warm out or not raining but if it begins raining you’re gonna want to close those vents if it’s cold you’re gonna want to close those bins.

Noise

The one thing that everyone complains about with these styles of helmets is that they’re noisy and granted it is going to be louder than a typical full-face helmet, however, as someone that has used half helmets exclusively, for I don’t know the past 10 years, I really wanted to get into a full-face helmet.

But I did not like the looks of my full-face helmets nor did I care for their profile.

Comfort

As far as comfort is concerned, it is very, very comfortable! One thing you’ll notice is that it is soft! It almost feels like a suede material.

One of the things that I don’t like about it, when you reach speeds of about 35 it whistles like crazy! Makes a lot of noise! You get used to it obviously, so it’s not the biggest deal I suppose, but it was definitely one thing that I wasn’t crazy about.

Visor

The majority of the time when I’m riding, I’m not even using the face shield. I’ve left this up, always wear sunglasses, and obviously, this is a clear shield but there were times where you are going pretty fast on the interstate.

I did pull the shield down and there were some bug guts on my shield, and it felt good! I was getting air, and that was on a 97-degree day, so that was nice.

The Bell Bullitt

Bell Bullitt

“It’s light, and the fabric over the padding is really soft. It’s a great full face helmet for people who don’t want the style of most full face helmets.”

Bell has a number of different brands out there copying them like for like, but the Bell Bullitt is the original. It comes from a brand that has got a massive experience over the years of pioneering the first full-face helmet, and ever since, they’ve kept up with being ahead of the game.

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Design

The original design of the bell star from the 70s and this is what this helmet is closely designed to really mimic kind of throwing back to that retro look it’s quite single-minded in its pursuit aesthetically of that retro look but it does have this side effect of just giving you a really good degree of open visibility and it makes it feel somewhat like an open-faced helmet.

it’s great for things like touring if you know you’re not doing motorway speeds predominantly because you get this large intake and it’s just really good for just being aware of your surroundings and soaking it all in which is a motorcyclist is what connects us to what we do and it’s why we love riding motorcycles so that’s a really good point

Because they’re retro they are not as technical as some of the street helmets this is kind of self-evident and it would surprise me if people were choosing this sort of helmet because they wanted the most technical thing.

The EPS liner is high-quality; it has three different EPS liners and three different shells in the sizing range from extra small to two XL.

In terms of the interior of the helmet, you get a really nice hypoallergenic, removable, and washable lining, so it’s nice and easy to keep it in top shape.

Visor

In terms of visors, there are loads of different accessories. You have a clear flat visor which is now more or less the default standard as the helmets as they come in the box, but it depends on which one you go for.

Sometimes, you might get a smoke shield as well to go with it particularly the carbon ones possibly a leather bag as well you can always accessorize some of the previous ones that came with a bubble clear shield as well and they are all available in tons of different finishes and colorways.

Some of the chrome and smoke visors make these helmets look absolutely stunning, really big fans of that. When it comes to the belt bullet we’re big fans not only because it’s done very well for us, but clearly, there are lots of people out there that really appreciate what Bell is doing with this helmet.

Safety

Being a fiberglass composite or a carbon-fiber composite, in the higher-end priced versions of the bullet is a very safe helmet it’s really well designed and well thought through.

Ventilation

We have genuinely good ventilation systems, and we have really neat features: such as the venturi vent at the back, so this is actually molded into the actual shape of the shell so an easy way of doing a vent and the back would just be to simply drill a hole put a cap on it and little open and close vent flap so that you can operate it as you wish.

It blends into the shell really neatly and with this little horizontal opening at the back, it creates back pressure drawing air through from the helmet creating an airflow teamed up with these five intake vents across the forehead area which look fantastic.

Comfort

This helmet was first released to do with things like the fit and the feel of it, so the original liners weren’t great. They could be quite uncomfortable and their shape was not so compromising or universal, and they’ve really done great work over the years to improve that!

We now have a very nice universal fit so basically anybody, unless you are a serious extreme of being round-headed or overhead, it is going to get on. The sizing is true to size and it’s very comfortable.

You get a double D-ring fastening system with a soft almost suede-like feel to this chinstrap pad which is going to make it even more comfortable.

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Noise

Relatively speaking, you have a nice compact shell but with a high-quality liner to go along with it, and this helps in some way with soundproofing. But, make no mistakes about it!

This is not one of the quietest helmets on the market so if you’re looking at it and you’re on a very loud bike and you’re likely to be doing long motorway constant speeds, it’s going to be loud, and it’s probably not the helmet for you, in all honesty.

If you equally need a helmet that is the absolute best when it comes to really bad weather riding, and it is going to be your go-to helmet for those kinds of conditions, I would maybe urge you against the Bell Bullitt.

Because, you do not get the best seal around this visor, and it’s such a large visor clearly it’s also letting in more sound. Also, because of the lack of what I would call a really high-quality modern Street seal, you do get some water and some air getting through.

There are better helmets for that and this is not going to be the market leader in that respect, but if you want a helmet that really encapsulates the spirit of the sort of retro look to the bikes but you want something that goes with it really nicely, beautifully finished, beautiful paint scheme, comfortable to wear, and timeless in its design, then the Bell Bullitt is definitely worth considering.

Overall

Bell Bullitt is undeniably more at the retro end of the full-face helmet market but it still has some really nice technical features incorporated very neatly into a really classy looking helmet that’s high quality comes with a 5-year guarantee that’s definitely worth mentioning so this is really good so this helmet is going to last it’s an investment in some ways as well.

Verdict

Even though it may seem that I did not like the Torc T1 when compared to the Bell Bullitt, but the case is completely the opposite! I loved the Torc T1 and I recommend that you get the same as well, as it costs way less and is almost as good as the Bell Bullitt and I didn’t find any compromises that made me want to switch back to the Bell Bullitt.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey Bryce is an experienced motorcycle rider with years of experience caring for motorcycles. His natural fondness for motorcycles have made him come up with LetsGoForARide.com, which is dedicated to answering and teaching you how to care for your bike with the care it requires. LetsGoForARide is the one of his important lifework in reaching out to communities of motorcycle enthusiasts on how to take care of their bike and choosing the correct spare part.