On the road
Other than the heat, the MK1S is quite pleasant to wear on the road. It connects to the controller and phone (a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, in my case) very quickly. Setting up routes in the app is a cinch and, for now, relies on Here Navigation, but I'm told Forcite's developers are working to port it over to Mapbox.
Navigation options are unfortunately limited. You can easily add waypoints, but for a motorcycle-friendly app, it would be nice if it did more to automatically cook up twisty, fun routes. When I spoke with Forcite's CEO and co-founder, Alfred Boyadgis, he promised features like that are coming, but we'll have to see how long it takes for them to get here.
Also coming, I'm told, are improvements to battery life. Just installing the Forcite app caused my phone's battery consumption to spike. I went from regularly having half a charge left at the end of the day to needing to plug in before the evening was through. That was the case even if I hadn't used the helmet that day. Simply having the app running in the background was enough.
Regarding battery life for the helmet, Forcite promises three hours of continuous video recording and eight hours of continuous music streaming and navigation. My testing shows the latter number to be conservative, as I'm seeing well over 12 hours on a charge with intermittent streaming and navigation.
The in-helmet speaker system is good, but I do wish it were a bit louder. On maximum volume, it's just barely enough for me to hear voice navigation prompts at highway speeds with earplugs in. Yes, you can take phone calls on the MK1S, and they're impressively clear in both directions.
Whatever media you play on your phone will play through the helmet, just like any other Bluetooth headset, and while I'm not a music-while-riding kind of guy, this is far preferable to obnoxious on-bike sound systems that force everyone at the intersection to listen to whatever garbage you have queued up.
Finally, there's the 1080p, 60 fps camera system, which has the potential to be great. Right now, though, it's not. You can set the MK1S to start recording automatically when you ride, acting like a two-wheeled dashcam. However, the default setting is to only enable when you press or hold the camera button on the controller.
This could be perfect for capturing one-off incidents, but in my experience, it often took upwards of 10 seconds after pushing the button for the camera to start recording. On a few occasions, it wasn't until minutes later that the camera finally fired. By then, whatever I'd hoped to capture was long gone.
Despite these mostly software-related glitches, after a few weeks of forcing myself to use the MK1S on every ride, whether on my decidedly analog 1965 BMW or an electric Zero Motorcycles DSR/X, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed having it. I don't need navigation for most rides, but for those times I did, it was great to have.
The best part? When I didn't want navigation and didn't want music, the MK1S wasn't dazzling me with data in my face. It just stayed quiet and dark, only flashing into life to warn of impending traffic or the like.
In other words, it was a genuine rider aid, not a rider annoyance.
The cost
Whether that assistance is worth the premium depends on your budget. Again, the Forcite MK1S costs $1,099 in the US. A top-shelf dumb helmet from brands like Shoei or Arai typically costs in the $600 to $800 range, but go with something more advanced, like a Schuberth SP1 Carbon with integrated Bluetooth, and you can spend in excess of $2,000.
If I were in the market right now, I'd be tempted to spend the extra money on the Forcite. It's not that much more than a new helmet plus a dedicated nav and comms system, and if Forcite can deliver on its promised software updates, there's the potential for this thing to become far more. Forcite CEO Boyadgis told me that he wants his company's helmets to evolve into proper smart companions, able to suggest routes, connect with friends, and, in future models, even pair with the bike to pull data from onboard sensors.
Will Forcite's lids get there? Only time will tell, but even if they don't, the MK1S is plenty useful as is. It's already the best choice for a smart helmet on the market—though, to be fair, it doesn't have much competition.
reader comments
80