Early this year, Italy’s Limar launched their new Livigno full-face helmet. The Livigno is a very lightweight, well-ventilated helmet that is definitely ideal for enduro riding but is also DH-certified for racing or bike park use.
Since Spring I’ve been riding the Livigno in the bike park and on my local trails, and it has left me with little to complain about. It is very lightweight, offers a great field-of-view and easily keeps your head cool enough for mid summer enduro/trail riding.
Limar Livigno – Construction and Features:
The Livigno features a polycarbonate shell made with In-Mould construction and a chin bar built from ABS and Polystyrene. The visor is also made from flexible ABS. The Livigno’s shell is covered with plenty of vents all around, and inside is a lightweight MIPS Air liner to reduce rotational forces in a crash.
The Livigno includes Limar’s Air Fit Evo dial-operated retention system. The system’s rear cradle is height adjustable with five positions. Up front, the Livigno’s visor offers three height positions. The top setting is completely out of view but could be useful for stashing goggles on your forehead. The bottom two positions are visible in your field of view.
Other construction details include a Fidlock magnetic chin buckle, and a soft cover for the chin strap.
Goggle Fit:
At first glance I was a bit concerned about the Livigno’s goggle compatibility, as the sides of the face opening aren’t very tall. However, it proved to be less limited than expected. I tried several pairs of goggles with it and found my Smith Squad goggles and 661 Radias fit no problem.
Leatt’s 4.0 X-Flow goggles worked OK, but the helmet’s shell does keep them off my face slightly, which puts some excess pressure on the nose. My Leatt Gravity 4.0’s did fit but the shell’s sides keep their wider frames from sitting snugly against my face. The foam does make contact, so they are wearable with the Livigno.
There’s no channel or indent in the shell to indicate where your goggle strap should sit, but your fingers can find the ridge above the rear vents fairly easily. The goggle strap does sit over the two central rear vents, but it doesn’t significantly reduce airflow.
Ride Impressions – Fit:
The shape of the Livigno’s shell fits my head well, with no pressure points or uncomfortable areas. Right out of the box I wore the Livigno for a few hours in the bike park and had no discomfort at all.
The Livigno’s interior padding is slim and the cheek pads are on the small side, but they provide adequate comfort. Limar includes thicker and thinner cheek pads with the helmet, and I’m using the thinner ones. These pads are perfect for me, they’re just snug enough to hold the helmet in place but not tight on my cheeks.
Limar’s helmet sizing works out great for me. A medium fits 53-57cm heads and mine is 56cm, so the shell isn’t larger than necessary. On the trails I found the fit nice and secure, with no movement on my head even without the retention system super snug.
Air Fit Evo Retention System:
I like the open-face style retention systems found in the Livigno and some other pedal-friendly full-face lids. Adjustable retention systems in full-faces can provide a very secure fit when correctly positioned and snugged up.
That said, I did have one issue with Limar’s Air Fit Evo system. It is height-adjustable to five different positions, but it slips out of position very easily. Several times I noticed it had been accidentally bumped into its highest setting. This may have happened while putting the helmet down on the trailside, or tossing it in my car, but once I bumped the system upwards while simply putting the helmet on.
I get the best fit with the retention system in its middle height position, but luckily even when it gets pushed up the Livigno still fits my head snugly. However, with the system in its highest setting the dial is hard to access as it sits almost underneath the back of the shell.
Field Of View and Visor:
The Livigno’s field of view is excellent. The chin bar sits low enough to allow great lower visibility, so while descending in the bike park or climbing my local trails I had no problem seeing enough of the trail below. Side visibility is practically unlimited, and even with the visor in the lowest position I didn’t find it was blocking much of my view.
While I found the sun would get around the sides of the narrow visor on the bike park lifts, it did provide a useful amount of shade while I was trail riding. I always kept the visor in its lowest position, and I wouldn’t likely use the two higher settings for riding. The highest setting does leave plenty of room for goggles, if you want them off your face while climbing or hanging out.
I’m not a big fan of the visor’s height adjustment on the Livigno. There is considerable play in the top and bottom positions, but the middle position holds tight. The visor never shook around or made noise while I was riding, but it’s a bit cheesy that it can move around quite a bit in its high/low settings. This also makes it initially a bit tricky to figure out which setting you’re in.
Ventilation:
The Livigno easily earns top marks in the ventilation category. I was very happy to be wearing it on hot summer days in the bike park, and on my local trails. This helmet is one of the coolest full-faces I’ve ever worn, with very good ventilation from all sides.
In late summer the Livigno got the ultimate trail test. I spent 3.5 hours riding trails and shooting photos, in 33° C (91ºF) of pure sunshine. The Livigno remained impressively comfortable throughout! On this ride I noticed you don’t feel a lot of airflow while climbing, but heat must escape well because no part of my head ever got particularly hot in this helmet.
The only parts of the Livigno that make it warmer than an open-faced helmet are the cheek pads, and they’re not very big. Aside from exactly where your cheeks contact the pads, the rest of the helmet stays pretty cool. The heavily cut-out chin bar hardly reduces airflow at all, and there’s space inside the chin bar for air to circulate well.
Final Notes:
The nicest thing about the Livigno I haven’t yet mentioned is its impressively low 597g weight. This featherweight full-face is excellent for lengthy enduro/trail rides. Despite me usually wearing open-faced lids outside of bike parks, I never got a sore neck from riding in the Livigno.
Another big plus was how silent the MIPS Air liner was. With previous MIPS liners in certain helmets, I have noticed they produce a lot of creaking as you ride, but the Livigno’s MIPS Air system never made any noise at all.
The magnetic Fidlock chin buckle is pretty easy to use, and definitely easier to operate with gloves than a small traditional buckle. The fabric-wrapped chin strap is a nice touch – it’s more comfy than it would be without!
Limar’s Livigno full-face helmet is available in Black, Sand, Green, and Matt Deep Mint (as tested) colors. Sizes medium and large are available (each with its own shell), covering heads from 53-61 cm. MSRP is $249.95.