Its perfectly dark enough. got caught at night with it a few times and can still see a little bit. Been rocking them for years. Dont go Íridium, they scratch really easy.

 

I have the Shoei X-12 with a dark smoke visor, chrome/mirror tinted visor, and clear visor.

The dark smoke visor is just as dark as the chrome/mirror tinted visor. It doesn't look dark from the package but once on the helmet you can't really see inside the helmet with the visor closed.

A good way to test them is to hold a dark surface over one side because light will not be coming from inside the helmet. That's why some of the visors have that dark side on the package (only on the color tinted visors).



Mine got scrached a little but one day developed some strange damage over the visor surface.. almost like a chemical was wiped over the tint and it wore through. I guess I'd have to take a picture. If you're going with a high end tented visor expect it to get damaged.

 

Shoei dark smoke is real nice. Better do the pinlock & insert...... otherwise I think they fog up crazy bad. Something my older shoei visors never did.

No problems at all with the insert installed thou..

 

The dark smoke is pretty much on par with most brands I've ridden in. It'll do that job

 

My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight, i.e. I wear sunglasses ALL the time, sometimes even at night... Cue

The Shoei Dark Smoke is plenty dark for me. As stated above, you really can't tell just how dark it is until you have it installed on the helmet and look through it. Holding it up in the store really isn't the best way to judge what it'll look like from inside the helmet.

 

I like the spectra shields. Unlike smoke, they work in the dark too.

 

I picked up a SHOEI Spectra Gold shield for my RF-1000... big improvement over the stock clear shield. Works great during the day, blocks the glare and at night is still "visible". It was about $70 at helmetcity.

 

Thanks for the input. I've ordered the genuine Shoei dark smoke. I have the clear, and an aftermarket iridium that appears to be light smoke, but this time of year in Sydney I ride into the rising sun in the morning and into the setting sun on the way home so a darker option is important. My old Shoei was an RF900 and the genuine dark smoke worked well.

 

I have the dark smoke that I use for day time riding and like it. Blocks the sun very well. I usually keep one lid with a dark smoke visor then my other lid with a clear visor for night time riding.

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dark smoke is as dark as it gets. every now and then as the sun goes down a darker visor might be better, but the dark smoke isn't dark enough to make night riding unsafe. i never swap and wouldn't want too. any darker and you'd need to.

 

I also rock the dark smoke visor and it's great. Left my house around 630 this morning with the sun barely peeking up, and it wasn't bad riding with the dark visor. Left work at 2 pm to a clear sunny sky (doesn't happen often in belgium) and it worked perfect.
I lived in Super Sunny FL for 7 years and ALWAYS rocked the dark visor and carried my clear visor with me wrapped in the helmet bag in case I needed it when it got dark.
You won't regret the dark visor. I also think you should stay away from iridium... I've never had one, but all of the dudes I know that have/ had them piss and moan that they scratch SUPER easy.

 

I like the Hi-Def visors.