Croydon-based boutique motorcycle helmet manufacturer, Hedon, make helmets by hand from their London-based unit. Founded in 2011 by Reg Flint and Lindsay Chong, the name was derived from the word ‘hedonism’, a word meaning ‘the relentless search for pleasure’. Hedon wanted to create helmets that are a pleasure to wear, both aesthetically and from a comfort point of view.
In March of this year, Hedon was bought by TVS Motor Company – the third largest motorcycle and scooter manufacturer globally. The first fruits of this came in the form of the Series 1 Norton helmet.
Intrigued, MCN popped down to take a look behind the scenes at the Hedon Workshop.
“The Hedon helmet, they always stand out. You might see a whole wall of helmets, and there’s a Hedon helmet in the middle, and people will stop and say, ‘Wow… What is this helmet, it looks amazing?’” Reg Flint, co-founder of Hedon, told us.
Hedon claim to be the only remaining helmet brand that still manufactures in the UK, with around 20% of their total 5-6,000 yearly units being made at the Croydon workshop.
All of the bespoke, custom and limited-edition helmets are made in London, but when needed, they make some of the standard signature Hedon helmets here too. The other 80% are still made by hand in China, across two factories, using the same processes as those in the UK.
Reg told MCN that the products made in the UK are hand-built and finished here using parts and components that are made in China. The shells, EPS and other hardware are shipped over, and then the small team of four builders construct and hand-finish the helmets. The rest of the 12-strong UK team are involved in design, customer support, finance and so on.
The shells are brought over with a layer of primer and are then polished by hand until there are no imperfections. These are then hand-masked, no stencils or decals, and painted in Hedon’s own paint booth, and any details are added before being lacquered to achieve the perfect finish.
This means that each helmet will be ever so slightly different owing to its individually crafted nature. “If you look at the paint quality in detail, you can see we use many layers of varnish so it gives the paint this real depth and this shininess, so it looks like this amazing, quality object,” Reg explained.
Once the painting is complete, the helmet then gets its stitched leather trim to the edges and visor port before getting the EPS impact-absorbing layer added. Finishing touches like the leather chin strap and visor mechanism are installed before the helmet is checked over and sent out to the customer.
You might think that a Hedon helmet is style over safety, but as with all helmets sold in the UK, they meet the ECE 22.06 standard and DOT for sale in the US. Most models are intercom-ready with speaker cutouts, making them practical too. The latest models, the Psilo and the Norton Series 1, even have clever Quin pod tech within to help you track your ride and call emergency services and next of kin in the event of an accident, among other features.
The current range consists of the open-face Hedonist, the full-face Heroine Racer, the open-face Epicurist 2.0 with a full-face shield visor and the latest addition of the Psilo Explorer adventure helmet .
The new adventure helmets maintain the Hedon timeless look, which was important and challenging for designers. “It’s always been a challenge. How do we create a modern-looking helmet that is retro-inspired? I think for us, les…