If you’re going to Paris anytime between now and the 8th of August why not take in Dainese’s A toute épreuve exhibition that’s being held at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie.

Dainese presents the history of protection from its origins to the current most innovative technologies and a look into the future.

The exhibit traces a correspondence between Nature and the first protective armors; from the armadillo’s carpace to suits of armors to a gallery leathers which have protected some of the greatest motorcycling champions of all time.

There’s also a short film by Italian director Ermanno Olmi entitled “La Vestizione Dell’Eroe” (dressing a hero), which describes the ritual of preparation of the knights of long ago through images of dressing before a race of Valentino Rossi, a modern knight preparing to face “battle”.

Another part of the exhibition is dedicated to innovative and technological development of technical sports clothing, including the D-Air leathers that several GP riders are now using and have already shown to save riders from serious injuries.

If you can’t be in Paris, here’s a video mini tour of the exhibition.

Continue reading: A Mini tour of Dainese's À toute épreuve" exhibition in Paris

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Next time anyone scoffs about the idea of wearing a helmet, no matter what type of motorcycle or scooter he or she rides, show them this pic of Marco Simoncelli’s AGV helmet.

The Italian rider highsided at the Sepang 2 tests at the speed of 115 km/h and came out of the crash with a badly scraped lid and a couple of rips in his Dainese D-Air leathers. Simoncelli suffered a mild concussion after he hit his head and taking some bumps and bruises on his body, but he’s walking and talking and ready to get back in the saddle.

Would someone not wearing a helmet end up the same way?

Source | dainese

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Leon Haslam took his first ever Superpole today at Phillip Island, so we decided to give you a closer look at Pocket Rocket’s new helmet design for the 2010 season. Designed by Drudi Performance, the Arai lid is two toned with blue on the right side and red on the left with a big white ‘H’ on the front and has kept the very popular angel/devil motif on his racing #91.

Arai will be releasing a replica on the Chaser model, that will be available mid year.

Continue reading: Leon Haslam's New Helmet Design

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Check out Carlos Checa’s brand new helmet design for this 2010 season. Checa who will be racing with Althea Ducati in WSBK, decided that it was time to change the graphics on his lid, and Nolan Group who supplies his helmets was more than happy to satisfy the rider’s request.

The designs on the helmet are a metaphor of Checa’s life and passions and each single design tells a story, with the animals expressing his love for nature, for free climbing, surfing and all extreme sports. The continents represent the Spanish rider’s feeling of being a citizen of the world and the top of helmet sees a windrose compass.

Nolan Helmets will be selling this X-Lite X-802 Checa Replica from April 2010 and is priced at € 539,00 and will be available in all authorized dealers.

Source | mypersonalhelmet

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Remember the Dainese Legendary Tour? You had to buy € 250 worth of Dainese and/or AGV products and you could win a trip to Italy to tour the Italian Dolomite Mountains with Marco Lucchinelli, Max Biaggi and Giacomo Agostini.

Dainese has put online this highlight video of the 2009 tour, so we can turn green with envy about what we missed out on; magnificent motorcycles, legendary riding companions, breathtaking scenery (except for snow in September) great Italian food, heady wine, what more can anyone ask for.

Source | motoblog

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These pics show the Tamburini T1 in both black and white as the MV Agusta F4, already a very smooth bike, gets the full carbon Tamburini treatment. There isn’t much information available on the Tamburini Corse website, which is why we’re indulging in all the pics, but we can only imagination the Tamburini T1 is an amalgamation of many of the MV Agusta F4 accessories available.

It would be a costly fit-out, but if you want to spice up your MV Agusta or Ducati even more, you could do worse than these sophisticated products. MV Agusta parts are designed for the F4 and the Brutale, while you can spruik up your Ducati 1198 or Ducati Monster. Go to Tamburini Corse for a closer look at the accessories on offer.

Continue reading: Tamburini T1: MV Agusta F4 gets tuned

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Dainese, world leader in the manufacture of protective clothing for motorcyclists who also owns Mavet and AGV is shutting down their production plant in Molvena, Italy and are delocalizing production to the North African country of Tunisia where they already have two plants with 500 workers.

Company management has decided to move the entire production line to Tunisia and fabbricate in Italy only a hundred of their top of the line leathers, mainly for professional riders, that include among others Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Max Biaggi.

The restructuring will see the Italian workforce that numbers 250, mostly women, cut by 80 employees who will loose their jobs with rolling layoffs for another 120 workers for the next 12 months with social benefits.

The decision comes following the economic crisis that has caused the slump of motorcycle sales that has impacted on the companies sales that are down over 25% and after negotiations with trade unions, Dainese has agreed to invest two thousand euros in re-training each employee layed off in order to avoid heavy repercussions on the local economy.

Molvena will remain the heart of Dainese and keep only R&D departments and continue work on their D-Air leathers that should be put into production at the end of this year.

Source | motociclismo.it

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Jorge Lorenzo’s Halo 3: ODST helmet that he wore during the last GP race of the 2009 season in Valencia is currently being auctioned on eBay.

The helmet is a Nolan X-Lite X-802 and this one of a kind lid has been hand painted to achieve three dimensional effects and reproduces the helmet worn by the hero of the video game Halo 3 ODST published by Microsoft.

Lorenzo and Microsoft have decided to devolve the money raised from the sale of the helmet to a Spanish NGO called Namaste, that is trying to improve conditions in orphanages across Nepal.

So if you’re interested in this unique helmet, just click here, and make your bid.

Source | motociclismo.es

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German helmet maker Schuberth goes the 3D animation way and has secret agent 008 promoting their rider’s mobile communication set for the Schuberth C3, C2 and Concept helmets.

Source | motoblog

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Packard Bell will continue to be one of Yamaha’s sponsor in 2010 and here are the first pics of their Valentino Rossi notebooks and netbooks designed by graphic designer Aldo Drudi of Drudi Performance, who designs all of Rossi’s helmets.

As usual Rossi’s #46 trademark is present as well as the sun and moon motif that are taken from the 9 times World Champion’s AGV Five Continents helmet.

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