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"  Hardcore motorcycle tourers are so fanatic about adapting to varying levels of daylight that unless they own a helmet with a built-in, fighter pilot-style retractable shield, they&amp;#039;ll routinely pack an extra, untinted helmet visor in their saddlebag for when the going gets rainy or dark.  AMA SuperBike racer Josh Herrin doesn&amp;#039;t have the luxury of swapping shields while aboard his Monster Energy Graves Yamaha YZF-R1, so the professional knee dragger wears a not-so-secret weapon while battling the field of literbikes: clipped to his Bell Star Carbon helmet is a Transitions shield that can go from fully clear to completely dark in about 10 seconds.   &amp;quot;When it&amp;#039;s a 50/50 day and raining in parts of the track and drying in others is where I&amp;#039;ve noticed the biggest difference,&amp;quot; Herrin told Popular Mechanics in a phone interview. &amp;quot;At a track like Road America which is four miles long and sunny in some sections and shady in others, being able to see clearly gives me 100 percent confidence. It&amp;#039;s a big advantage.&amp;quot; My personal road test of Bell&amp;#039;s automatically adjusting shields certainly increased my confidence that a sudden downpour or spontaneous case of June gloom wouldn&amp;#039;t result in reduced visibility or compromised safety. But rather than Herrin&amp;#039;s at-the-limit needs for ultimate adaptibility, civilian benefits of photochromatic visors pertain more to planning and last minute ride route extensions than anything else-- after all, nobody wants to cut their ride short simply because the sun&amp;#039;s going down. The only apparent downside to the presto chango shields? Their $120 MSRP, which makes them a pricey proposition for casual riders. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/motorcycles/a9136/bell-photochromatic-helmet-visor/>