Chill out with mini-air cooling unit for helmet

Ever been caught in a heavy downpour during a traffic jam?

If you have, you would probably have experienced your helmet visor fogging up due to the heat generated inside the helmet.

You could do one of two things - open all the helmet vents or pop your visor open. But that would invite the rain in.

On the other hand, riding a motorcycle when the mercury is hovering at an uncomfortable 33 deg C would probably make the inside of your helmet feel like an oven.

Well, the answer, in the form of a mini-air cooling unit called blusnap, is right at our door step.

The only problem?

It is currently out of stock, local distributor Hodaka Motoworld told The New Paper.

MADE IN INDIA

Recently launched in Singapore and made in India, blusnap, which costs $100 and weighs about 350g, aims to be a simple solution to riding in a tropical climate.

It boasts a micro climate that is "6 to 15 degrees lower than the ambient".

Roughly 1½ times the size of an adult's palm, the device easily attaches to the front of the helmet via a strap and velcro.

We borrowed the blusnap for a couple of days and discovered that it fits helmets only with a round or contoured front.

Inside the blusnap is a mini-fan, a filter that is meant to be damp and a small water tank.

There is also an on and off switch, plus a USB port to charge the device.

Most importantly, two slender rubber hoses from the blusnap unit channel cool air into your helmet, near the chin area.

When I first rode my motorbike with the blusnap attached to my helmet, it was magic.

Not surprisingly, it invited stares from other motorists as I must have looked like the villainous Bane from the Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.

But inside my helmet, it was a different world. For once, I forgot about the heat outside.

Under my full-face helmet, it was pleasant to have cool air at the front of my face.

It was not distracting even though I could hear the gentle hum from blusnap's mini-fan.

Having cool air was a welcome relief.

Maybe it was my imagination, but it felt more soothing when the vent on my helmet's chin bar was kept in the "Open" position.

While blusnap boasts a 10-hour battery life, you would need to top up the water after about two hours of use. This is easily done by lifting blusnap's rubber lid.

With blusnap in use, your helmet visor is unlikely to fog up.

But when you have not turned on blusnap and your helmet visor fogs up, switching on the device would result in the part of the visor, closest to the two rubber hoses, to instantly "clear" up.

In our non-scientific indoor experiment, our fogged-up visor was 70 per cent "clear" two minutes after blusnap was switched on.

If you do not mind the bulk and how blusnap looks on your helmet, the device is an innovative way for a biker in Singapore to keep a cool head.