Scorpion EXO-AT960 Review

Two helmets in one shell

The Scorpion EXO-AT960 is the most versatile helmet we cover, and that’s both its appeal and its compromise. It combines a flip-up modular chin bar — the touring feature you use at every stop — with a removable adventure peak and goggle-friendly styling, so the same helmet works as a flip-up touring lid on the highway and a peaked dual-sport lid on gravel and fire roads. Most riders choose between a touring modular and an adventure helmet; the AT960 says you don’t have to, if you’re willing to accept a jack-of-all-trades design.

Certification: the current standard

Unlike its budget stablemate the EXO-GT930, the AT960 carries the current ECE 22.06alongside DOT. That’s the newest European standard, which added oblique/rotational and multi-point impact testing over the older 22.05 — our safety-ratings guideexplains what that change tests for. Getting 22.06 on a helmet this versatile and this affordable is a genuine value point, and it’s the reason to spend a little more than on the GT930 if you don’t need the removable chin bar.

The features that make it work

The AT960 has the practical kit a do-everything helmet needs: a drop-down SpeedView sun visor for low sun without swapping shields, an EverClear fog-free main shield, and EXO-COM Bluetooth-ready pockets so you can add an intercomcleanly. The peak is removable for pure highway use, and the shield comes off for goggles when you’re in the dirt. It’s a helmet built around options, and it executes each of them competently rather than any one of them perfectly.

The honest trade-offs

The cost of all that versatility is weight. At around 1,858 g in a medium the AT960 is the heaviest lid we cover, because a polycarbonate shell carrying modular hardware andan adventure peak simply weighs more than a focused helmet. On a long day that’s neck fatigue, and the peak adds wind buffetingat highway speed, as every ADV peak does — some riders remove it for the slab and refit it off-road. The second trade is inherent to the concept: a jack-of-all-trades isn’t as polished at any single job as a dedicated helmet. It’s not as quiet or light as a street modular, and not as dirt-focused as a lightweight carbon ADV lid.

How it compares

Against the Bell MX-9 Adventure, the other value ADV pick, the AT960 adds the flip-up chin bar and the sun visor the Bell doesn’t have; the Bell answers with MIPS and a slightly lighter shell. If you want the outright best adventure helmet regardless of price, that’s the carbon Klim Krios Proat nearly a kilogram less. The AT960’s argument is breadth: no other helmet near its price flips up and takes a peak.

Who it’s for

Buy the EXO-AT960 if your riding genuinely mixes pavement and gravel and you want one helmet that flips up at stops on the road and takes a peak for the dirt — and you’ll accept real weight for that flexibility. If you mostly ride one surface, buy the focused helmet for it: a lighter touring modular for the road, or a dedicated ADV lid for the trail. But as a do-everything crossover at a value price, with the current ECE 22.06, the AT960 is a lot of helmet for the money.