verything’s gone up lately, the price of a gallon of gas, a loaf of bread—and the price of a premium-quality motorcycle helmet. Notice that jump? High-end helmets are in the $600-plus range these days. Manufacturers who used to offer quality helmets for $300 have all but abandoned that price level, going for the big dollars. That’s left a huge hole in your product range, but it’s a niche that AGV fills nicely.
     Most helmet customers shop with a price firmly in mind. As soon as that retail goes over his pre-set limit, though, that customer shuts down. You’ve seen the scenario all too often these days. A customer shopping for a premium helmet heads straight for the high-end helmet rack. He knows what he’s looking for feature-wise, and it doesn’t take long to find what he likes. Then he gets a look at the price tag and just about chokes. $600-plus isn’t uncommon. So that helmet goes back on the shelf and his attention immediately drops straight down to those mass-market $150 to $180 helmets. It’s something less than he wanted, but it’s something he can afford.
     Do yourself and that customer a favor. Put AGV in there for this guy to consider. AGV helmets are priced right underneath those top-shelf models, eliminating that sticker-shock syndrome, and they don’t lack a thing as far as features, functions, fit or construction goes. Hey, the best racer in the world, Valentino Rossi, wears AGV. When a customer’s got his heart set on a high-end product, but can’t spend the $600 or $700 it might cost, it’s a safe bet you’ll get his attention with a quality, race-proven helmet coming with all the same construction and features he wants—and a price he can afford.
     Start with the XR-2, AGV’s premier helmet in the U.S. It retails for $474.95, and that’s for a model featuring eye-popping graphics. And point for point, this helmet doesn’t give away anything compared to those top-line models. This is a carbon/Kevlar helmet, featuring a fully removable liner. There’s a flush-mounted quick-release shield here, too (an actual advantage over some of those top-line helmets), and there’s a full ventilation system. The XR-2 has all the bells and whistles, every high-end feature you’d expect in a high-end helmet. Except the price. There are even USA-specific graphics, including an “Americana” model sporting a checkered flag fading into an American flag with an eagle tearing out of the back and stars and stripes everywhere.
     Race fans will perk up over the special-edition XR-2 Valentino Rossi replica helmet, too, complete with its hand-signed letter of authenticity from Rossi. That one sells for $549.95. Only 500 of them will be made, and is definitely worth the price to a discriminating rider.
     Want real AGV value? Take a look at the V-Flyer. While this one isn’t a race-replica helmet, it has every bit of that racer look, and certainly all the racer features. We’re talking carbon/Kevlar shells, flush-mounted quick-release shields, fully removable interiors with dual-density liners, and adjustable chin and forehead vents and exhausts. The works. And it all starts at just $349.95 for the solid colors, $369.95 for the graphic models. There’s a full complement of solid colors added to the V-Flyer lineup this year, too. Along with black and silver, now there’s Dark Silver, Red and Yellow—all the key colors people look for.
     Need even more value? Delete the V-Flyer’s racy top-vent sculpting and you can buy the Daystar, a carbon/Kevlar AGV for $269.95, $289.95 with graphics. The Daystar is an aggressively styled helmet, too, and it has that fully removable liner, quick-release shield, and AGV’s adjustable ventilation system. It’s available in Black, Silver, Yellow, Red and an assortment of multi-colored graphics. It’s a premium, feature-packed carbon/Kevlar helmet—priced well under three hundred bucks.
     And consider this: Because all three of these AGV helmets, the XR-2, V-Flyer and Daystar, feature removable liners you can do a really nice job of fitting them to a customer’s head. You can swap liners around to give a customer the exact shell color or graphics he wants in a size that fits him, too, and do it at 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon to make the sale. And the XR2, V-Flyer and Daystar all use the same quick-release shields, so that makes stocking easy, too. And there’s always that ancillary sale of a spare liner; it’ll make a season-old helmet seem brand-new.
     There’s one more AGV helmet you should know about, too, the Demon. A genuine advanced composite fiber (ACF) helmet, the Demon retails for only $184.95, $199.95 in a graphic. It’s lightweight, it’s aggressively styled, and it even features AGV’s X-Vent Air Dynamic Design to cut down wind buffeting and noise. And the price is definitely right.
     And so is the profit on all of this. There’s a nice dealer margin built into AGV helmets. Take a look in the Parts Unlimited 2004 catalog, starting on page 248. And call your rep. As a dealer the best thing you can do is to offer every possible option to a helmet customer, and when it comes to premium helmets at the right price AGV has the options.