The guys from Shoei Helmets just came through the office to drop off their latest helmet for us to shoot for the next issue. It looks awesome, and it’s so light I nearly lifted it up and over my head! The helmet will be featured in our December Buyer’s guide coming up, and even though I know Shoei helmets are on the expensive side, they really are worth it for the technology and the protection they offer.

Anyway, we rounded up the Quad crew and went to lunch with the guys from Shoei. As we were waiting to be seated at the restaurant, Bret from Shoei asked me if there’s anything new and exciting coming up in the world of ATVs. Of course, I can’t divulge the specific information on machines that I know of (or are rumored to be in the works), but I found it a hard question to answer…because there are so many cool things going on with quads right now. I mean, if you’re into side-by-sides, there’s a never-ending supply of aftermarket products to soup up your UTV. If you’re into sport quads, it seems that every two months some new innovation is put into action, and if you love utility quads, they just keep getting more plush and more agile. Bret deals a lot with motocross and superbike racing, and if some kind of innovation happens in those sports, it kind of just spreads evenly across the board. But with quads, things are so diverse that while some machines are refining fuel injection, others are focusing on suspension, and then some crank out sheer horsepower. It made me realize how cool quads are. There’s no one direction in the quad industry?there are advances in each segment of the sport and everyone can be excited about something that’s going on.