Ben Spies return: Now there’s a NEW Spies replica helmet out for 2017! Still think he ain’t looking into this comeback seriously?

Ben Spies return: Now there’s a NEW Spies replica helmet out for 2017! Still think he ain’t looking into this comeback seriously?

Last week we brought you the first news of a potential comeback to the global racing world by American Ben Spies. And here’s the latest twist in that most tantalizing of track-based tales…

The former world superbike and AMA champion has got the paddock buzzing with a couple of tweets in which he confirmed that he would be up for a ride in next year’s Suzuka 8-Hour event.

It’s a significant announcement because Spies (pictured above) was amongst the most incredible racing talents of recent times until a serious shoulder injury suffered in 2012 whilst contesting the MotoGP championship for Yamaha sidelined him – until last week’s news the racing world had assumed that Spies was out of the racing scene for good.

But following on from news of the possible return by the man who re-wrote what you could do on a superbike comes this – a new-for-2017 HJC Ben Spies helmet. It’s a RPHA 11 model (the same one that we’ve already seen in the Star Wars Bobba Fett scheme a few months ago) so comes with top-end spec like the firm’s RapidFire Visor replacement system, extra-wide aperture so that you can see more out of the helmet whilst wearing it and the Optimized shell with the uprated venitlation system. Price is listed at Euro 479,90.

The lid’s colours are an ongoing evolution of Spies’ lone star design. It looks proper kick ass and it must be a coincidence that Spies is looking for a big-stage ride at the same time as a new Spies replica lid comes out… yeah, a coincidence… surely…