Troy Lee Designs and Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista are showing their on-going support for the relief efforts following the tragic events in Japan earlier this year, by holding an auction for the actual custom painted Shoei helmets worn by Álvaro Bautista during the USGP races in Laguna Seca and Indianapolis. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

The auction begins today, September 1, and will run for 10 days, ending Sunday, September 11.
You can check out the auction on eBay here.

This beautiful paint-scheme has been created by Troy Lee Designs’ Japanese designer Maki Ushiroyama and features all the flags of the fourteen countries on the MotoGP calendar, with pride of place going to the Japanese ‘Nisshōki’ or ‘Hinomaru’ – as it is more commonly known – on the top of the helmet. The colors of all nations is to represent the global support for Japan following the tragedy in March and an added message in Japanese translates as ‘Ganbare Nippon’, which literally means ‘Cheer up Japan, do your best and don’t give up!’ This is the actual helmet worn and raced at Laguna by Team Rizla Suzuki rider, Álvaro Bautista, and features some road rash after low-siding his Suzuki GSV-R while battling for a top six finish. The helmet is personally signed by Álvaro Bautista and Troy Lee.

Because the helmet was worn by Álvaro at Laguna Seca, where he crashed out of the race, there is visible damage to the shell. The helmet should only be used for display, not to be worn as protection for motorcycle riding, since the integrity is now compromised.

Donations received through your country’s Red Cross or Red Crescent Society will be used for Japanese Red Cross relief and early recovery activities, for example, for the purchase of a set of electric household appliances for people moving into purpose-built temporary houses and the provision of specially-equipped beds for elderly people who requires special care. As of 18 August 2011, JPY 40.6 billion (USD 529 million) has been donated through National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world.

Source: Troy Lee Designs

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista will have a one-off Troy Lee designed Shoei helmet at this weekend’s USGP at Laguna Seca, to show TLD’s and his support for the people of Japan following the tragedy there earlier this year.

This beautiful paint-scheme has been created by Troy Lee Designs’ Japanese designer Maki Ushiroyama and features all the flags of the fourteen countries on the MotoGP calendar, with pride of place going to the Japanese ‘Nisshōki’ or ‘Hinomaru’ – as it is more commonly known – on the top of the helmet. The colours of all nations is to represent the global support for Japan following the tragedy in March and an added message in Japanese translates as ‘Ganbare Nippon’, which literally means ‘Cheer up Japan, do your best and don’t give up!’

Bautista will wear the helmet for the first time during Saturday morning’s practice session at Laguna Seca and will continue to use the design for the rest of the weekend including Sunday’s 32-lap race. He will also use the helmet during the Indianapolis Grand Prix next month after which this unique helmet will be auctioned to raise funds in support of a Japanese charity. The full details of the auction and how you can bid on this amazing helmet will be released after the Indianapolis race.

Maki Ushiroyama – Creative Director, Troy Lee Designs:
“As a Japanese person, and because we have many Japanese staff at Troy Lee, it was a great honour to do this design for Álvaro to wear at Laguna in support of Japan. I really wanted to help my homeland and this is a great way to do it. I wanted to create something very cool that Álvaro would like and also very tasteful to support all the people that were affected by this tragedy. I think we have succeeded in that because Álvaro loves the design and I’m really pleased his reaction has been so positive! The graphic shows that all the 14 countries visited by MotoGP are supporting Japan, and I guess I can call the big red circle on top the heart of Japan!

“On one side is the American flag to represent the heart of Troy Lee Designs, the Laguna Seca Circuit and US Suzuki. On the front is the Spanish flag for Álvaro’s heart and along the back the UK flag is there to represent the crew’s heart. Along with the team, TLD looks forward to auctioning this absolutely one-off helmet and aiding a charity back in Japan to help the people that need it most.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

When the Rizla Suzuki Team signed a new agreement at the beginning of 2010 for a collaboration with the legendary designer Troy Lee, it also meant that all the team gear, the bikes and the rider’s helmets were to be designed by the American company. This created an interesting overlap of designs as Starline Designers‘ Roberto Marchionni had already created the 2010 helmet for Alvaro. However, due to the team’s new deal with Troy Lee Alvaro never actually got to wear this helmet on track and it disappeared into the depths of the designer’s locker.

But recently an Italian helmet design blog unearthed this “helmet that never was” and posted some pictures of the original Starline design.

What do you think of the design? Do you prefer this one or the official 2010 design by Troy Lee?

You can also check out all of Alvaro’s previous helmet designs since he started in the world championship here.

Photos: Starline Designers via Racing Helmets Garage

Pictures of Alvaro’s livery for the French Grand Prix in Le Mans this weekend. Since French laws don’t allow for Rizla to be promoted by the team, the bikes now have the rider number’s on the side.

Another surprising change this weekend is that Alvaro apparently changed his helmet sponsor and now rides with Shoei instead of Suomy. The slightly different form of the new helmet also causes the design to be adjusted a little, moving the number 19 from the side further to the back.

Photos courtesy of Rizla Suzuki MotoGP.

At the last MotoGP preseason test in Qatar which concluded yesterday Alvaro presented a new helmet design which appears to be his official 2010 helmet. The design was – like the rest of this year’s Rizla Suzuki livery – created by Troy Lee.

The helmet features the same colours as the one we’ve already seen at the test in Sepang, but a very different style overall. Big yellow shapes on the top and back of the helmet and a yellow 19 on each side give a contrast to the base colour of Rizla blue while white and silver forms with the new trademark pink outlines create an overall very colourful impression.

The back of the helmet features the shadow of the new Bautista logo and a slightly revised version of the well-known devil mascot.

It is not clear yet whether this is indeed the official helmet design Alvaro will be wearing throughout the 2010 season and when it might become available for purchase. We will keep you updated.

Which of Alvaro’s helmets do you like best?
Read through our full history of them here in our special feature article, look through the choices here and vote in the poll at the bottom of the page…

Have you ever wondered about Alvaro’s helmets and their designs? We give you an overview of all the personally designed helmets Alvaro’s been using in his career so far.
And once you’ve found out all about them, you can VOTE for your favourite in our exclusive poll here…

Alvaro started his world championship career as a wildcard in 2002 with the helmet sponsor NZI. It’s a relatively small Spanish company that isn’t too well-known outside the Iberian Peninsula, but they sponsored a lot of Spanish racing stars in the past and Alvaro stayed with them for six seasons.

His first personal NZI helmet in 2002 was designed to match his Atletico Madrid livery back then and it made a great looking complete package. Alvaro wore that helmet for all races in the Spanish Championship that year and his wildcard entries in Catalunya and Jerez. His mascot at the time was already a devil, albeit not looking much like the mascot he has nowadays. He wore a differently designed helmet for his wildcard at the Valencian GP which was most likely a regular design of NZI’s product line that year.

2003 was Bati’s first full season in the 125cc world championship and his NZI Vitesse helmet design was a pretty simple one at that time. But the silver base design with black, red and blue elements, topped off with stickers of his name, number and mascot already bore some resemblance to his design in the following years. It’s interesting to note that for the first two races of the 2003 season Alvaro’s mascot was not a devil but instead the head of a bull with fire coming out of its nostrils. The inaugural Spanish championship round in Catalunya was the first time we saw the fun devil mascot that Alvaro still has today.

In 2004 Bati wore the same helmet as in 2003 for the first race in South Africa and in various practice sessions throughout the year, but at the Jerez GP he unveiled the trademark helmet design which should stay with him until the end of his championship winning season in 2006. Although the design stayed the same (bar a few very minor variations of colours and shapes) the helmet was further developed by NZI and Alvaro promoted the NZI Vitesse and NZI Razer II with this design during the years.

There were only two different designs during that time. The first was a special one-off helmet for the Valencian GP 2004 which – along with Alvaro’s leathers – had a slightly different colour scheme to represent the Spanish flag. And Alvaro’s championship helmet which he wore during the Japanese GP in 2006 and during the practice sessions of the following Portuguese and Valencian GP was a modified version of his normal design with a large number 1 on each side.

With his move to the 250cc class in 2007 Alvaro also changed his helmet design completely. His new NZI Spyder III helmet, designed by the Spanish company Zero Racing, now matched his blue and white livery much better. A blue and silver base colour with dominant red details and tribal features made the perfect addition to the rest of his safety gear. An interesting detail of the first helmets he wore that year are the colours of the Spanish flag incorporated on top of the helmet. However, these were not used in all GPs that year and the replicas sold by NZI do not include the Spanish flag either.

2008 saw not only a colour change for the Aspar Team, but also a change of helmet sponsor for Alvaro as he switched to Suomy. His first personalised design of the Suomy Spec 1R, created by Bargy Design, wasn’t used for long though. The very bold blue, red and white design tries to play with Alvaro’s devil mascot and features two stylised devil heads on the back and the top of the helmet. The helmets used by Alvaro in the races also have his name embedded in the design on the back. However, due to a company policy of Suomy this is not a feature of the replicas sold to the public. Suomy replicas in general do not include the personal numbers or names of the riders, these are only made specifically for their sponsored riders.

Already in Mugello, the 6th Grand Prix of the 2008 season, Alvaro began to wear his new 2009 design regularly. Considering his red & white livery since the start of 2008, the mostly red and silver 2009 Spec 1R design fit much better in the combination and he kept the helmet all throughout last year as well. Just like with the 2008 helmet the race version of the 2009 helmet also has a stylised “Bautista” on the backside which is not included in the replicas sold by Suomy. This design and all special one-off helmets during the 2008 and 2009 season were created by the Italian company Starline Designers.

Special designs 2008 & 2009
Alvaro wore different helmets on three occasions in 2009 – Catalunya, Misano and Valencia – and one time in 2008 for the Jerez GP

His unique helmet design for Catalunya showed comic characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa on the back and a grim-looking windmill on top of the helmet. Alvaro’s hometown Talavera de la Reina lies in Castilla La-Mancha where the story of the book Don Quixote takes place which is a big part of La Mancha’s culture. Bati said about the design: “It is a design that I like a lot, it’s very original. Don Quixote is from La Mancha, like me, and we say that he was a bit of a crazy hero, a knight who went out to fight on his horse. He fought against wind mills, I fight against other riders.”

At the San Marino GP 2009 Alvaro wore a helmet during the race which appears to be a regular design of Suomy’s 2010 product range and is called “Wall Street”.

The very simple design of Alvaro’s helmet at the Valencian GP 2009 was a tribute to his team manager and good friend Jorge Martinez Aspar. Since it was already clear by the time that Alvaro would not continue his career with the Aspar Team, he wanted to honour the man who helped him become 125cc world champion in 2006 and fight for the 250cc crown multiple times. The helmet is a replica of the design Aspar wore during his active racing career and features a personal dedication from Alvaro to Jorge and his entire team.

The helmet design Alvaro presented at the Jerez GP 2008 featured a red and yellow Spanish colour combination with two big “B”s for Bautista on the side of the helmet and his mascot on the back. Unfortunately this special design did not bring him any luck as he had an engine seizure during the race which cost him the win.

The future

Bati will stay with helmet sponsor Suomy for the 2010 season, his first one in the MotoGP class. His newest design which we saw for the first time at the Sepang test earlier this month looks similar to the Jerez 2008 helmet in its pattern idea with the two “B”s on the sides, but its colour scheme is much brighter, featuring the Rizla Suzuki baby blue mixed with very colourful pink and yellow elements. Alvaro’s newest helmet design is again created by Bargy Designs.