Valentino Rossi, a King without a crown

AGV intends to close down and the loss of the current crown seems to be the fate of the current reigning MotoGP class champion, Valentino Rossi.
After having dressed numerous world champion heads including that of Giacomo Agostini, Randy Mamola, Kenny Roberts and mine, although

not a world champion, the Italian helmet manufacturer will close by 2005. The cause: impossible to counter Eastern competition with its very low costs.

AGV has Doctor Rossi as its main testimonial. It's true, basically it has only one top driver in the premier class and others in the minor classes. In MotoGP, it doesn't just have a good rider, a top rider: it is the house that dresses the head of the five-time world champion and has done so almost from the beginning of Rossi's career.

At this point we try to analyze what are defined as the causes of the closure. The competition is so low cost that you can't compete with it. Hmm!

Let's take a quick look at the Italian companies that produce helmets.

Suomy, Italian, from Varese I think, gives helmets to Bayliss, Capirossi, Biaggi,
Tamada, Xaus and Poggiali in the 250. Various investments in advertising including
the pre-race commercial in which a Suomy technician fiddles with the beauty of the moment for a moment
before taking the trusty helmet to the national Max.
The last time I asked about the cost of a Suomy, I seem to remember that the company's top model did not reach 400 euros. Furthermore, I believe that the Varesina house has existed for no more than 7 years.

Vemar, also Italian. Top model the Diadem also used
as a prize for whoever created the most captivating graphics. A helmet
lightweight, made with fibers and composite materials. Roberto definitely wears it
Rolfo in 250.

Dainese Brand known more for other items of protective clothing but that
also produces helmets. Here too we are talking about quality objects. Nieto wears it
in 250.

Nolan – X-Lite Two brands for the same owner. Very Italian house there
Nolan who created the X-Lite to create a production-oriented brand
of helmets intended for competitive use and not only with the intent of fighting
Japanese excessive power. Numerous advertising pages to promote X-801,
the latest addition, a testimonial in MotoGP, Carlos Checa and several in 250. How
Nolan, on the other hand, we see other riders in MotoGP. The great Macio Melandri wears
Nolan for many years and the replica of his N93 is always in the shop windows. Also for
these helmets are made of fine, multi-fibre, well-finished, available materials
in various graphics also replicates and costs that with the flagship model, the
reaches a list price of less than 400 euros in replica color.

AGV In the lead is the five-time world champion in the 125, 250, 500 and MotoGP classes, Valentino
Rossi
Rossi wears AGV's latest effort, the Ti-Tech. A helmet entirely made of fiber and composite materials, with an in-depth study of aerodynamics, equipped with air vents to facilitate the entry of fresh air into the helmet and the extraction of hot air via vents on the front and rear, made of titanium. Colors available: plain, graphic, and Rossi replica. Cost, over 600 euros.
I don't deny that from the first appearance I immediately liked Ti-Tech a lot. Maybe because Valentino wore it, maybe because it's really beautiful, definitely because it's an Italian product and I'm parochial (as far as it's possible and it doesn't border on martyrdom). Well, going around the internet by entering the word Ti-Tech, at most a page came up that defined it as the next AGV helmet for Rossi; no trace of it was found on the AGV website until a few months ago. It took us almost two years to see a photo and graphics available. Never mind, I would have made up for it by admiring it in some well-stocked shop in Rome. But what? I searched a bit, not a lot, but I didn't find anything other than Nolan, X-Lite, Vemar, Suomy, Premier, etc. The only time I've managed to find a shop with a decent number of AGV helmets (where by fair I mean any number other than zero), I find Nieto's helmet. Cost? I don't remember it, maybe I deleted it voluntarily and unconsciously at the same time. The impression was not that of a World Cup helmet.
Even today you can see many helmets in shop windows, not only the Japanese emblems, but I haven't even seen the box of Ti-Tech yet.
Ironically, the legendary helmet used by Rossi in the last race in Valencia in 2003 and also used during the winter tests is on the market... in Japan!!! I found a site that sells them, it's AGV-Japan or something similar. The catalog received by mail from AGV doesn't even list it.

At this point, to draw a conclusion that makes sense of these lines I ask myself? Is it possible that the cause of the closure of a company with decades of experience, a history behind it, historical pilots as references in addition to the current reigning world champion, could close due to the low costs of Eastern competition? Perhaps there were marketing choices (bad word for bad science), not exactly right. Perhaps finding a product in the shop after many months pushes future buyers to buy another helmet (one cannot buy a transition helmet while waiting for the definitive one, given the costs), perhaps there was also fear that, if the helmet comes out so quickly delay, what will happen to a spare part?

Over six hundred euros on the list price for the Ti-Tech when an Arai which certainly doesn't have to win over buyers can cost up to 800 euros (and be bought almost without batting an eyelid), are they a bit too much perhaps?

How many of you remember seeing people around who, perhaps on board the Vespone, were wearing Roberts' or Mamola's AGV? And how many of you have seen modern-era AGVs around?
Perhaps I would have liked to be the first to have the Valentino helmet but for some of the reasons mentioned above I had to divert my choice to another product, fortunately always Italian.

We therefore await the King to lose his crown with an almost unbelievable motivation! We should resign ourselves to seeing another historic house succumbing to the increasingly strong and devastating eastern push.
We should accept that those who could define themselves as teachers in the making of helmets declare themselves surpassed by students who, at times, have not even been promoted.
Or we will witness yet another multinational consortium that will lift the weight of AGV by reinventing its acronym (perhaps Added Gain Value?).

I certainly hope to never see any of these latter hypotheses come to fruition.
I hope that if there is something in the world besides the spaghetti and mandolin for which Italy is famous, this something will not be lost or diluted among budget-hungry multinationals, driven perhaps by someone who does not have a motorbike and a helmet they don't even know what they are!

Davide Giordano