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It starts — and ends — with low weight.

Settling on a single helmet that fits every rider is absurd. This is close, but not quite analogous, to saying there’s a single shoe that’s perfect for every foot. Like the right kick, the right lid has to fit literally; it must be comfortable. And it has to fit your riding style, too, so Mister Bagger and Crotch-Rocket guy. That’s a gulf as vast as the distance between Chicago deep-dish pizza to Atlanta’s Korean-style ’za. (Yes, that’s a thing, and there’s Indian-style pizza, too.)

So I’m going very far out on the plank here to say the AGV K6 is right for you, no matter what you ride, and that’s in part because AGV’s got my back. They studied their helmet in the wind tunnel, measuring performance in every riding position from hyper Moto GP tucked to fully upright to make sure it rocked all the angles.

Then there’s the whole premise of why you wear a lid in the first place: safety. The K6 landed a perfect five stars in the U.K.’s Sharp Helmet Scheme test, which is considered the most painstaking agency for brain bucket standards on the planet.

AGV is a major supplier to Moto GP, too. They learned from racing that the lower edge of a helmet can cause collarbone breakage during a crash, so now the bulk of their lids, including the K6, have a softer, rounded lower profile to lessen that likelihood, and the rear of the helmet has a spoiler, allowing it to “release” turbulent air to prevent buffeting at speed.

So allow me to put five hundred bucks in context. Should worst come to terrible, you want as many marbles as possible to remain unscrambled. That’s the point of wearing such a high-tech hat. Also, you can blowtorch $1,000 and still not get a helmet that’s this comfortable, hour after hour.

And why, exactly, is that the case? Hand a friend the carbon-aramid-fiber K6, and they’ll look at you dumbstruck, and after a beat, find their tongue and let out an unsolicited Keanu Reeves “Whoa!” Then you’ll have to arm wrestle the whispery, 2.76-pound lid out of their greasy mitts.

Your body (and, sorry to say, mine too) is an ill-designed erector set held together by fleshy string and a bunch of lazily working levers stacked into a rickety tower with a lump of stone at the tippy top. It did not evolve to add yet more weight to that rock. Cast this rusty machinery into the teeth of a 70mph maelstrom aboard a screaming two-wheeled rocket ship for an hour—or five—and your neck and shoulders will cry uncle.

That’s why, trust me, a lighter lid is way better. For every gram I wasn’t balancing, my muscles had just a little bit less to do, and I felt fresher after rides than when wearing a helmet that’s a mere half-pound heavier.

Plus, wind merely whispers at the K6; in lots of lids, even relatively quiet ones, there’s a constant low-level drone.

AGV quells the din with two essential hacks. They gifted the K6 with a removable chin guard that vetoes turbulence from below your jaw. And that’s important. But think: What’s the biggest hole in any helmet? The visor opening, naturally, is why AGV vices that thing snug against the sphere of the K6 with a clever sprung locking mechanism. After snapping that visor down, all those nasty high-pitched leaks fled this Italian-designed sanctuary like vampires shown a sprig of almighty garlic.

If you’re fearing, by the way, that sealed shut equals broiling hot, don’t. I found the AGV’s five adjustable vents were more than up to the task of blowing cool air at my face and air-conditioning my scalp.

This lid’s visor is also designed to integrate with a Pinlock interior lens and comes with one when it ships. There are two advantages: First, by inserting that second interior shield, you’re less likely to scratch the visor that comes with your helmet; Pinlocks cost a fraction of a new visor, too, so using a Pinlock is a cheap investment to save you from a pricier one. And second, adding that layer creates a vapor-free lens that works just like double-layer ski goggles. Regardless of whether you add the Pinlock, the K6’s visor has a 190-degree field of view, so it was easier to see everything in my periphery.

The final why? Because while you can find other helmets with as many innovations and that are both light, quiet and very safe, they tend to occupy either a touring or racing space. But because the K6 was designed as a generalist, to rock no matter whether you saddle a bagger, a sport bike, an ADV, role naked, retro, or cruise at 40mph on a smokey old Vespa, the K6 is the answer, no matter the two-wheeled question.