Sure Troy Lee Designs make stuff, but their passion lies in design. The custom gear TLD make for their athletes is the perfect manifestation of that passion, and the latest to come out of the custom shop — i.e. Troy’s head — is Cam Zink’s new D3.
“Always the patriot, Zink wanted to get a little USA flare in his new 2012 lid,” Craig ‘Stikman’ Glaspell, Troy Lee Designs marketing director told BikeRadar. “Cam was down in So-Cal [Southern California] a couple weeks ago and he headed over to the Troy Lee Designs Laguna design center to meet up with Troy to design his new D3 and some other new ZINK signature products.”
The D3 remains at the top of Troy Lee’s helmet line for 2012. The full-face helmet uses a carbon shell and titanium hardware to keep weight at bay; our standard test model weighed 1,130g and cost US$450 (£499.99). The weight is more than those helmets made specifically for bikes, but Troy Lee test the D3 to moto standards.
The helmet uses a thicker EPS liner than the D2 and has unique features including quick-release cheek pads — in case of a need for emergency extraction — it also has 20 intake/exhaust ports with internal duct work to keep air flowing over a rider's head and to their mouth and nose for better breathing.
As for the design of Zink’s new helmet, Glaspell said it came from one of the rider’s original custom TLD designs.
Glaspell describes Zink as, "always the patriot."
“Zink had a photo of a Troy Lee Designs helmet he had painted years ago, with gold leaf stripe and a wavy USA flag on it,” he said. “It was one of his favorites and it still hangs in his garage. Troy and Cam came up with this updated version of that helmet just in time for Cam to head off to Asia for a film trip.”