The story of the original Bell Bullitt helmet is a bonafide motorcycling fairy tale. Just over a decade ago, industrial designer Chad Hodge designed and built a retro-inspired helmet as part of his final year thesis, with clear cues from vintage lids like the legendary 1960s Bell Star.
Bell saw the concept, loved it, and brought Chad in-house to put it into production.
The Bell Bullitt hit the market just as the alt-moto scene reached its zenith. It spread like wildfire—offering riders a premium lid with modern protection, vintage styling, and elegant finishes, and inspiring countless copycats along the way. These days, you can’t go on a group ride without spotting several Bell Bullitts in the crowd.
Following the Bullitt’s success, Bell Helmets has just thrown the wraps off the all-new Bell Bullitt GT and Bell Bullitt GT carbon. The new Bullitt GT series delivers classic aesthetics and modern engineering in spades, honoring Bell’s rich legacy in motorcycle racing and culture.
With a decade-plus of real-world use under the belt, Bell’s designers and engineers had ample data to work with while remixing the Bullitt formula.
The helmet’s iconic silhouette, wide field of view, and plush finishes remain—but Bell has cranked its performance up to eleven to create a modern evolution of the Bullitt.
The new Bell Bullitt GT uses a 42% fiberglass construction for its shell, while the Bullitt GT Carbon uses a 40% carbon fiber construction. Both are DOT- and ECE22.06-certified, with three shell sizes across the six-size range. A large Bullitt GT weighs 1,500 grams, with a large Bullitt GT Carbon tickling the scale at just 1,400 grams.
The Bullitt GT’s wide shield and circular hinge plates recall those of its predecessor, but they’ve been vastly improved. The eye port sports a redesigned gasket that creates a tighter seal, and the hinges feature a clever magnetic snap-off design, making for quick and tool-less shield swaps.
The Bullit GT also retains the circular vents across its brow—but those are now closable via a mechanism that’s been cleverly hidden underneath the chin bar. The interior has been updated with a focus on easy maintenance, and you can swap out the cheek pads to fine-tune the Bullitt GT’s fit.
There are ten solid color and graphic options across the two versions of the new Bullitt GT, each finished with either a black, brown, or red leather interior. And if you need more variety, Bell has an array of flat and bubble shields on offer. (With 15 styles to choose from, that’s a total of 150 variations.)
All in all, the new Bell Bullitt GT is a throwback of a throwback—a stylish and thoughtful redesign of one of the most popular retro-themed helmets on the market. Is it a worthy successor? We have one en route to us as we speak, and will report back in due course.
Created in partnership with Bell Helmets
