Brian at San Francisco's beloved Scuderia West motorcycle dealer and shop posted his top ten list of helmet questions and answers here. Yes, you need one, duh . . . or as my sister likes to say, "Why have a law when there's already a law of natural selection?"
Brian's Top Ten List of Helmet Questions
1. It's just a scooter, and I won't even be going that fast, so I don't really need a good helmet.
2. I don't ride that much, so I don't want to spend alot of money on a helmet.
3. I don't like my helmet so tight. Can't I just wear it so it's comfortable?
4. Do I have to buy a new helmet every five years even if the one I have now looks perfectly good?
5. I dropped my helmet on the ground a few times. Do I need to buy a new one just because I dropped it?
6. I've been told that a white helmet is the safest. Is this true?
7. What can I do to make my helmet's visor fog proof?
8. Just what is the Snell Safety Foundation and what is DOT's mark really worth on a helmet?
9. Are "flip up" style helmets really safe?
10. Why are some people obsessed with matching their helmet to their bike color.. grin.
11. Can a helmet really cause or contribute to traumatic dislocation of the atlanto-occipital joint?
Hey..you carzy or what… I once took my bicycle out and I thank God I was wearing a bicycle helmet…for when I went over one of these speed bump asphalt slower downers…I swearved and fell and bumped my head against the side walk. if it wasn’t for that cheao $19.95 helmet from Walmart I wouldn’t be here today to tell the story…
Wear safety gear all the time and the hell on what you look like..I’m sure you look better naked.
Or What is the correct answer. Seems as if you overspent on your helmet considering what survived.
I got hit while stopped (re: excuse #1). Didn’t find any scratches to indicate helmet even touched the ground. But still replaced just cause and save any arguments.
Brian might want to look at some of the tests of Snell ratings for older drivers. Our brains don’t “slosh” around in the head as well as younger riders. Snells standards up to 2005 were on the hard side. You would be better off with a softer DOT if you are over 40.
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/motorcycle_helmet_review/index.html
Although Brian writes with an authoritative air, there is a lot of misinformation in his helmet article.
First and foremost is the idea that higher cost = better protection. This has been disproven over and over in controlled testing, with some of the least expensive helmets transferring fewer Gs. Be wary of this one. Helmet salesmen often have a lot of incentive to perpetrate the myth that buying a $700 helmet will make you safer than buying a $100 helmet.
Second: Brian states “The Snell rating is a more stringent rating, and is completely voluntary, meaning that helmet manufacturers can choose whether or not they wish to meet Snell’s advanced safety guidelines. Snell standards are set to levels that only the best, most protective headgear will meet.”
No, it is not “more stringent.” It is different. For example, the DOT standard has dwell time — the maximum number of milliseconds for 100G and 200G forces. Snell has no such limits. A helmet which passes the Snell standards typically cannot pass the advanced European ECE 22.05 standard — because it transmits too many Gs to the rider’s head in an accident. Recent research indicates that the DOT/FMVSS 218 standard actually produces a safer helmet. This is especially true as riders age and their tolerance for high-G forces to the brain lessens.
Third, Brian states that :The DOT rating simply indicates that a manufacturer believes that its helmet meets the basic DOT standards, without any actual testing on the helmets themselves. In that sense, DOT ratings are fairly easy to come by, and virtually anybody can make and sell a helmet with a DOT sticker.”
Again, this is untrue. A manufacturer must test helmets and assure that they meet these standards prior to labeling them as meeting the DOT standard. When the DOT discovers that a helmet does not meet the standard in subsequent testing (perhaps due to manufacturing tolerances), the manufacturer is required to recall all of the helmets and provide replacements or refunds. Brian’s suggestion that that anyone can just slap a DOT label on a helmet and sell it is just silly. Any manufacturer that did that would find themselves fined (by the NHTSA) and sued (by victims/families due to deaths and injuries sustained while wearing the non-compliant helmets) into non-existence.
If you ride, you owe it to yourself to read this article on helmet standards and testing:
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/motorcycle_helmet_review/index.html
It is the best article on the subject in decades and dispels many of the myths that pervade this subject.