Choosing the Right Helmet: Difference between revisions

This article presents information on how to choose a new helmet for beginning riders. Experienced riders may also find useful information here, but beginners are the intended audience.  

'''DISCLAIMER:''' I am not a motorcycle safety or helmet expert. I am a non-professional rider of about seven years' experience. This article contains many statements which are my opinion. They're not facts, and you should not read them as if they were. Helmets are important safety equipment which can increase your chance of surviving a crash. You need to be well-informed in selecting and using helmets, and should by no means use this single article as your sole source of information. Engage your brain.  

A motorcycle helmet serves two important goals: first, it protects your head in a crash. Second, but equally importantly, it protects your head and keeps you comfortable while riding. People commonly forget this second goal (particularly in some safety-oriented articles), but doing so is unwise, since you'll spend the overwhelming majority of your helmet ownership riding, rather than crashing.  

I personally have one helmet that I wear any time I'm riding. Some riders have multiple helmets, and they choose which helmet to wear based on the riding they're doing. If you're starting out in motorcycling, I recommend you find one helmet according to the information below, and use it until you find that you really need a second for some reason.  

There are three current standards for motorcycle helmets in the US. The most basic standard is the DOT (Department of Transportation) test. Any helmet sold for on-road use in the US is required to pass the DOT test. It is not especially rigorous.  

Snell doesn't test flip-face helmets, so you can't buy a Snell certified flip-up helmet. Don't let this necessarily stop you.  

An important thing to keep in mind regarding certification of helmets is that both DOT and Snell tests are minimum standards. Any helmet which passes either test is guaranteed to be at least as protective as the standard, but some helmets can surpass the standards by quite a bit. For this reason, it is not accurate to say that "any Snell approved helmet will protect as well as any other Snell certified helmet." Unfortunately, verifiable proof of surpassing the standards is hard to come by, so buying a helmet must rely to some extent on reputation and anecdotal evidence.  

There are four basic types of helmets: full-face, 3/4 helmets, half helmets, and flip-face helmets. I'll explain each one. The pictures are just what I found by scrounging around with Google, they're not endorsements of any particular brand.  

Full-face helmets wrap fully around your head, and offer the best protection both while riding, and in a crash. All full-face helmets have a flip-up visor, which is typically removeable without tools. This is the type of helmet nearly all board members own, unless they have a flip-face.  

[[Image:Helmet_1.jpg]]  

Flip-up helmets are a compromise between the protection of a full-face helmet and the convenience of a 3/4 helmet. Being a compromise, they are neither as protective as a full-face, nor as convenient as a 3/4. However, if you can't stand the thought of a full-face helmet because of glasses, or being able to talk to people with your helmet on, a flip-up may be a good choice for you. I am personally undecided on them, but stay with a full-face because I don't feel hampered by it. A good flip-face helmet is a far better choice than a 3/4.  

[[Image:Helmet_2.jpg]]  

The three-quarter helmet was very popular in the 1970s, when there was a huge surge in motorcycle ownership in the US. Full face helmets of that time were bulky and heavy, making a 3/4 helmet a much more comfortable choice. This is no longer the case, and 3/4 helmets are not a wise choice. They leave your chin and face exposed, both to oncoming objects like rocks and bugs, and to the pavement in a crash. Take a look at the diagram below, which shows where crashed helmets took hits. Note how the area with the largest single percentage is the chinbar.  

[[Image:Helmet_3.jpg]]  

Half helmets, also called "brain buckets" and "puddin' cups", offer very little protection either in a crash or while riding. The market for these helmets seems to be cruiser riders who want to project a tough or scofflaw image. They have the greatest feeling of freedom of all types of DOT-approved helmets. If you value your life at all, avoid half helmets.  

[[Image:Helmet_4.jpg]]  

Chart showing percentage of damage to post-crash helmets studied:  

[[Image:Crash044.jpg|150px]]

There are many benefits to wearing a helmet in daily riding situations. They're primarily centered around wrapping your head in a protective layer -- your eyes are covered, you aren't punished by the wind, flying rocks, road debris and bugs can't punch you, cold and rain are kept at bay, etc.  

Another claim I've read is that helmets reduce peripheral vision. I challenge you to find a full-face helmet that impedes on your peripheral vision at all. They don't exist, and all you have to do is put one on your head for a minute in a motorcycle shop to prove that to yourself.  

One of the factors cited in nearly all car-motorcycle collisions is, "I never even saw him" by the car driver. Motorcycles are incredibly small targets, and anything you can do to increase your visibility can help. Flashy graphics may appear to be pretty stunning in the store, but from 50 feet, they're just a blur of color, and from 100 feet they dissappear into the medium grey of the pavement. Solid white or flourescent colors (orange, green, yellow) are far more visible. Red is a good color if you're going to be riding exclusively in daylight, but it immediately dissappears in the blue light of twilight and night, where white and flourescents in particular will stand out.  

The [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7444/857 British Medical Journal] recently published a story about this.  

Selecting a helmet is necessarily a personal choice. Read through this article, understand the salient points of helmet construction and design, and pick the style that fits best what you want in a helmet. If you have no idea, the safest choice is a popular-brand, Snell certified full-face helmet. That's also my recommendation unless you have a specific reason to want a different helmet.  

As far as choosing a brand, I don't have strong recommendations. I have personally owned a Shoei RF-800 and an Arai Quantum/f. I have liked them both, and had problems with them both.  

I also recommend searching the Net for individual helmet reviews, but some good sites that have collected reviews are:  

Finally, this is a matter of personal conscience, but if you can afford to buy the helmet from the store where you did the fitting, please do so. Yes, helmets are cheaper online and by mail order, but your local shop just spent an hour or two helping you out. If you honestly can't afford it, buy the right helmet however you have to. This is not one of those situations where saving $20 is that important, if it keeps the local shop around. Without them, you might be exchanging helmets (or uselessly buying them and not being able to return them) for months with an online store.

This is the part where I really flex my opinions, so feel free to skip it if you don't care.  

You should only consider a flip-face helmet if you feel you have legitimate need of the feature. I wear glasses at all times, and have never had a problem with a full-face helmet. If you do decide to get a flip-face helmet, examine the latching mechanism carefully. If it looks or feels weak or cheezy to you, forget it. Schuberth and Nolan flip-face helmets have come highly recommended to me, but they'll never be as strong and safe as a fixed full-face helmet.  

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