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https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/motorbike-helmet-ece-standard/
Pretty happy with my Airoh’s so far.
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2) Proven safety features. For just one example, removable cheek pads that make the helmet easier to remove after a crash designed to minimize potential neck damage while removing the helmet. Such a basic concept, but helmet companies didn't come up with this for decades. Even some helmets don't have this feature today. This is just one example and there are many others similar to it. The majority of the manufacturers now have this feature, but some of the cheapest ones don't.
I personally wear a Shoei now, but my next helmet will either be a Fly or 6D, unless one of the other manufacturers steps up with better innovation. Same for my son who rides. And for the record, I have a pretty much stock YZ450 (excluding Rekluse clutch for off road use, and after market bars/levers), but I run a completely stock exhaust. Never could quite understand the value in putting a $1000 exhaust on a new 450 4 stroke these days for the average joe rider, but not spending more than $200 on a quality helmet.
Anyways, I remember hearing a good 'thwack' as my head hit what I thought was the ground...it was a rock. I even left a little bit of my paint on it. Also, I was blown away that I didn't feel like my bell was rung!
When I took that helmet back to TLD to see if it could be touched up where the rock scratch was...they laughed at me and proceeded to pull the helmet apart...I'd smashed most all of the lower density foam and that went into the higher density foam, too. This was right above the outside corner of my right eye...the infamous "headband area"...
After they scolded me (I kept wearing the helmet on that ride/it didn't appear to be damaged...just a scratch right where the visor bolts on)...they said it was all used up and had done it's job & that I should switch helmets after a crash like that.
TLD SE4 Crash No. 2: I was doing a shootout, here at Vital in 2018 (2019 450s) wearing the grey poly "Team Edition" that I posted in here earlier, I had one of those fall-over "thud" crashes on a turn where I'd cross-rutted and got ejected into the ground. Not too fast...but...a good thud. Side of my head..thud. For the 1st time while riding...my bell was sort of 'rung'. I had a bit of an immediate head-ache and I remember thinking,"Huh! So, this is what it's like?! I thought I'd be going A LOT FASTER when I did this!" I'd washed-cross-rutted the front wheel and got ejected fwd and down to my inside and simply did a side-head low speed smack. But, for the 1st time ever...and it would seem not too badly...smacked my head enough to get "a reckoning".
So, I switched helmets, took an Advil and chilled for about 20 minutes...and...of-course...I went back out! Why not? I was feeling better? WRONG! (Turns out I did everything WRONG based on what I've learned since. My bad.)
I took the helmet back to TLD and it was fine. No damage inside. Nothing even apparent on the outside, either.
So, when it comes to getting your bell rung, it seems it's VERY much about the type of impact and how it affects the way your head is put together.
I know a friend who took a serious header out in the Dez east of Hesperia. He was wearing an SE4 and got knocked out. Some of our mutual friends were trying to blame the helmet. When I asked the guy who'd actually took the fall? He said it was a BAD ONE and he was just glad he'd been wearing a good helmet.
Justin Bogle smacked his head, right in front of my eyes, at Glendale in the 1st run. Smacked his head wearing an excellent helmet. Do we blame the helmet? I don't.
The Tech in these helmets has come a long, long way.
The Speed these new bikes allow us to go has, also, come/gone a long, long way in the "high-speed" direction.
The simple answer is that we're going faster, bigger and better on these modern machines and the helmets are finally being designed for this new era.
Newton expalined it like this...his second law of motion describes the relationship between an object's mass and the amount of force needed to accelerate it. Newton's second law is often stated as F=ma, which means the force (F) acting on an object is equal to the mass (m) of an object times its acceleration (a).
"F" is getting pretty serious for the average rider. I'm 56 and I jump crazy shit, to me, waaaay more often than I did when I started this all in the late '70s-early '80s.
Most of the helmet makers have gone to MIPS or RHEON or Conehead EPS technology to help reduce neck injuries by allowing the inner helmet liner to rotate about 20 MM during an impact.
Getting a helmet that fits correctly is the most important factor, get a 2 dollar cloth tape measure and check your head size before you buy, a medium in one brand is not always a medium in another brand.
I wear a largeTLD helmet, but only a medium AplineStars helmet, so go figure...
The Bell Moto 9 Flex is 1,450 grams
The 6D ATR-1 is 1,500 grams
TLD SE4 Carbon is 1,325 grams
You can make your own assumptions and guesses but I think the top 3 helmets are the Fly, 6D ATR-1 and Moto 9 Flex.
Funny you mentioned "eyes". My eyes hurt...behind them...a bit. A headache in my optic nerves...in a way.
As everyone discusses this issue...I notice a collection of opinions on what helmets are good or bad. All the while, there's more than a few brands that have published how they did in testing at ACT Lab, etc.
More notably, is the hailarious insanity like the statement..."I'm pretty sure TLD helmets are cheap Bell helmets that Bell decided not to use...". Wow. That's beyond insanity. I'm aware of the brand of Carbon and some other materials that Troy uses in his helmets. He goes his own way. As a person that's spent the vast majority of his life in R&D & utilization of composite materials, I know there's A LOT of really good helmets available to the moto-public; and, it's not necessarily the same brands that were the best 5-10 years ago.
I, personaly, wear TLD. I've worn Fly ('10-'13...when they were getting REAL serious about helmets and gear: EXCELLENT stuff!)...I wore the new A-Star stuff for Micheal's (ML512) 250 Shootout last fall...EXCELLENT! a freind of mine swears by his 6D...EXCELLENT choice!
There are plenty of well informed choices. All a person has to do is a little homework and they should be able to make a wise decision.
Had loads of highsides and head hits multiple times and everytime got up thinking, wow what a ride! and have been fine. Its the slow blunt hits that whack the brain.
Full proposed ECE 22.06 draft here:
https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2019/wp29grsp/ECE-TRANS-WP.29-GRSP-2019-25e.pdf
Pit Row
Had cheaper Bells and ended up taking a low speed hit to the side of my head in a large berm. Only time medics have taken me off the track.
After that I did quite a bit of research. At the time 6D was the clear leader. Currently many have got closer as they all employ the same basic design to mitigate rotational forces being applied to your head/brain. You can watch many videos that compare the mips/ods system vs standard eps foam.
Properly fitting helmet is #1. After that take your pick with what you think is best. I trust Bob and 6D for regular duty protecting my head.
Don't know about other companies but at Leatt we post all of our test results on our website. We show all of our certificates and findings from the tests as well.
With our 360 turbines our helmets help to reduce up to 30% of head impact. With the circular design of our turbines they reduce rotational acceleration up to 40% to head and brain.
A helmet that limits brain acceleration to 275 G from an impact at 17 mph does not mean it would also fail to limit brain acceleration to some lesser threshold from some lower speed impact.
Let's see which helmets meet the future ECE 22.06 standard, which will require the same Snell 275 G from 17 mph plus a separate low-energy impact test.
They do not buy into all the same "new" technology, but who really knows if any of that is really good or marketing. Arai makes a damn good helmet, and I have no plans to switch.
I've just gone from Bell to 6D recently. The bell is much comfier to wear than the bell moto 9, camt talk much for safety of it yet.
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