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A very interesting article appears in this month's Motorcyclist.
It seems the bargen helmets offer better brain protection than more expensive models. The "got a $100 brain? get a $100 helmet" quote seems to have some holes in it.
Of the helmets tested the under $100 Z1R helmet, transfered the fewest gs to the test rig. The plastic shell also survived the Death Drop, a 13 foot drop that exceeds the Snell 10 foot drop by , well 3 feet but the big deal is that the extra 3 feet exacted a extra 25% of force to the helmet.
The cheapo helmet did it's job, wow.
Some numbers?
Helmet: Number of Gs (the force of gravity lower is better)
Z1R DOT: 152
AGV Ti-Tech DOT: 169
Icon Alliance (mine eeep) snell 2000: 183
Arai GT snell 2000: 201
HJC AC11 snell 2000: 204
All helmets are DOT but Snell rated helmets actually transfered more energy to the brain. This is bad. This is a controversal article but makes sense. In order to survive the hard Snell test, a helmet needs to be strong, too strong. A helmet is supposed to be disposable. To that end it should absorb a lot of energy therefore it should crack like an egg, and the foam inside should collapse soaking up the energy of the impact before it gets to your tender brain. Go figure, sure you can get a high end ($600) helmet that does this but in the all important $300 range less is more.
It seems the bargen helmets offer better brain protection than more expensive models. The "got a $100 brain? get a $100 helmet" quote seems to have some holes in it.
Of the helmets tested the under $100 Z1R helmet, transfered the fewest gs to the test rig. The plastic shell also survived the Death Drop, a 13 foot drop that exceeds the Snell 10 foot drop by , well 3 feet but the big deal is that the extra 3 feet exacted a extra 25% of force to the helmet.
The cheapo helmet did it's job, wow.
Some numbers?
Helmet: Number of Gs (the force of gravity lower is better)
Z1R DOT: 152
AGV Ti-Tech DOT: 169
Icon Alliance (mine eeep) snell 2000: 183
Arai GT snell 2000: 201
HJC AC11 snell 2000: 204
All helmets are DOT but Snell rated helmets actually transfered more energy to the brain. This is bad. This is a controversal article but makes sense. In order to survive the hard Snell test, a helmet needs to be strong, too strong. A helmet is supposed to be disposable. To that end it should absorb a lot of energy therefore it should crack like an egg, and the foam inside should collapse soaking up the energy of the impact before it gets to your tender brain. Go figure, sure you can get a high end ($600) helmet that does this but in the all important $300 range less is more.
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