Quote:
Originally Posted by dmoolenaar
Wasn't there a rather large debate on the actual safety of a SNELL (expensive) rated helmet vs. a DOT (cheaper) where a magazine found that the softer DOT only helmets transmitted less g-force to the head? That said I was always an Arai head.
|
Motorcyclist magazine wrote an article a few years back. Believe it was titled "Blowing the Lid Off." You should be able to still find it on their website.
They rated the cheapo ($80?) Z1R Strike as the safest helmet, per their battery of lab tests. Admittedly, they didn't test the top-of-line helmets. Mainly because they required the manufacturers to send in helmets for testing. I don't think Arai and Shoei participated. I don't think Suomy did, either. But of the helmets tested, the Z1R helmet scored safest. The argument was that SNELL certification is intended for racetrack application, to protect from super high G-load hits. On the street, that's less likely. So softer foam/EPS padding (which would be found in DOT certification, for example) is actually more protective. At least that's the hypothesis. Whether that translates into real-world protection was beyond the scope of the study, admittedly.
I tried one on, once, in a store. Thought it kind of fit like a Shoei RF1000.
There are at least 2 online companies that have the Z1R helmet on sale, right now. $55 from Motostrano? Or was that Motorcycle Superstore? I got the email ad this past week and deleted it. Newenough (?) might also have it on sale for about $60. Can't recall the exact retailers, but that's the short list of websites to check, if anyone's interested.