How tight is too tight?

[Don Plumley]

Thanks to Tom's (emcon5) recommendation, I went down to Pyrotect down in Oakland today and am the proud owner of a helmet. Raging great deal too.

How tight is too tight? After about 1/2 hour on, it leaves indentations on my forehead. It's a bit tight on my cheeks as well, but it only prevents me from grinning.

Seems to me that it will get bigger inside (stretch out) faster than my head is going to get bigger, and a titch on the too tight side is better than the too loose side?

Now to find some shoes...

[cbeers]

Indentations are OK as long as it is not painful or uncomfortable. I bought a helmet (for dirt biking) on sale once, just a little too small, thought the same thing, that it would ease up. Never did get used to it, wore it off and on, but kept going back to my older one that fit better right from the start.
Now I use the tight one for AX


Hope your helmet works out for you! You will really only wear it for maybe 30 minutes at a time until you become a racer right?


BTW - Caliper rebuilds tonight........


-Chris

[patkeefe]

Tighter is better, but if it becomes a distraction or causes your concentration to wane, get another helmet.

[Don Plumley]

Bright lights distract me...

Painful, no. Uncomfortable, no. Just pressure against the front of my face.

Chris - PM me if you want a hand (or an audience), I might be free later tonight.

[KTL]

The tight around the cheeks thing is something to be wary of. I thought it'd be no big deal. What ends up happening is you bite the insides of your cheeks. Had this problem with a helmet I used for go-karting last weekend. See if another brand in the same size feels different. Some brands just don't fit people well.

My friend Jay had to try all sorts of different brands before settling on one. His big head (due to intelligence, i'm sure) made it tough to find a helmet that fit right.

Tighter is better. As long as it's tight in a good way. I have problems with helmets being too tight around the ears since my ears are pretty big and stick out from my head more than the usual shmoe. I didn't shop around much and luckily my Bell seems to fit okay, but could be better in the ear department. After I pull the helmet down, I have to slide my hand inside the helmet to unfold my ears. Once I unfold my ears, the helmet fits nice. Maybe I should roll my ear lips?

I recall a good way to test helmet loose fitment is to put it on and secure the chinstrap as you normally would. If you can pull the helmet down in front and it covers your eyes? It's too loose. Too tight is obvious- it just doesn't fit.

[rich22]

It sounds like you have a peanut head like me. Bells are shaped for bowling ball heads. You may find that a Simpson fits you better.

[Don Plumley]

Originally posted by KTL
The tight around the cheeks thing is something to be wary of. I thought it'd be no big deal. What ends up happening is you bite the insides of your cheeks. Had this problem with a helmet I used for go-karting last weekend. See if another brand in the same size feels different. Some brands just don't fit people well.

<...>

I recall a good way to test helmet loose fitment is to put it on and secure the chinstrap as you normally would. If you can pull the helmet down in front and it covers your eyes? It's too loose. Too tight is obvious- it just doesn't fit.

Yup - it kinda presses my fat cheeks into my teeth.

Rest of the fit is good - I'm thinking that the next size up might not pass the loose test you describe above.

Guess I'll be running back to Pyrotect and check out the next size up.

Thanks,

Don

[emcon5]

Tight is good, as long as it isn't uncomfortable. As long as it fits everywhere else.

There was a thread a while back about adjusting helmet fit with a spoon, by compressing the foam under the padding slightly in the high spots.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?threadid=61101

Tom

[Don Plumley]

Went back to Pyrotect today - next size up is much, much better. Comfortable without being loose. Glad I did it, thanks for the encouragement.

[nostatic]

My motorcycle helmet fits a lot tighter than my car helmet, but I think that might be a feature, not a bug. On the motorcycle you get a lot of wind so it needs to be quite snug. In fact the guy at the shop swapped out cheek pads on mine to make it a bit better of a fit. Inside the car the only issue is impact, so as long as it is snug it should be fine.

At least that's my theory...