Interesting Helmet Article:

[tedbiele]

http://motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/hatz/

[JINKSTER]

"Scorpion EXO-700 (F)
Average: 211 Gs
LF: 207 gs
RF: 236 gs
LR: 226 gs
RR: 176 gs

A $199 Helmet has the highest G-force rating of'em all...and that's all I needed to know..thanks for the link!



L8R, Bill.

[PDBusa]

Jinkster, nice lookin' lid.

[sageronin]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (JINKSTER @ Nov. 11 2005,18:27)]"Scorpion EXO-700 (F)
Average: 211 Gs
LF: 207 gs
RF: 236 gs
LR: 226 gs
RR: 176 gs

A $199 Helmet has the highest G-force rating of'em all...and that's all I needed to know..thanks for the link!



L8R, Bill.

You do realize that the higher the G's the worse the helmet right?

[Vic_E55_2001]

According to that article your IS the worst one.

[Charlesbusa]

hmmmm



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[JINKSTER]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (sageronin @ Nov. 11 2005,13:20)]

You do realize that the higher the G's the worse the helmet right?

Well?...it's not that "I DON'T Realize it"...as much as it is that..."I WON'T Realize it".

Ref: The following response from "The Snell Foundation"

"But they did not tell you that the "effective" G limit for the hemi is still 400 G. And, drawing on COST 327, it's there against the shaped hazard anvils like the hemi, the edge or the kerbstone that serious helmets will prove themselves."

Meaning...I'm happy to know that my Fiberglass/Kevlar Scorpion EXO 700 transmits a few more G's than an Arai as it is just a tad stiffer in construction..and I trust Snells experience and knowledge bank a whole lot more than what "Motorcyclist Magazine & Company" conjured up...to raise brows and sell magazines...by proclaiming a $69 Pep Boys or $79 ZR1 polycarbonent helmet as offering up better protection than Aria, HJC and/or Scorpion EXO...

Then after 5 pages of test result BS they CYA by stating that "it's all a matter of how stiff you like your helmets"...

I like my helmets...uhem..."prefer"...mine to be "Stiff"

btw...you do understand motorcyclist is in the magazine selling biz and not the protective gear/lid biz right?...so...imagine that...a $69 Pep Boys helmet that blew away....an Arai!!!

Like I said...I'm happy my Scorpion tramsmitted the most G's.

L8R, Bill.

[Tio Loco]

Great Article good facts, surprised it didn’t go into a lot of depth on the fit of the helmet.

[tedbiele]

Thought you guys might like it.

[FJRider]

Interesting article, but as the saying goes, "After all is said and done, normally more is said than done."

I'm curious how many of you are planning to buy a Z1R ZRP-1 or a Pep Boys lid?

[JINKSTER]

Okay...time to fess up...I did just skim over the article and I did mis-speak by thinking that a higher g-force rating was a good thing but to me?...it still is....and here's why..

What Motorcyclist Did and Said:

First they covered their arses with...

There's a fundamental debate raging in the motorcycle helmet industry. In a fiberglass-reinforced, expanded-polystyrene nutshell, it's a debate about how strong and how stiff a helmet should be to provide the best possible protection.

Why the debate? Because if a helmet is too stiff it can be less able to prevent brain injury in the kinds of crashes you're most likely to have. And if it's too soft, it might not protect you in a violent, high-energy crash. What's just right? Well, that's why it's called a debate. If you knew what your head was going to hit and how hard, you could choose the perfect helmet for that crash. But crashes are accidents. So you have to guess.

then they played to your deepest, darkest fears with...

"To understand how a helmet protects—or doesn't protect—your brain, it helps to appreciate just how fragile that organ actually is. The consistency of the human brain is like warm Jello. It's so gooey that when pathologists remove a brain from a cadaver, they have to use a kind of cheesecloth hammock to hold it together as it comes out of the skull.

Your brain basically floats inside your skull, within a bath of cervical-spinal fluid and a protective cocoon called the dura. But when your skull stops suddenly—as it does when it hits something hard—the brain keeps going, as Sir Isaac Newton predicted. Then it has its own collision with the inside of the skull. If that collision is too severe, the brain can sustain any number of injuries, from shearing of the brain tissue to bleeding in the brain, or between the brain and the dura, or between the dura and the skull. And after your brain is injured, even more damage can occur. When the brain is bashed or injured internally, bleeding and inflammation make it swell. When your brain swells inside the skull, there's no place for that extra volume to go. So it presses harder against the inside of the skull and tries to squeeze through any opening, bulging out of your eye sockets and oozing down the base of the skull. As it squeezes, more damage is done to some very vital regions.

None of this is good."

What Motorcyclist DIDN'T Do and Say:

1. That unlike Snell?...what they did is known as NDT...(read: "Non-Destructive Testing" ) why?..

a. They only had so many helmets to work/test with and....this is the biggy...

b. Due to the fact that polycarbonate has no reinforcing fibers and is not "a composite" shell...when it finally does yield and fail?..it shatters....explosively...like a fragmentation grenade...unlike the fiberglass and/or (better yet in my book) fiberglass/kevlar composite shells which may crack or delaminate in crush areas but...they still hold together thanks to the internal reinforcing fibers.

2. Motorcyclist (unlike snell) also failed to preform any sort of "Penetration Test" such as a footpeg or bar-end or any number of stubby, somewhat pointy objects that may attempt to penetrate your helmet and violate your skull in a violent crash scenario...why?....well...while police and even our very own military employ fiberglass/kevlar composites for their personel body armor against ballistic penetration?...the only place they do use polycarbonate is in goggles and sunglasses...and only due to purposes of optical clarity..and trust me...if they could figure out how to get fiberglass/kevlar composite clear enough to see through?..they'd be wearing fiberglass/kevlar composite sunglasses and battle goggles instead of polycarb...as things shattering close to your eyes is never a good thing.

What I'm Telling You:

You DON'T (like motorcyclist infers) "Have to guess"...modern medicine can deal with a bruised or bleeding brain these days...but what they do still have troubles with is...crushed craniums.

IMNSHO?...Motorcyclist had a lot of balls trying to sell more magazines with this "Blowing The Lid Off" article...they tried to play Geraldo Rivera with our heads...with very hap hazard investigative reporting based on incomplete and inconclusive testing on their part. A report which concluded that a $69 Pep Boys and $79 ZR1 polycarb helmets are in fact better than the likes of Aria?...Or HJC?...or a Fiberglass/Kevlar Scorpion EXO 700?...yeah...right...fug me...they ain't playing with my head!!!

It's kind of a shame...I subscribed to Motorcyclist for several years...then dropped'em when there was more advertising than quality reading...and now I hear they're more like an Icon Catalog....that now reads like a food market tabloid with articles just such as these entitled..."Blowing The Lid Off".

and after all of this diatribe from motorcyclist magazine?.."The Real Questions" which beg to be asked is..

"Will Dexter Ford now be strapping a $69 pep boys helmet on his head?...what helmet is he wearing these days?"

I know what I'm wearing...

http://scorpionusa.com/news.html

JMHO and...L8R, Bill.



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[FJRider]

Well put Bill. That article didn't make for "fun reading" in my mind either, but unfortunately, sometimes crashing is part of the motorcycle experience. I have to admit, it would be just as easy for Motorcyclist article to have promoted an expensive brand name helmet, if their tests would have proved them out.

It seems the there's two issues going on with these tests, first the strength of the outer shell of the helmet, and second, the material used inside to cushion the riders head. Unless I'm missing something (and it was a long article!), in all test cases, regardless of the outer material, the outer shell held up to the simulated crashes (poly, fiber, etc) as advertised, although their tests seem to point to harder materials transmitting higher g-forces to the inside material. My common sense wants to think that any outer shell with some type of fiber base would help "distribute" the g-forces across a wider portion of the surface of the helmet.

What interests me most is the inner material that manufacturers use, and how well it cushions the noggin. Let's face it, if and when we go down, we're not going to be concerned about the fancy paint or its brand name. The way I see it is, we're going to be depending on the helmet to sacrifice itself so it'll minimize damage to our head.
I could care less what happens to the helmet as long as it does that one important thing, because (assuming I survive) I'll be replacing it anyway.

[JINKSTER]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (FJRider @ Nov. 13 2005,03:37)]Well put Bill. *That article didn't make for "fun reading" in my mind either, but unfortunately, sometimes crashing is part of the motorcycle experience. *I have to admit, it would be just as easy for Motorcyclist article to have promoted an expensive brand name helmet, if their tests would have proved them out. *

It seems the there's two issues going on with these tests, first the strength of the outer shell of the helmet, and second, the material used inside to cushion the riders head. *Unless I'm missing something (and it was a long article!), in all test cases, regardless of the outer material, the outer shell held up to the simulated crashes (poly, fiber, etc) as advertised, although their tests seem to point to harder materials transmitting higher g-forces to the inside material. *My common sense wants to think that any outer shell with some type of fiber base would help "distribute" the g-forces across a wider portion of the surface of the helmet.

What interests me most is the inner material that manufacturers use, and how well it cushions the noggin. *Let's face it, if and when we go down, we're not going to be concerned about the fancy paint or its brand name. *The way I see it is, we're going to be depending on the helmet to sacrifice itself so it'll minimize damage to our head.
I could care less what happens to the helmet as long as it does that one important thing, because (assuming I survive) I'll be replacing it anyway.

Thanks FJ...and to me?..."Protection" is only a small (albiet very important) part of the big picture when it comes to helmet selection...as many other aspects are just as (if not more) important...things such as..

1. "Fit and Comfort": If my helmet doesn't fit properly it's a biotch and if it doesn't ventilate/flow enough air for me to keep my head cool I get mentally fatigued rather quickly and...I seriousely doubt any of the low dollar polycarb helmets have a removable liner system where a rider can custom fit his helmet by mixing XL cheek pads with an L head liner to both raise the helmets viewing portal and get the lower edge of the shell up off his neck and shoulders while still allowing a proper cheek fit where his mouth isn't getting crushed into a "permenantly open" position...as when it comes to comfort?...the little things that count big time.

2. "The Viewing Area/Visibility Range": I find that the viewing area of most helmets hasn't kept pace with the ever more commited riding positions of todays sportbikes where the rider leans forward....and down...as the top of his helmets viewing portal begins to encroach upon the big picture of "looking through a curve"..especially when riding up a steep curvy incline...such as one might encouter in the mountains we all love to carve up so much..annnnd..a helmets "Periphial View"...many have a very limited/abbrieviated periphial view which then dictates that the rider twist his neck like Linda Blair in the exorcist just to execute a quick head check of other riders around you.

And ALL of the above aspects are issues that very well might prevent you from getting into an accident or go down in the first place...yet none of these issues were addressed or mentioned in motorcyclist magazine selling, brow raising report...which infered $69 helmets from pep boys were superior to the likes of aria, hjc, scorpion...etc.

The primary component of any protective helmet is it's outter shell...and how well it does or doesn't hold together upon impact...and while a polycarb shell can take a suprisingly good hit?..you'll never see it crack or delaminate like a composite shell..why?..because when polycarb fails?....it shatters...explosively...while the cracked and delaminated composite shells will still hold together...and STILL...protect your head.

I challenge all of you to go out to your garage right now and just squeeze the inner liners of any make/model helmet you own with your fingers...and with just your fingertip pressure?...you can feel the liners bottom out against the inner shells polystyrene liner...after that?..it's just what density (crush value) of polystyrene recipe that particular company chose to use as to how much g-force your head will encounter...but ultimately?...if your primary shell fails?..chances are you're dead.

And here's motorcyclist trying to convince their entire community to stick they're heads in a non-re-inforced polycarb shell..and for what?..to sell magazines?...shame on them.

L8R, Bill.



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