Buying a Helmet

Ferg

• May 11 2007
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A helmet is the most important piece of safety equipment you can buy, so you will want to make sure that you make the right choice. The huge selections you’ll find at a dealer can be very intimidating. We turned to the experts at Shoei and Bret Milan was there to help.

The most important thing when buying a helmet is the size. You really need to try on different helmets (we can’t recommend that you buy online since you can’t try it on). Bret told us you want the helmet to be as tight as you can stand. So when you put it on, shake your head left and right, up and down. If the helmet moves around, it’s too large so grab a smaller size. Some helmets have different size cheek pads for a more custom fit. If you are buying a helmet for your child, don’t buy a helmet that will fit him 6 months from now. Buying a helmet too large for an adult can be dangerous, and even worse for a child. A bigger helmet means more weight, children don’t have the neck strength an adult has. The last thing you want to happen if your child gets in an accident is for the helmet to cause an injury.

After you find a good fit, check to make sure that the helmet has Snell and D.O.T. certification stickers. These companies set very strict standards for helmet manufactures to follow. Remember your helmet is protecting your brain, so helmets with both stickers on them will protect you better then a helmet with one or no sticker at all.

Bret also recommended checking the inside of the helmet for expanded polystyrene (it looks like the stuff inside your ice chest). This material is what absorbs the impact, many helmets only have the minimum that D.O.T. or Snell require. Some helmets on the other hand will coat the entire interior of the helmet with it.

Knowing When to Replace Your Old Helmet

If you crash, take your helmet to the manufacture, most will inspect it and let you know if you need to replace it or not. Shoei offers this service for free. You only need to ship it to them.

Shoei also recommends replacing your helmet after 5-7 years. This is because the materials inside the helmet naturally break down. This will cause your helmet to not fit as well, and can decrease the amount of impact it can absorb.

Cleaning Your Helmet

So you took your new helmet out, now it’s dirty and smelly. Well, remove the insides and put them in the sink. Now add the shampoo you used this morning (or last week) with some warm water. The shampoo is great at breaking down the oils your hair leaves in the padding. It also won’t make you bald if there is some residue left in the padding when you put your helmet back on!

For the outside you can use soap and water. But to bring out the shine use a little commercial automotive wax to make it look like new again.

Special Thanks to Shoei for all the great tips, to check out their full line of helmets visit [LINK http://www.shoei.com]