Your Head is Important
June 30th, 2009If it Was Gone, You Would Miss It
I have been trying to save money by rehabilitating my old motorcycle helmet, and it has been a struggle.
I left it in the garage, and mildew got into the lining. To get it out, I applied dishwashing liquid, iodophor solution, Febreze, and bleach (twice). Finally, the smell went away. But so did some of the glue that held the helmet together. There’s a strip of vinyl that covers the edge of the helmet so it doesn’t rub the wearer’s neck, and it flat fell out. There’s a scoop on the back of the helmet, for funneling air in, and it fell off, too. A couple of other parts also went AWOL.
It’s really annoying. This is an Arai Quantum helmet, and before I bought it, I read that the lining could be removed for washing. And that is true, if by “removed,” you mean “torn out and completely destroyed.” It’s glued in place. So once the helmet starts to stink, you have a real job on your hands. If you were to buy this helmet now, you could expect to spend $350 or more. It’s not a cheapo. You would think this kind of money would buy better quality.
It also has a horrible mechanism for removing the visor. People who have mastered it say it’s simple. The rest of us break things when we try it. And Arai’s parts site doesn’t work. I broke one of the parts; I hope it isn’t important.
I finally found something that will bond the old parts to the helmet. Rubber cement. So I think it will hold up for a few more months. But in case it doesn’t, I’m researching new ones.
If you’re a rider, you may find this useful. It looks like Shark and OGK make better helmets than Arai, and you can get them cheaper if you look around.
There is a lot of controversy about the best way to make a helmet. Different organizations put out different standards. Examples are the Snell and DOT standards. Based on empirical testing, many people now think the Snell standard causes injuries, because the helmets are so stiff, they shoot g-forces directly to the head instead of absorbing them. That sounds reasonable to me. The Snell people are really in a snit about it, though.
I would not buy another Arai helmet. Mine has been falling apart for years. The scoop on the top is held on by tiny strips of two-sided tape. I’m not kidding. And you can imagine how likely you are to find it when it comes off in the rain. Yesterday I glued my scoop back on permanently. I can’t imagine why Arai didn’t do this the first time around. Maybe they have some concern about the glue weakening the helmet. I tend to doubt that this is a real possibility. Losing the scoop, on the other hand, is nearly a certainty.
I may get a Shark RSX. I can get a discontinued model for a little over $200. It has a removable liner, a safety standard I like better, a thicker visor, better comfort, and…other stuff. It’s made in France, but I can get over that with time and therapy. They made a couple of designs incorporating the stars and stripes, and they also have a plain silver helmet which is not offensive.
Ebay has a few used “like new” helmets. Here’s what my MSF instructor told us: do not buy used. If you drop your helmet, buy a new one. Helmets can sustain damage you can’t see. Then when you need them, they fail. I don’t know if it’s true, but I prefer not to find out.
Oddly, the MSF supplied my class with used helmets which had almost certainly been dropped at least once.
I guess we signed waivers.
Interesting factoid: cheap helmets are as safe as expensive ones. The differences are in features and comfort. I have a spare helmet I bought a long time ago because I knew a girl who kept asking for a ride, and I spent $60. Is it a good helmet, apart from safety? No idea. My head won’t fit in it. You can spend $60 and get a safe helmet, or you can spend $400 and get a safe helmet that looks good and isn’t torture to wear.
You should wear a full-face helmet, because impact on your lower jaw can be transferred to the base of your skull, and that will do bad things to your spine. Like severing it.
Won’t do your jaw a whole lot of good, either.
I got the mildew out of my saddlebags and helmet. The gloves, I wrote off. Green isn’t my color anyway.
More useful info a surprising number of people don’t know: you should wear ear plugs when you ride. Because of exhaust noise, right? Wrong. Plugs will still be needed even after the silent fuel-cell motorcycle is perfected. The noise is from the wind. It’s subtle, but still dangerous.
France. I really need to come to grips with that.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:55 AM
I have some hearing loss that I think is due to racing motorcycles and riding on the street. The wind noise is damaging and I also believe the quick pressure changes are harmful as well.
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Bell and Shoei(SP?) helmets were the rage back then. And they were replaced when they took a hard blow. But not just for a drop. The helmet folks told us that the compression of whatever is between the liner and shell came from a blow on the shell with the users head inside the helmet not just a short drop with no noggin inside.
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I also competed in high power rifle matches for 20 years but the whole time I did that I was very careful about hearing protection. Always used good plugs and electronic muffs. That combo works great, good protection and you can still hear range commands.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:04 PM
I don’t know about motorcycle helmets, but bicycle helmets should be replaced every 2-3 years. The foam padding hardens and reduces its effectiveness.
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As for wind noise, I can guestimate with decent accuracy how fast I’m going on my bike (pedal power) by the wind noise in my ears.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:14 PM
My wife and I got the same story from our MSF instructors on used/dropped helmets (they also said to replace them after a few years if you can afford it, because the foam ages). But our MSF training required us to bring our own helmets, so we had that going for us.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:27 PM
My great-grandfather became deaf after riding to California from North Carolina on a motorcycle back in the 1920’s, so you are correct about the wind damage.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:28 PM
I was happy to learn that I should use both plugs and muffs at the range. It’s the correct thing to do, but I was only doing it because I was a wuss.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:32 PM
I have a Bell that’s supposed to be one of the safer helmets out there for the money. I want an HJC sy-max, because it has the full face protection but lifts up.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:34 PM
The foam padding in the helmets is designed to deteriorate on impact – that is how it protects your head, by dissipating the engergy of impact into destroying the foam rather than your head.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:42 PM
My MSF class used Bells. Looked a bit like watermelons.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:58 PM
I’m not a motorcycle guy and I don’t wear a helmet on a bicycle, but I worked at a Government research lab back in the 1970’s and they were developing the new flight helmets and combat helmets for the Army at the time.
I got to shoot prototypes with ball bearings and drop different sized weights on them and mount manequin heads in them and shoot the whole thing at concrete walls to test the resiliance.
The interesting thing I learned is that the fit of the helmet around the neck and shoulders and the weight of the helmet is critical to avoiding damaging the Cerebrial Vertebre. I guess that’s why NASCAR has gone to their new head/kneck restraint system that basically straps the helmet with your head in it in a bungee cord suspension.
Bottom line…on a motorcycle…light weight is good not just for comfort, but to keep the inertia from breaking your neck.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Hello again.
My wife and I rode together for four years (40k miles), until she injureed her back using the vacuum cleaner. We both wore Bells; mine was full-coverage. I no longer have the documentation, but my recollection is that they recommended replacing the lining every five years, due to deterioration by age.
Better to save your head than your dollars! We would miss you!
To change the subject, keep writing about your association with God. You are helping me, and I suspect many others.
To change the subject again, when will you write more about food, along with your fishing trips?
Thanks again!
Dale
June 30th, 2009 at 3:31 PM
“I was happy to learn that I should use both plugs and muffs at the range. It’s the correct thing to do, but I was only doing it because I was a wuss.”
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When I was coaching the young shooters some of the guys thought muffs were ” stupid looking” until I explained the reasons for wearing them, including the benefit you get from insulating yourself from the weapon. Every little thing you do to get the noise and recoil down will help scores. Also sometimes you can draw a firing position next to the guy that shoots a mega magnum and only touches the thing off a microsecond before you break your shot.
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Nothing to do with wussiness.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:16 PM
I’m sitting here, reading, listening to the ringing in my ears, thinking: was it the stamping presses, the automatic weapons, the high speed motorcycling, the construction work or my first wife? Yeah, I’m sure it was the wife.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:39 PM
Actually, muffs are nice because they cover a bone next to your ear that can easily transmit sound. I wear earplughs when I’m shooting something woosy like a 22 or a 32, but for anything larger I wear muffs, sometimes over the plugs. If you catch a couple odd rounds you can end up with your ears ringing for three days. I HAVE wondered what it would be like to shoot in a helmet, I can’t believe the condition would never occur when you’d have to.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:14 AM
3M Weatherstrip Adhesive. This stuff is pretty much the Grim Death of glues.
Back when I was riding, I quickly hit upon the method of tucking bits of cotton in the edge of the helmet lining, to store them when they weren’t in my ears. The story on fiberglass helmets was that they were supposed to absorb impact by fracturing, so as to use up the impact energy instead of just transmitting it to your melon. Sounded reasonable. Now ceramic body armor is supposed to work the same way. Don’t know if anyone is making ceramic helmets. (Applause)
July 1st, 2009 at 7:18 AM
1. From the standpoint of one who has lost a lot of hearing, anything you can do to preserve it is money in the bank.
2. Was a young soldier when the Army switched from M-14 to M-16.
The smaller round made a cute popping sound, was close to .22 in size. We were cavalier about hearing protection, not realizing the concussion of that fairly powerful cartridge was damaging hearing.
3. Later was in situations where hearing protection was out of the question, of course. Having said that, have seen pix of operators in the current conflict wearing ear muffs.
4. Didn’t know wind noise had such an effect on hearing. Makes sense. Spent a lot of time in aircraft without doors -which probably caused some additional damage.
5. The non-wusses can join me, fiddling with their hearing aids.
6. The audiologist is a cheerful lass who always has something new up her sleeve that she promises will work.
7. Hasn’t yet.
V/R J West
July 1st, 2009 at 8:36 AM
HJC Symax. First got one years ago because, with the swing-up visor, it’s the only full-face my glasses fit under. Good helmet.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:37 AM
What’s the venting like?
July 1st, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Motorcyclist Magazine did a big helmet test a few years ago and confirmed what you’re saying about the G forces and different ratings.
As an ER nurse, any helmet is better than no helmet. We had 4 bike crashes in the last 2 weekends. The 2 who had helmets went home with Road rash and a few broken bones. The 2 without went to the Big City Trauma Center with brain bleeds.
I should take more pictures of what some of those helmets look like, too. Wouldn’t want your head gouged up like that.
I forget to wear my plugs sometimes and shouldn’t as I’m getting deaf as a stump.