The Euros updated their helmet standard

Don't you mean a skid lid?

 

Good for the euros.

 

Because basically every helmet sold in the US is ECE. There is a date that all the manufacturers have to have moved any 22.05 (old standard) helmets so that impacts sales in the US.

The snell vs ECE thing I’d personally go for ECE. Yes it’s a ‘softer’ standard but they aren’t soft helmets. Also that is just a minimum rating most good helmets far exceed it. The main difference for snell is that they have to survive a pointed double impact in the same location. That means the shell has to be ultra stiff to take that hit but it’s exceedingly rare to have that kind of impact happen in a motorcycle crash. In a race car with a roll cage, sure. But tumbling or sliding in a motorcycle crash it’s nearly impossible to incur that type of situation.

 

Eh, it’s probably a ploy to make Brussels a few bucks and to get the damn cheap ass Germans to buy a new helmet after using the same one for the last 15 years.

Ach du lieber Himmel! It is a law, VE must buy a new helmet! Grand pa pa, dig up the emergency fund from the yard! It’s a law and VE must follow it!

 

I wasn’t disagreeing with you, just explaining the difference and my personal preference. I do this stuff for a living so I’m a little more in the weeds with all this stuff.

 

Anyways. I got a nice Nolan modular N-100.5 for $300 delivered to my door, which is an amazing deal on one of the best touring helmets out there.

 

That’s like $89.99 in real money! Nice!

 

I thought it was a good deal for a fake helmet (since it's not DOT)

 

Here in Florida, you don't even have to wear a helmet.

 

I guess I chose well...worn Shoei all my life but for $200 I had to try it.

I'm impressed with all the safety ratings on the back of the lid

 

You mean that you have been trained and or experienced seminars by numerous helmet manufacturers let's say over the past 20 years? And your company's warehouses are full of AGV, Arai, Alpinestar helmets just to name a few? And you've sold how many helmets while working at PU? Yeah you don't know shit

 

Haha it's cool, I have thick skin. I've been around here for over 20 years too so I know that Mongo assumes everyone is an idiot on here. Only 17 years with PU, but I usually am on the podium for overall helmet sales in the company. Now that we have Arai I'm really hoping I get to go see their factory and see how they do things. There is some pretty amazing changes going on right now with helmets and it's great to see the brands pushing the bar higher and higher.

 

Growing up you pretty much had Bell and some brands that probably dont exist today. I know Shoei and Arai were around in the 50's but I don't know when they cornered the market here in the USA.

Now there is an explosion of companies making safe helmets for much cheaper than the 2 Japanese giants.

 

Really the one that I think made the biggest leap is 6D. They make a totally different style helmet and the other brands have been scrambling to catch up. If you look at what the other brands had 10 years ago when 6D started to what everyone is doing now it has been an explosion of technology. I honestly think if they had the money of Bell or other large brands behind them they would be totally dominating the market. They are much more successful on the off road side though so most guys on here probably aren't super familiar with how they work but it's impressive. That isn't to say there aren't advances in standard EPS only helmets either. Exciting times for sure.

 

In the 80s I worked in a giant powersports store that had a huge accessories dept. Helmet and clothing wise we stocked deep and sold everything. MX helmet wise we stocked Bells and the benchmark was the Moto4, and we stocked Bell street helmets. We carried Arai open face and their best full face. Shoei wise we carried the open face and the high-end model, but the bread and butter was the RF200. It was great quality and only $199 compared to the $400-500 top Shoeis and Arais. We sold the shit out of RF200, but around 1988 a Korean company visited with open and full-face fiberglass helmets. They were so heavy and the shell felt like it was ½ inch thick, but the price was cheap and so we bought them and they sold great. I think the open face was $99 and the full was $149. At first the vents keep falling off and we had a bunch of returns but it didn’t matter, and that company was HJC btw.

Fast forward 3 years or so and I am a sales guy at Tucker Rocky and a chinese company intros a new helmet that too had vents falling out and weighed a ton. That company was KBC, and now they private label for a bunch of companies.

At the store and at TR we sold Nolan, Lazer, and a bunch of the cheaper brands too. But still today Arai and Shoei set the benchmark for a quality product that most of the others are still trying to match. BTW I’m not biased even though I used to be an Arai ambassador.

 

Did you ever race a WERA round?