Anyone heard or used these helmets??

[WatchThis!!!]

I agree on the price of TLD. But I browsed around a couple of sites and found a brand new Troy Lee Merc helmet for 220. More then half the price of on the TLD site.

And no, It's NOT fake!

 

[Rob1334]

Ok, I ride with the HJC cl-4 helmet, prob not the best. I know I need a safer helmet too.

Three things here I wanna hear answers on:

1. Tell me the good and bad others know about this helmet, I have family and what not, should I get rid of this brain bucket before it kills me?

2. What is a decent helmet that is not $500? Ya I know, you have one head and we spend so much on mod parts and sleds, why skimp on a helmet.. There are good helmets for less than $500

3. Has anyone else heard of helmet materials breaking down after 3 years or so, something about the materials and foams losing the strength over time? We replace ours at work every three years or at least try to, anyone else hear this?

 

[xrated]

monte,

Thanks for pointing out the speed factor...shoie is huge in sport bikes right? Whole differnt speed and impact types vs dirt bikes/quads and sleds.

I gotta read that article today.

 

[Killerk]

The most important thing to do when buying a helmet IMO is to get one that has the best/proper fit for YOU.
I am not going to debate over which helmet protects the best, but just like shoes, everyone needs different ones.
Take the time and try on as many helmets as you can... Ignore the color and find one that fits your head the best, then if needed take the time to make it fit even better by doing as the instructions state.
I have owned many different brands of helmets, and there are only a couple brands I will buy due to how the fit my head.

 

[thefullmonte]

Sorry, this thread has gotten slightly off topic.
Snell ratings are designed for extreme impacts at very high speeds. As with anything safety related you are gambling on what type of accident you are having. IMO there should be a different standard between dirt/snow/street. Dirt and snow seem to have more in common with each other as to the type of impact you are recieving. Again, much of this is in the article.
Street you are more likely to have a skid and slide rather than a huge impact. Dirt and snow you do have the risk of impacting you melon on a rock.
For impact protection the old theory was that you want a softer shell (fiberglass). Remember, this outer shell is only there to transfer the energy of the impact to the inner liner. The fiberglass is intended to crack and break thereby distributing the impact over a greater surface area.
With current Snell standards, many of the companies have had to make these outer shells much stronger. To the point that they are actually more ridgid than the plastic shell helmets.
Something to think about is that there are about 117 diff helmet manufactures and only 11 factories making helmets. something like that anyway. Many of these companies are making both Snell and ECE approved helmets. They obviously know what they are doing. I have personally tested a Fox V3 and it did crack and I did walk away with only wounded pride. So, I do feel you can get a safe Snell helmet and definitally without spending $500.
The Cl-X4 is/was a good helmet. However, the life of most helmets is 4-5years depending on use. Again, Snell helmets seem to require the use of a styrene liner. (think styrofoam cup material) This liner breaks down after time due to heat and sweat, etc... Diminishing it's ability to obsorb and impact. Alot of the ECE helmets are using a different type of material in their inner liner however I have not personally seen or touched the stuff.
What type of rider are you???? Are you doing 50ft jumps and 100ft drops. Snell may be better for you. Do you do more boondocking with the occasional thrill of a jump. ECE is probably the choice for you.
Again, MTdream gave the best advice of all. DO YOUR RESEARCH and make an informed decision. Sorry that got alittle wordy. I'll stop now.

 

[03rmking]

Monte, great info.

So the consensus is that a SNELL helmet has a harder shell which distributes more of the impact to your head rather than absorbing it?

I bounced my head off a tree wearing a SNELL approved HJC and knocked my self out cold and the shell didn't even crack. It would seem to me an impact hard enough to put you out should also be enough to crack the shell. Had it been made to ECE standards perhaps I would have a different story. The more I read about SNELL ratings, the less I like SNELL helmets for snow use.

 

[Rob1334]

Ya thanks monte, thats what I was looking for. I was going to get a better helmet here now that I do more riding. I do a lot of ditch banging, so it could take a good impact hit, but I'm not into really extreme stuff like 100ft drops or 100ft hucks when we go to the mountains, it's new territory for me even though I love it so I am very hesitant, and I have to pay for my parts....Ha.

Wasn't sure with the brand, but I do agree to try a lot and see how they fit to make sure you get one that fits your head well, not just because it has a cool graphic or is extra shinny.

 

[03rmking]

Monte, one more thing, do you sell Fly helmets? What is your take on their overall quality?

 

[thefullmonte]

We don't stock the fly helmets although I have seen them. We have ordered a few of them for different customers. The quality is definitally there. I hear that they are a fairly comfortable helmet as well. I didn't check to see who makes the helmet. My guess would be KBC (not a bad thing). If someone on here has one, check on the inside tag the very lower line. It should indicate who or at least where the helmet was made.

 

[tbeaton]

i have used a good amount of helmets out there. i have used the fly, comfortable, light and i know some that swear by them. thor, comfortable light probably one of my favs. i have a 661 right now and i like it, i stay warm feels light. hjc, heavy uncomfortable ( i have found a few that were comfy) but i don't really like thier helmets. ski-doo ( i think is scorpion now was lazer on some models) don't like any of them, heavy seem realy hard on the inside and not comfortable at all. i have a suomy road helmet that i love, fits like a glove, real light and they have a european and US certification. My friends and i always used to say when we were looking at helmets for out sport bikes, if racers use them then they must be good. Arai, shoei, agv, etc....

now i haven't had any encounters with trees or anything hard, no crashes so i can't speak on those terms. as for the helmet that mtdream is using, thats a downhill mountain bike/ ski helmet and i would never use that for any form of powersports.

 

[Ex-Member]

The most important thing to do when buying a helmet IMO is to get one that has the best/proper fit for YOU.

YES. Listen to this man.

Try a bunch on, find out which brand/model/size you like. Then go online and get the color/flavor you want. Usually cheaper than dealer stock anyways.

 

[MACH]

I am a Fox V3 and a FLY Lite guy myself.

To me they both have a great fit and feel the best on my bean.

Fox V3 ways in at 2.9 pounds (supposedly) Fly is just over 3, TLD is around 3 as well.

My women just bought herself a sweet Fox V3 Pink Limited Edition and it is sick for a pink helmet.

I have been using the Fox helmets since they came out and I just really like them.

BTW if anyone is looking for an awesome deal on a New Fox V3 click HERE. They have other designs you just have to look for them. $175 bucks is an awesome deal.

BTW The helmet on the original post is as ugly as a canadien stripper as well.

 

[MTdream]

would highly suggest folks read that article I posted, it has some great data points in it...but here is the key factor to keep in mind...


****SORRY THIS IS LONG, BUT CRITICAL STUFF for us all to understand...tried summarizing without opinion or bias**************

your brain floats inside your skull...if the impact to the head is quick it sloshes your brain quickly into the skull...~~~~~for those in loma linda this is bad~~~~~

your brain is essentially like a mix between jello and clay (somewhere in between from consistency) if it is slammed hard into the skull bad things happen..with the MILDEST being concussion, most severe death, usually from internal bleeding and swelling, but can be worse, like sloshing jello in your mouth, and making it liquid...

Your brain can only take a certain amound of slamming into the hard skull...The basic philiosophical differences in the ratings revolve around how to mitigate the sloshing of the brain...while preventing penetration of objects through the brain bucket...

if the helmet can absorb or slow that slamming inside the skull, then it has done its job...

Snell, DOT, ECE and other standards all have their logic about why they do what they do...but here is basicly the standards or targets...

direct quotes from article

The killer—the hardest Snell test for a motorcycle helmet to meet—is a two-strike test onto a hemispherical chunk of stainless steel about the size of an orange. The first hit is at an energy of 150 joules, which translates to dropping a 5-kilo weight about 10 feet—an extremely high-energy impact. The next hit, on the same spot, is set at 110 joules, or about an 8-foot drop. To pass, the helmet is not allowed to transmit more than 300 Gs to the headform in either hit.

"The basis for the 300 G [limit in the Snell M2000 standard] is that the foundation is conservative. [The directors] have not seen an indication that a [head injury] threshold is below 300 Gs. If and when they do, they'll certainly take it into account."

now the euro ECE standard thoughts...

The European Union recently released an extensive helmet study called COST 327, which involved close study of 253 recent motorcycle accidents in Germany, Finland and the U.K. This is how they summarized the state of the helmet art after analyzing the accidents and the damage done to the helmets and the people: "Current designs are too stiff and too resilient, and energy is absorbed efficiently only at values of HIC [Head Injury Criteria: a measure of G force over time] well above those which are survivable."

...exposing a human head to a force over 200 Gs for more than 2 milliseconds is what medical experts refer to as "bad." Heads are different, of course. Young, strong people can take more Gs than old, weak people....

remember, Snell says 300G's (again please read the article in context, trying to abbreviate for those who dont want to read it all)

Is an impact over the theoretical 200 G/2 millisecond threshold going to kill you? Probably not. Is it going to hurt you? Depends on you, and how much over that threshold your particular hit happens to be. But head injuries short of death are no joke.

...The COST study was limited to people who had hit their helmets on the pavement in their accidents. Of these, 67 percent sustained some kind of head injury. Even more㭅 percent—sustained leg injuries, and 57 percent had thorax injuries. You can even calculate your odds using the Injury Severity Score, or ISS...

A score of 75 means you're dead. Sorry. Very few people with an ISS of 70 see tomorrow either.

If you're between 15 and 44 years old, an ISS score of 40 means you have a 50-50 chance of making it. If you're between 45 and 64 years old, ISS 29 is the 50-50 mark. And above 65 years old, the 50-50 level is an ISS of 20. For a 45- to 64-year old guy such as myself, an ISS over 29 means I'll probably die.

If I get two "serious," AIS 3 injuries—the aforementioned AIS 3 head hit and AIS 3 chest thump—and a "severe" AIS 4 leg injury, my ISS score is ... let's see, 3 times 3 is 9. Twice that is 18. 4 times 4 is 16. 18 and 16 is 34. Ooops. Gotta go.

Drop my AIS 3 head injury to an AIS 2 and my ISS score is 29. Now I've got a 50-50 shot.

And here is a US study on the whole subject, and has essentially stood as the defacto facts of helmets and injuries...

The Hurt Report, issued in '81, was the first, last and only serious study on real motorcycle accidents in the U.S. The study was done by some very smart, very reputable scientists and researchers at the University of Southern California. The Hurt researchers came to some surprising and illuminating conclusions—conclusions that have not been seriously challenged since...First, about half of all serious motorcycle accidents happen when a car pulls in front of a bike in traffic. These accidents typically happen at very low speeds, with a typical impact velocity, after all the braking and skidding, below 25 mph...Actual crash speeds are slow, but the damage isn't. These are serious, often fatal crashes.
...Another eye-opener: In spite of what one might assume, the speed at which an accident starts does not necessarily correlate to the impact the head—or helmet—will have to absorb in a crash. That is, according to the Hurt Report and the similar Thailand study, going faster when you fall off does not typically result in your helmet taking a harder hit...

In fact, the vast majority of crashed helmets examined in the Hurt Report showed that they had absorbed about the same impact you'd receive if you simply tipped over while standing, like a bowling pin, and hit your head on the pavement. Ninety-plus percent of the head impacts surveyed, in fact, were equal to or less than the force involved in a 7-foot drop. And 99 percent of the impacts were at or below the energy of a 10-foot drop.

...The COST study estimated that better, more energy-absorbent helmets could reduce motorcycle fatalities up to 20 percent. If that estimate is legitimate and was applied in the U.S., it would mean saving about 700 American riders' lives a year.

they went on to do testing on all the helmets...and had some shocking results...

The DOT helmets we had were all plastic-shelled, and none cost more than $100. How did they do? They kicked butt. In what must be considered a head-impact Cinderella story, the DOT-only helmets from Z1R delivered less average G force to the headform through all the impacts than any others in the test.

And they still excelled in the big-hit, 150-joule impact—a blast 66 percent harder than any actual DOT test for a medium-sized helmet.