Do I need a new helmet?

[hackers2r]

Just dropped my helmet onto a concrete driveway. Maybe a 30" fall. Paint cracked. Thanks.

[stopintime]

According to the Arai specialist tech guy in Leno's garage..... NO.

[hackers2r]

And according to the rest of the world?  Just repaint?

[He Man]

rest of the world is dumb. the key component in the helmet saving ur ass is the shell and EPS. the eps will collapse and deform in even small impacts....but if theres no head in the helmet you could drop it or bang it against something, but long as the shell doesnt crack or bend to much, and the EPS has nothing to press against its good to go.

So as long as u didnt crack the shell, i wouldnt worry about it too much. if u had a minor spill and ur head made contact with the ground, then it is compromised as the eps collapse to absorb the energy.

no point in repainting a helmet. If ur that anal about how it looks, just buy another one. a paint job would cost as much as most helmets.

[scduc]

Helmets are designed for one use only. That being said, I dropped mine once and felt leery about using it. Problem is you wont know if its a good idea or not. Three things can happen 1. you go down, hit your head and all is good. 2. you go down hit your head and end up in a comma (not good). 3. you ride with the conscious of what if. I had the what ifs for some time. Now I have a new helmet. If you are questioning the situation, do your self a favor and buy a new helmet, I would not throw the old one out, maybe keep it as a back up.

[He Man]

Helmets are designed for one use only.

what do you consider 1 use?

[stopintime]

I mean, if the US Arai Director of Marketing says no on camera, it should be clear enough. He sells helmets for a living and he has the legal issues to worry about and he still says no


http://www.araiamericas.com/default.aspx?pageid=160  (about 7:30 into the clip)

[mojo]

Some (or maybe all) of the helmet manufacturers can x-ray your helmet and tell you if it is still safe to wear.

[scott_araujo]

rest of the world is dumb. the key component in the helmet saving ur ass is the shell and EPS. the eps will collapse and deform in even small impacts....but if theres no head in the helmet you could drop it or bang it against something, but long as the shell doesnt crack or bend to much, and the EPS has nothing to press against its good to go.

So as long as u didnt crack the shell, i wouldnt worry about it too much. if u had a minor spill and ur head made contact with the ground, then it is compromised as the eps collapse to absorb the energy.

no point in repainting a helmet. If ur that anal about how it looks, just buy another one. a paint job would cost as much as most helmets.

+1.  If the shell is not cracked or compromised and the foam is not compressed it's still usable.  Though a small fall like that while wearing it could compress the foam, it's not likely if there's no head in the helmet.

Also, many newer helmets paint the foam on the inside black.  This is a really nice feature because when it does compress it also usually gets cracks.  The white interior of the foam shows up clear as day through the black paint.

Scott

[CDawg]

I seems to remember reading that helmets needs replacing only if it is dropped from a height of more than 3 feet?  Can someone verify my memory?

[He Man]

I seems to remember reading that helmets needs replacing only if it is dropped from a height of more than 3 feet?  Can someone verify my memory?

Theres not enough additional force to cause a helmet to deform between 3 feet and say 6 feet especially when these things were designed for high speed impacts. Ofcourse im not the designiner, but it wouldnt make sense. light impacts such as drops will most likely spread the energy over the shell, like its suppose to and it'll do what everything else does, bounce once and rollaround, scratch a lens and piss you off.

i dropped my Shark RSR2 3 times already from either handlebar height, or off a chair. I have no problems wearing it. Actually you could see that the foam hasnt done anything because its sliced like "shark fins"

[coarsegoldkid]

I wouldn't worry about it.  You should see how they test them.  A 30 inch drop doesn't even come close to damaging the integrity of the shell or the rest of the helmet.

[jwoconnor]

I'd still trust the helmet over the rag I see Harley guys wear.

[scduc]

what do you consider 1 use?

What I'm trying to say is that a helmet's sole purpose is to protect the grey matter in case of a crash. Some protective items are designed to absorb impact and in the process, they are self destructive. Unlike a football helmet or something used in the contact sports, the motorcycle / racing helmet is far more advanced. Clearly if you laid your bike down at 50mph and racked your head against a tree, you wouldn't even think twice about using the helmet again. Even if it only had a scratch. So, in this aspect, I say it is designed for 1 use. Basically it does nothing until needed. Now by saying that , it does many other things than protect in case of crash. Wind, noise, bugs, rain, sunlight, etc. Manufactures have different theories on what constitutes replacement. So, like I said before, if this doesn't bother you, then by all means continue to use. However, I would always have that little bit of doubt and would not be comfortable without replacement.. 

[Scotzman]

what do you consider 1 use?

I think the older SNELL was tested to include TWO impacts which is why they've changed their testing for 2010 to include ONE impact to evenly distribute the impact area. Someone posted an article on here about the new SNELL testing.