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General Discussion / Re: How old is too old for tires?
« Last post by Dr. Enzo Toma on Today at 01:30:50 AM »How do you expect the poor helmet manufacturers to make any money?
Interestingly, Walmart sells full face helmets for less than 100 bucks. They have to meet the same safety standards as a $700 Shorai/Arai/Schuberth, etc. No, I'm not suggesting ditching the Shorai for a Walmart because I assume those big name brands (and others in the price range) far exceed those standards. But you know what they say about assumptions.
You could drop your Walmart helmet/replace it six times and still save money!!
Yep. If you're in the market for a helmet and take the safety aspect of it seriously, it's worth taking a good look at those standards. DOT is a bare minimum and that's what the cheap helmets meet. Those mid range and premium helmets from Shoei/Arai/Schuberth tend to also carry ECE certification as the same helmet is sold with different marketing in Europe, and some are even Snell certified.
I sent a crashed helmet to Shoei a few years ago for them to do an impact inspection and check if the helmet had been compromised. It was an accident where I retained consciousness and had no recollection of hitting my head/helmet, but sure enough there was a scrape on the visor and EMS assured me that it's incredibly common for motorcyclists to hit their head/helmet in a crash and not have noticed it. No head injuries were found at the hospital. Anyway, Shoei assessed the helmet and gave me a report on it and shipped it back for free. Their assessment was that it was due for replacement, not from the crash's exterior impact or from the half dozen times I'd dropped the helmet which they noted tend to not compromise it, but from the inner liner, the impact absorbing styrofoam type material, being damaged in a spot from me putting my helmet over a mirror on bikes for a few years instead of setting it down flat or hanging it from a strap. So lesson learned there, propping a helmet up on a mirror can be more damaging than dropping it from seat height or rubbing it down the highway a bit.
