Motorcycle Helmets

[TotallyOz]

Driving home late last night on my motorcycle, I saw a few accidents. I wondered what the hell I was doing on a 1k dollar bike that can crash and burn at the drop of a hat and how much safety there really was on a cheap bike as opposed to being in a car. I don't have the answer but I do wonder when my time will come to have the accident and how bad it will be.

 

A friend of mine and I had a lengthy discussions about helmets last month. This is a summary of the conversation. Thanks to him for all the info and advice as he saw me drive off with a loose helmet his e-mail to me remind me of how dangerous it was here:

 

This is very informative:

 

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/...view/index.html

 

I can summarize the main things I learned in my helmet reading/research last year...

 

A 'cheap' helmet can provide the same protection as an expensive one. The protection comes from the foam liner (inexpensive material), not the shell. Expensive ones offer comfort extras, better venting for long rides, nicer finishes and so forth, but aren't necessarily "safer."

 

Most head impacts occur to areas of the head that the little hat-type helmets you see here (and which you were wearing when I saw you) do not cover. Full-face helmets offer significantly more protection than open-face.

 

Securing any helmet to your head is vital for it to work. The loose chinstrap (something else I noticed when you rode off) renders the helmet almost useless. In a study of crashes in Thailand, something like half the people who were wearing helmets had them fly off during the accident.

 

High-visibility colors make helmets safer, by making you easier for other drivers to see. I bought a relatively expensive helmet to bring over and it pained me to pass up a really cool metallic gray in favor of a simple bright yellow, but I did.

 

The full-face helmets I found here in Thailand are OK but lack one thing -- impact foam in the chin area (or at least the ones I saw did). Still,

 

Crashes at "low speed" have more than enough energy to cause devastating head injuries. For example, if you were to hold your hands behind your back, standing still, and fall forward to smack your head into the pavement, that could be enough to seriously injure or kill you.

 

The severity of head injuries increases as we get older. Injuries that a 20yo might recover from could far more easily kill someone in his 50s, for instance.

 

You can get a perfectly good helmet in the states for under $100, entirely adequate for short trips around town here.

 

Claims that people in helmets have more crashes because your vision and/or hearing is restricted are bullshit. (I find my full-face to feel far less confining than I'd expected it to be.) Likewise, claims that you are more likely to have a neck injury due to the weight of a helmet are also bullshit.

 

The helmets you find here, if worn correctly (good snug fit, tightly secured) are fine. If you want a better one, they are hard to find in Thailand. Bikers here usually pick theirs up in Singapore. The "best" brands (Shoei, which I have, and Arai -- both Japanese) will be stolen if you don't look after them. One way to convince a Thai to wear a helmet consistently might be to buy him a "high status" helmet, but that costs some bucks. I've made a standing offer to the BF here that I'll buy him absolutely any helmet he wants if he promises to wear it. He has declined so far.

 

I ended up getting this...

 

http://www.shoei-helmets.com/road/helmets_road.aspx?h=13

 

It was far more money than I needed to spend, but I decided the flip-up feature would make me more likely to use it, and I saw some skepticism in the reviews that the cheaper flip-ups are built well enough. I very nearly bought a much cheaper, simple full-face one, and it would have been fine.

 

Hope that's useful. Get a better helmet, and wear it properly!!!!!!

 

 

[Guest buaseng]

... Get a better helmet, and wear it properly!!!!!!

Better still get off your motorcycle, ditch it and buy/use a car.

 

Judging from what I see regarding the standard of m/c driving and how they are totally ignored by other drivers in Thaiand, they are death-traps whether you be riding one or within 5 metres of a moving one! You need as much metal protection around you as you can possibly get!

[Guest]

I am always freaky about wearing helmets and don't go out with any boy that doesn't wear one. They always put them on with a grimace. I went to the movies a week ago and one boy was leaving on his own and I told him to put his helmet on. He does not live with me and has no reason to do as I ask but he did. On the way home, he had an accident. Luckily, the helmet took a beating, along with his leg and arm but he was safe and he thanked me later. Last night, I saw him again riding without a helmet. I guess you can only do so much.

[Guest fountainhall]

Excellent advice, but I do find one comment surprising -

 

A 'cheap' helmet can provide the same protection as an expensive one. The protection comes from the foam liner (inexpensive material), not the shell

 

I agree the inner lining is very important, and to have maximum effect the helmet must be tighly secured to the head area so that sudden jarring of the brain can be reduced. But surely if the outer shell is punctured by a sharp object, in most cases you are going to suffer a serious head injury. In this case, the lining is just not going to be much help. I admit, tho', I have never driven a motorbike.

[Guest joseph44]

Excellent advice, but I do find one comment surprising -

I agree the inner lining is very important, and to have maximum effect the helmet must be tighly secured to the head area so that sudden jarring of the brain can be reduced. But surely if the outer shell is punctured by a sharp object, in most cases you are going to suffer a serious head injury. In this case, the lining is just not going to be much help. I admit, tho', I have never driven a motorbike.

 

I used to wear these THB 199 helmets: too small, too light, no protection (because no linen).

Nowadays I'm wearing a THB 899 helmet with proper linen, a good choice, I think.

For me it's not the helmet that's important, it's more the time that I do participate in traffic. Usually I avoid the hours between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., morning rush hours and evening rush hours. And for the rest: watch the twats!!

 

IMHO it's easier to deal with the Thai in traffic, because I expect them to drive like crazy and that's what they usually do. Worse are the foreigners; they're expected to drive/ride with some kind of decency, but they're usually the biggest ................ !!