Excerpt from: Motorcycle Lawyer
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| April 07, 2009 | | Designed to Survive a 27 MPH Crash | You will never see a helmet advertised with the claims made in the headline above. In fact, it seems to be impossible to find a motorcycle helmet that makes any claims of safety whatsoever.
Helmet manufacturers tout light weight, ventilation, cool graphics, and other non-essential features. They don't provide information about safety. At best, they will proclaim that they are DOT or Snell approved.
Even with the European SHARP study, which is the best attempt yet to quantify helmet performance as it relates to impact, at least in the U.S., the manufacturers have not started advertising, or even disseminating, their results.
The problem this causes is that it leaves a consumer out in the cold.
An example of an unsafe helmet is a full face helmet that fails to use EPS foam in the chin bar area. Those of you who read this blog regularly know that helmets have an outer shell to prevent intrusion, but the EPS liner is the primary absorber of impact.
Unbelievable, some manufacturers skimp out and don't put EPS liner in the chin bar area, or on the sides of the shin bar. If this area comes into play in an accident, no impact is absorbed here, since the area is uncovered hard plastic or composite.
Isn't it unfair to the consumer to have no way of comparing these helmets to a fully EPS lined helmet without becoming a helmet expert?
These companies are making plenty of money selling helmets. If they weren't, they would stop making them, and they wouldn't put ads in every motorcycle magazine.
What good are the ads, if they don't provide ANY information about safety?
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