Helmets save lives! But how good is your bike helmet when it comes to protecting you?

Before we find out about the helmet safety standards today, it may be useful to get a little foundation on the underlying foundations of rider head safety. We underestimate the abundance of helmet styles, materials, hues, shapes and sizes that are immediately accessible to the cutting-edge motorcyclist, yet at the beginning of motorcycling, a century prior, alternatives were more restricted. The principal caps were made of calfskin or leathers, and sort of took after topsy-turvy cowhide diapers. Sounds secure, isn’t that so? These helmets were effective to the point that many board track racers survived a few races!

So What Are These Symbols on Your Helmet?

You must have seen some signs, symbols or stickers at the back of your bike helmet () and wondered what they meant. These symbols and stickers represent different certifications. And depending on your lid, you may see one or more of these:

DOT:

The law of USA clearly states that all helmets on shelves of a helmet store must be DOT certified. It means you cannot sell or use any other helmet standard in the USA.

FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard) explains the DOT certification requirements for helmets used in the USA.

ECE:

The most common and widely used standard in the world is ECE (Economic Community Europe). More than 50 countries accept the standard and follow the rules designed be ECE 22.05. The best thing about this helmet standard that it is mandatory to test the helmet before selling it to the public. It means that every helmet which comes out of the factory meets the ECE 33.05 standards perfectly.

SNELL:

These standards were introduced by Snell Memorial Foundation. These are special standards for motorsports riders like the motor cross, drag racing, and karting.

However, if you are thinking to purchase a helmet with Snell certification, it is a complete volunteer kind of thing. The Snell never replaced the DOT standards.

Usually, North American people go for a Snell certified helmet, they say these are better standards than any other. The reason behind this choice is that Snell standards permit more g-force transmission to the head then DOT standards. Also, the Snell also test the chin bar of the face, and DOT doesn’t do that.

ACU GOLD standard

UK has come up with more strict standards, ACU GOLD standards. UK law states that every rider must wear an ACU GOLD sticker helmet with minimum legal ECE 22.05 specifications or he cannot compete in the race. However, some riders also use the ACU GOLD sticker helmets on regular roads too.

If your helmet does not have any less than one of the above stickers, you ought to affirm that you are riding with a genuine head protector and not, say, a plastic bowl. Because if you are riding an originally certified helmet than it will always have one or more stickers.  Helmet look-alike that don’t have a DOT or ECE sticker are known as “novelty” helmets. These are unsafe, offer zero assurance and are prohibited to wear while riding in an area where wearing a helmet is mandatory.

Helmets can pass one, two, or even each of the three models, so you may have a cap that is simply DOT and SNELL, or DOT and ECE affirmed.  As of late a fourth testing body has entered the motorcycle helmet market. The SHARP helmet scheme does not give confirmationsabut instead assigns a “star rating” to European-model lids.

SHARP

A relative newcomer to the helmet safety market, the SHARP Helmet Safety Scheme is the first organization to go past a “pass/fall flat” confirmation for bike head protectors. Rather, SHARP tests every helmet utilizing various effect focuses and vitality levels, and after that issues a “star rating.” This rating is expected to be characteristic of a helmets capacity to manage energy.

While the DOT, ECE and SNELL evaluations are outlined as stand-alone safety certifications, SHARP is expected as an effect rating upgrade to the ECE 22.05 standard. Thus, SHARP will just test helmets that have just passed ECE affirmation. The objective of the SHARP security idea isn’t to decide whether a helmet is exhaustively “safe,” but to provide European consumers with additional information when deciding between ECE-certified lids.  SHARP uses a fundamentally same technique as of ECE 22.05 scheme, with an addition of higher and lower speed strike. SHARP at that point utilizes European crash information to calculate a color-coded “safety rating” for each region of the helmet.

The most used helmet safety standards in the world are:

So Which Helmet Safety Standard Is Best For You?

There is an old saying in the motorcycle business: “Tell me how you are going to crash, and I’ll tell you what protection you need.”  The same can be said of helmet certifications. If you intend to get yourself into a minor, low-speed collision, an ECE-evaluated helmet will most likely carry out the activity. On the off chance that you are hoping to take a tumble on fast tracks having a higher speed, a SNELL-certified lid may be more suitable. DOT endorsed helmets will do fine for the normal day to day causal work and routine.

Download PakWheels App

Having said that, there are a lot of variables that go into picking a helmet, selecting the appropriate safety certification is only one of them. The fit, complete, comfort, usability, and list of capabilities of a helmet would all be able to play into the general security of the rider. A lighter or calmer helmet can help decrease rider weariness, and a head protector with mist-free optics can enhance improve visibility. These features may reduce the likelihood of an accident in the first place.

Fitment is particularly critical! Truth be told, every one of the four testing bodies makes it a point to take note of that they test on appropriately fitting head forms. In the event that your helmet does not fit appropriately, its ability to manage impact energy will be compromised. A $100 DOT helmet that fits your nice and snug will be better in case of an accident compared to a $900 SNELL helmet of a wrong size.

That pretty much sums up for the helmet safety standards 101. We hope you have learned something new today and will start to take this huge safety concern seriously. Make sure that your helmets are certified and well in position to protect you in difficult times.