I want to talk a little bit today about helmet fit. This is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and helmets are considered a piece of safety equipment. Now I live in Illinois. Illinois does not require helmets. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ride with a helmet. I’m not saying you have to ride with a helmet. I personally always ride with the helmet, but I honestly think that it should be your own choice. We’re adults. We choose to ride this machine that can possibly kill us. We should be the ones to decide whether or not we want to put a helmet on our heads. But one thing is, if you are required to wear a helmet or you choose to wear a helmet like I do, make sure the helmet fits.
If the helmet doesn’t fit, it can actually cause worse injuries than not wearing a helmet at all. Most of the times if you hear somebody that is bitching about a helmet and they said, well, I know people that have gotten hurt worse than if they they didn’t have a helmet. They would have been better off without a helmet. You know, because of all the damage that the helmet did when they crash, most likely that was because the helmet didn’t fit correctly. Believe me, I’ve had some helmets that I wanted to take and throw as far as possible when I stopped. In fact, that trip to Sturgis, the helmet did not come back with me. I bought a new one while I was there because I couldn’t handle that helmet any further. So a little bit of fitment and then you have the different types of helmets.
So you’ve got full face helmets. You’ve got half helmets, you’ve got three quarter helmets. I do not have one here, but I have this as a modular. So take this part off. That’s a three quarter helmet. I like the modular, so I have a modular. I have a regular full face that isn’t a modular. And I have half helmets. It really depends on what type of riding I’m going to be doing and the weather as to which helmet I wear.
I tend to wear the modular more than any of my other helmets. And I love wearing it on long trips.
FITMENT:
You want to be able for it to be comfortable, but it also has to be tight. Your cheeks should be squished in a good fitting helmet. You see the padding squishing in on my cheeks. Not as much as it used to because I have recently lost some weight, but the helmet doesn’t do a lot of moving when I move my head. And it’s not even tight yet, which you do always want to tighten your straps. So when you try on a helmet so you want to put it on and you want to wear it for a little bit. Yes, you’re going to look like a dork in the store, but the more you wear a helmet, it causes heat to beat up, heat to rise, and that causes your head to swell a little bit. Which is why a helmet that starts out feeling great, an hour later, your cussing. Because it’s giving you a headache. It’s because your head swells a little in a helmet, because they do heat up, especially full face helmets and even these modulars. I’ve got it tightened down, my chin tightened down. I put the chin bar down.
Now I can’t lift the helmet off without undoing the strap, which is the way it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to move your head back and forth, shake it back and forth. My helmet does not move, which is the way it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to move around on your head. It’s supposed to stay with your head, following the movements of your head. That way, when you are looking over your shoulder, you have full range of motion.
Another thing. I’m not a person that likes to put my helmet on my mirrors because it always ends up messing up my mirrors, and I have to totally readjust them. So, I try not to put my helmet there. So this is a half helmet. I do have ear flaps on because I run a cardio communication system. And that’s where my speakers are, even in my half helmet. So how about the same way I’ve got it on?
I’ve got my chin down, strap tight. I gotta tighten it down a little bit because lost some weight. But once you’ve got it tightened down, you shouldn’t be able to get your helmet off, and I can’t. I still can’t get it off even with the chin strap loose like it is. And I will fix that next for my next ride.
But again, move your head back and forth, up and down. The helmet should not move around and shift. Also know that there’s different standards or helmet. This is a DOT helmet. Which means Department of Transportation. It’s a certified helmet. I own a Ruroc helmet. They are certified in the UK. You can go. There are some Shoei and some Arai helmets that are race certified. They’re more expensive, but they are actually a safer helmet and are better inspected. And if you’ve got the money to spare, might be something worth looking into. I have like my HJC’s. They have a good safety rating and they are dot approved.
You can get a full face helmet or modular with a tinted visor. I personally would rather just wear sunglasses under because at night I don’t want to have to be fiddling around changing my visor. But my HGC does have one.
But it has what I call the fire fighter pilot visor.
My half helmet has it, is a it’s a pull down, but this modular has it as a button. But I have the fighter pilot visor that pulls down and retracts so that can act as sun glasses if you absolutely need to and you’re not wearing sunglasses. I prefer to wear sunglasses. And I pull that down like if I’m riding into the sun to darken even further. Like I said, my half helmet also has the visor for the same reason.
So just a little bit about helmets. I know some people hate them, some people love them. Some people always ride with them. Some people will not ride with them. And that’s all personal preference. And I think that you should be allowed to make that choice. But I do want you to make the informed choice. Make sure you get a helmet that fits, that is safe and will not cause you further injury than not wearing a helmet at all.