Last years helmet ...

[The Buddha]

OK so old expensive sheite is out, new cheap sheite is great ... OK I can dig that ... BTW doesn't styrofoam not ever like decompose ... wan't that the whole argument against styrofoam cups ??
Cool.
Srinath.

[davipu]

styrofoam is made up of little plastic beads all glued together under pressure. the plastic dosn't decompose as it is plastic, but the "glue" used to bond them is a solvent based. when something impacts the helmet the bond of the glue is what difusses the enegery, otherwise you end up with one of those desk suspended steel ball things that keeps going back and forth, only all the enegery gets put into your noodle.

[calamari]

who's gonna make (and when) kevlar helmets?

[davipu]

alot of lids have kevlar in them already.  kevlar was designed to difusse low mass high velocity impacts, ie:bullets. so is not the best thing to completly build a helmet out of.

edit: forgot to ad that kevlar in it's design is soupposed to give depending on the application.  look at BPV most of the time if you get shot you are going to have broken ribs but it dosn't puncture a organ. so you live.  helmets on the other hand need to diffuse enegery at the point of impact with out alot of give.  so a completely kevalar kid whouldn't work as effectivly as a fiberglass one.

[The Buddha]

who's gonna make (and when) kevlar helmets?

Yea Bieffe is going to be making them. I believe they are starting in  1995, and I have heard that in 2000 or 2001 they are going to stop making them due to misinformation and marketing blitzes by other companies that make a new model of helmet every year ... and have a vaaaaaast network of shills and stealers that will carry it that they can spread some classic misinformation and control the market. Yea I plan to buy 2 of them, a BR15 model in 1996 and a BR 16 model in 2000 and ten when I cant get them anymore in 2005 I am going to start comparison shopping and find blind end after blind end ... and come across a study that said polycarbonate is better than fiberglass. It will all happen in the future ...  :lol: ... The swami predicts.
Cool.
Srinath.

[Blingmasta]

well, he said something like: 'if you are going 90mph and you fall, even that helmet will do you no damn good and you are gone...'

my helmet is an HJC AC-11 Maximus

We are helmet brethren. Tell me, what color is yours?
And that harley dude, I wouldn't listen to a word he says cept for advice on how to spend $20,000 on a bike and 40 bucks on a helmet. Bless'em.

[Blazinjr]

after spending $20000 on a bike isn't tat all they can afford on a helmet?

[The Buddha]

I read that entire article ... yikes its been like 5 years since I did that ... usually the first 3-4 lines and I am good ... anyway ...
The whole theme is ... the Polycarbonate helmets even in that destructive tests seemed to deform and come back to original shape. The fiberglass ones seemed to crack or flatten out and stay that way. The first type of failure is called elastic failure, the second type is called plastic failure.
I have looooong thought that elastic failure is better than plastic ... but shoei and Arai used to constantly insist that plastic is better. The main difference from my way of thinking to this article is that I would look for helmets with elastic material but try to get the ones with the highest modulus of elasticity -e ... as in the hardest ones possible. The BR16 made of Kevlar and aramid, and the BR 15 before that whihc was Aramid and poly carbonate were my favorites. In reading this article I should probably start thinking in terms of elastic but lower e helmets. Arai and Shoei will literally sweep the market looking for and publicising the situations where thier helmets let someone not get hurt as bad, or let him live or somehting like that. That simply put is anecdotal evidence. To have a true comparison you will have to replicate the exact same incident with a different helmet on the same person and make him crash the same way ... so I doubt there are many volunteers. Besides if you crash in a $500 helmet, and the company offers you a $500 replacement helmet for your old helmet and your story, its impossible to refuse. especially since your helmet is now toast. I lose a $90 helmet and I dont care if someone gives me one free or not ... If its $500 i'd like to get my hands on another one free if possible. Very much like infomercial testimony. Simply put ... elastic failure is better, lower e is better and heck dropping a helmet a few times prior to your crashing in it should not affect the helmet in any way ... whooo hooo ... now I run off and buy a $80 Z1R ... Or I think the stealer has a Fulmer - a whole wall rack on sale ...
Cool.
Srinath.