I've just been reading an enlightening article on helmet testing. One helmet stood out particularly well in the test, scoring the lowest average stress on the brain; Z1R ZRP-1 and amazingly cheap.
"The DOT helmets we had were all plastic-shelled, and none cost more than $100. How did they do? They kicked butt. In what must be considered a head-impact Cinderella story, the DOT-only helmets from Z1R delivered less average G force to the headform through all the impacts than any others in the test.
And they still excelled in the big-hit, 150-joule impact—a blast 66 percent harder than any actual DOT test for a medium-sized helmet.
The Z1R ZRP-1s continuously amazed us. After all the testing, its outer shell looked essentially unharmed: The slight road rash at the impact sites caused by our stubborn insistence on hitting actual pavement looked no worse than we'd expect if the helmet had fallen off the seat at a rest stop".
Full story:
http://motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/hatz/
http://www.z1rhelmets.com/index.jsp?pageid=440
I'm going to check out if they are available here. Gotta look after the noggin'.
Bookmarks