Carbon fibre helmets?

**theseekerfinds** · 14th May 2012, 17:24

I did some more reading and found this

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/a...-carbon-helmet

oh to have $4K US laying about looking to be spent

after a bit more reading about other helmets on the market and after checking out the SHARP link in this forum I now realise I may have been incorrect in my understanding of the CF technology in todays helmets..

**SPP** · 14th May 2012, 20:22

Originally Posted by slofox

Anyone know anything about carbon fibre helmets?

Next time I buy a helmet I'd like something lighter than the usual - always assuming it has the same level of protection of course. Carbon fibre is supposed to be the bees' knees innit, so waddya know about it anyone?

Ta.

Originally Posted by gatch

I have an unpainted ...I'm updating with a newer HJC, guess the weight... 1200g !! I don;t think this is carbon fiber however, maybe kevlar or glass. But it's light, has all the safety standard stamps and looks schmick to boot.

Attachment 263663

HJC PHA-10 is super stable and really light (1250g). Boyd's in the tron has them on the shelf (carbon fibre/aramid/fibre glass).

Another helmet worth looking into is a Nexx XR1R carbon. A work mate had one, minimalist but pretty nice and really light.

**gatch** · 14th May 2012, 21:10

Time for some helmet porn.. I don't know much about it, I didn't bother reading, but it looks so cool. I want one on principal.

Click image for larger version.

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**FLUB** · 19th May 2012, 09:09

I've got the Nexx XR1R. First carbon helmet I've owned and it's so light you almost forget you're wearing a helmet. My advice is to go carbon, from whatever brand you fancy, I don't think you will regret it. Check out webbikeworld.com as they have plenty of carbon helmet reviews.

**boman** · 19th May 2012, 11:23

The make of a helmet, and the way it carries the weight, can have an effect.

I Owned an Arai, rx7 Corsair. A damn good helmet, which I replaced it with a Shoei, xr 1100. Which according to the marketing blurb, was a tad lighter than the Arai.

I found I got a sore neck from wearing it.

So only after a couple of months, I went back to an Arai. What a difference.

I don't know why the Shoei gave me a sore neck, but the Arai certainly dosen't

**NordieBoy** · 19th May 2012, 14:52

I had a really light Nolan which really hurt my neck.
The angle of the visor was awful and the wind just pushed against it...

**Boob Johnson** · 19th May 2012, 19:15

Originally Posted by pete376403

One thing I read about C/f in an accident (and I have no citation so this may be an "Internet Fact") is that "when a C/f helmet is sliding along the road then a cloud of tiny fibres is ground off, just waiting to be inhaled by the helmet wearer (who may well be taking very big gulps of air at this time). Carbon fibres in a lung would have an effect very similar to asbestos fibres with all the complications that causes."

Dare I say it, if you're sliding down the road the LEAST of your worries would be "possibly" inhaling C/F

**Urano** · 19th May 2012, 23:13

composite fibers (carbon, carbon/kevlar, glassfiber, ecc...) let engineers to better design the force absorption in a crash.
more than this fibers have less elastic responses so the tendencies to "bounce" on the tarmac are lower.

on the other hand fibers helmets have almost no possibilities to come from a machined, computerized, standard process production, so it's very hard to find two products that acts EXACTLY the same.
a lot depends on the single hand that made that single piece.

fibers helmets have then worse responses to small impact than polycarbonate, like the obvious "fall-from-the-table" damage, but have a better behavior versus UV rays and pollution aggressors too.

because of this and other reasons keep in mind that even though a fiber helmet can generally be much better than a poly one, it is even true that a good poly helmet is quite always better than a bad fiber one.

**Ocean1** · 19th May 2012, 23:54

Couple of points.

CF fibres don't bend well, they break when bent well before other common reinforcing fibres.

A helmet shell should be rigid, up to a point, beyond it's compressive strength it needs to be somewhat flexible.

Structures using solely CF reinforced resin fail spectacularly, the results of which might be described as a sack of razor blades.

As someone else said, kevlar or other arimids are often used to mitigate CF's lack of flexibility, if I was in the market for a CF lid I'd be looking for evidence of that type of engineering.