Originally Posted by BIG_Truck_Driver
while your helmet is very important, I disagree on the don't go cheap thing.
I have seen test results on helmets. I probably will never buy another "snell" approved helmet again.
the DOT and one of the european standards held up just as well to the impact and absorbed more of the energy. which means your brain gets less of a jolt hitting the ground in a $70 DOT helmet than a $400 Snell helmet.
There was a big write up about it in one of the magazines I bought a couple months back, can't remember which one right now.
Motorcyclist was the magazine if I recall correctly. Basicly helmets are designed what based on this recent testing to pass the SNELL testing with little regard to real-world situations. The hardest test for a motorcycle helmet is to meet two strike test, 150 joules for the first impact (an extremely high energy impact). This testing situation based on accident statisitics is a very unlikey real world situation. This all translates to these helmets being designed to pass this test directly translating to more Gs being transfered to the brain.
The article is a good read and is hard to swallow by the folks that spent top dollar on these expensive comfortable SNELL helmets. The funny thing really is that some of the 'same' helmets tested are designed for the European market diffrently where this isn't an issue.