ABS or fibreglass helmets?

Are fiberglass or carbon fibre helmets worth paying the hugh extra for as
oppossed to ABS/plastic, after all they all have to pass the Euro or ACU
standards? and do a good job if needed, So do you really get that much more
protection or are you just paying for the brand and a few extra bits of
styling?

Does anyone have any experience of Held Helmets & clothing?

 

Low weight is one of the reasons I'll be geting a carbon lid this year.

--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

If you happen to hit a points thing with your crash lid, you'll be glad
of a polycarbonate one apparently[1]. These days, due to better
materials, some manufacturers are getting 5 year[2] lives out of them too.

[1] So I read somewhere, in some study.
[2] Someone I knew got very angry with me telling him this.. there again
he had a vested interest in selling Shoei composite lids and didn't want
people finding out for some reason.

 

I'll have to do some research on that coz I've never been overly impressed
with polycarb for anything. It doesn't like paint, it ages under UV light
(so I'm told), so time to ge my investigating feet on.

A pal just won a raffle and got a new Arai helmet which retails for
(reputedly) 650 squid. The new Kwak colour scheme with the "tiger slashes"
or summat. Went to pick it up on Tuesday or Wednesday and binned his bike on
the way back home breaking his wrist, but the helmet (still in its box)
survived unscathed.

Pity it's too big for me.

--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Polycarb helmets tend to be on the budget side of things, and as such
the inner lining materials also tend to be on the budget side of
things. While they may well pass and exceed the safety requirements,
the materials they are made from aren't usually built to last. You'll
find cheaply made vents, inferior quality inner material and visor
mechs that fly apart in 6 months time.

A fibreglass lid is usually better built using far more robust liner
material and with more thought to longevity.

I haven't seen their helmets, but their clothing is second to none,
especially their range of gloves. I have 3 pairs of Held gloves and one
of their jackets, I'm really happy with all of it.



--
Lozzo
SV650S K5 (sold, awaiting collection)
ZX-7R P4 (for sale)
SR250 Special (sold awaiting collection)
CBR600F-W trackbike
SR250 SpazzTrakka,
RD400F, somewhere
I see a bright new future, where chickens can cross the road with no
fear of having their motives questioned

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Lozzo

What he said.

Good gloves. *Good* gloves.

 

I guess the manufacturers have been busy in recent years. Someone I used
to know that worked for a bike shop in the clothing department was
adamant about the 3 year life. All I wanted to do was investigate this,
that's when I found out about the leaps in materials / chemical
engineering with polycarbonate.

 

That's a good point, and 100% correct. I'd have thought that the 5 year
polycarb lids would be better build than the 3 year life ones.

 

Kiwi was producing polycarb helmets with perfectly compatible paint, oh,
more than 20 years ago. I visited the factory. A lot of the bad name
that polycarb has got is due to crap plastic helmets made in the 1970s.
Both the material and the paint has come a long way since.

 

Well thanks for the update Muck. I must admit though, the carbon lid
Christofire bought was as light as a feather and that really appeals.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

I've still got a raft of Kiwi polycarb paint too (sat in a flight case doing
bugger all), but the colours were limited. And quite expensive too.

I'd go along with that, and with using the wrong type of paint on a polycarb
lid. That WILL cause problems, one of them being only "proper" polycarb
paint sticks to it for any length of time.

It's been a long time since I had much to do with either, and like most
things, improvments happen along so I'm not surprised. What sort of weights
are good poly lids coming in at these days, any idea?

--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Lighter than gf, still, I think. Not sure, though.

I've mentioned this before, but....

In the mid-1980s I used to go and visit Top Tek Helmets in Stranraer
quite a bit.

The roof of their main factory building was studded with helmet shells,
some of which had been there for some time. They used to fasten them to
the roof and just leave them, if necessary for years, and monitor how
weather and sunlight degraded them, or not.

They made both plastic and gf, I remember.