Helmets are a topic that every knight can never get around, because helmets are too important for knights, but many motorcycle friends don't pay much attention to helmets, even think that helmets only serve as a buffer. There is not much difference between real and fake helmets in terms of high price and low price. Then they were lured by many bad businessmen to buy fake helmets. During the ride, Once an accident occurs, if the helmet can not effectively protect your head, it is very easy to lose life; It is hoped that motorcycle friends can correctly understand helmets through this article, so as to make their riding safer. Let me give you a detailed introduction to the basic knowledge of helmets to make it easier for you to choose helmets:
1、 Helmet type
Motorcycle helmets have various appearances, but they can hardly be separated from these five categories: "full helmet", "half helmet", "faceless helmet", "combination helmet", and "cross-country helmet". Different helmet types are suitable for different styles of motorcycles, but the safety levels of different helmet types are also different.
1. Full helmet
The full helmet, as its name implies, is a fully enclosed helmet. Except that the goggles can be opened and closed, other parts are closely fitted. The full helmet is the safest of all helmet types; In terms of safety, its closeness guarantees the overall structural strength, and the internal buffer components can also fill into each part without separation; In design, the helmet adopts an integrated design scheme, which can more easily reduce the wind resistance and improve the robustness of the helmet; In terms of noise control, full helmets are more conducive to controlling the noise during riding because there are no too many gaps, but the disadvantages are also obvious. First, it is not convenient to talk. No matter where you ride, you will encounter the problem of language communication. Full helmets can only open the lens at most, but because the mouth is still blocked by the helmet, It still needs to speak loudly for others to hear clearly; Second, when you stop to smoke or drink water and eat, you have to take it off every time, which is troublesome; Third, it is relatively hot. Because of the problem of integrated structure, even if you add more reasonable air ducts to the helmet, you can only cool your head during riding. But when waiting for the traffic lights, there is no wind to cool down. It feels very sour and refreshing.
2. Half helmet
This type of helmet belongs to 3/4 of the half helmets. Apart from the face and chin, only 3/4 of the heads are reserved. This helmet has basic protection and is easy to wear, but its disadvantages are not small. The safety of this helmet is relatively poor. After all, it only protects part of your head, and there is no protection for your face and chin. It is not impossible to crash the car, Think about the consequences?
Among the types of half helmets, there is also this famous melon skin helmet. This helmet was originally used by pilots in the past. You can look at the pilots in World War II. All of them are melon skin helmets. Now they are mostly seen in Harley Knights and some Prince Knights. They wear leather pants and waistcoats, wear a beard and a neck cover. A strong Harley wind hits them head-on. Needless to say, Chatting and drinking have no effect. Apart from the basic protection, it is also a rare decoration. However, this helmet type is still often worn by electric car riders, probably because it is the most convenient and not hot. What's the disadvantage? It's not much different from not wearing a helmet, but an accident will make your head look more complete.
3. Uncover Helmet
The helmet should be regarded as a deformation of the helmet, but the front half of the helmet is made into a module that can be opened, closed and rotated. Generally speaking, the helmet is mostly seen in motorcycle travel and city riding, because most of the helmets are equipped with double lenses, which can be pushed up when riding in summer and other lights, and the sunglasses can be pulled down. It is also convenient for motorcycle travel to ask for directions and drink water when going out. The advantage is that there are many sincere people, After the mask is pulled down, the safety is also guaranteed to some extent. Although the rigidity is slightly worse than the full helmet, the helmet with reasonable structure also has excellent protection. After all, it can provide a comprehensive enclosure protection for the head. But the disadvantages of the helmet are that, first, the face is rotated, resulting in a decline in overall rigidity and safety performance; Secondly, modules such as sunglasses and metal fasteners are added to increase the overall weight; Third, in order to take care of the applicable scenarios, the helmet is mostly fixed with sliding buckles, but the safety of the sliding buckles is not as good as that of the double D buckles, which may cause the buckles to fall off when the car falls.
4. Combination helmet
As the name suggests, the combination helmet is a modular combination helmet. The well-known ones in China are Bell's rogue helmet, SHARK's and scorpion's ghost helmet. The combination helmet is derived from the half helmet. For example, this rogue helmet is actually a variant of the melon skin helmet. On the basis of the melon skin helmet, the back brain cover and mouth cover are added, while the ghost helmet is born from 3/4 of the helmet, and the mask component is added
In fact, the purpose of this type of helmet is to break through the inherent form of half helmet and find its sales points in more models. For example, you thought that the melon skin helmet was only suitable for Harley, but you bought a new retro model with a different style, so you might choose this rogue helmet or ghost helmet; At the same time of being suitable for more models, the safety has been improved to a certain extent. Although the improvement is minimal, there is still some improvement. After all, some modules can protect. Of course, the disadvantages are also obvious. First, the safety is not enough, because modularization leads to too many connections, The strength of the connecting parts is generally limited, so they will fall off in the event of an accident, or play a limited role in protecting the first impact. However, after the connecting parts are deformed, the protection for the second impact cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, this helmet type is suitable for medium and low speed riding in cities. It is handsome and fashionable.
5. Off road helmet
There is a big gap between the appearance of off-road helmets and that of ordinary helmets. The most obvious thing is that the brim and mouth space have been increased, and then independent goggles need to be used. This time, we just talk about off-road helmets. Because of the strong professionalism, we mainly talk about a variety of off-road helmets, pull helmets
As you can see, the shape of the pull helmet is similar to that of the cross-country helmet, but it solves the problems of the independent goggles and the mouth. Because the cross-country helmet is mainly suitable for cross-country sites, its speed is not fast, and it does not need to consider too much wind resistance, but the pull helmet is not. The pull helmet is mainly suitable for motorcycle travel and some non paved roads, and all of them have the advantages of some cross-country helmets, Then it was integrated with the ordinary road helmet, retained the goggles and integrated design, added the unique brim of the cross-country helmet, and ensured the usability of different weather conditions and road conditions on the motorcycle trip. The brim can block rain and sun, but it will increase the wind resistance when driving at high speed, so you have to try it yourself
In a word, how to choose a helmet depends on what type of bike you like to ride and what kind of occasion you ride. It's up to you to decide which is best for you.
2、 Material
After the helmet type is selected, we need to know about the helmet materials. The common helmet materials in our daily life are "ABS plastic", "glass fiber reinforced plastic", "carbon fiber" and "composite materials". Different materials have different characteristics. Let's briefly talk about these different materials.
1.ABS
Many helmets use ABS plastic, which is common in our daily life. Generally, it is in the shape of particles before production. The PP bomb used to be played as a child is actually ABS plastic. The quality of ABS plastic is good and bad. Good ABS plastic has high temperature resistance, excellent frost resistance and certain toughness, but poor ABS plastic is very brittle, However, no matter how good ABS plastic is, its rigidity is relatively ordinary, so ABS plastic materials are mostly found in helmets that are relatively entry-level or cheaper, so it is not recommended to buy them
2. FRP
Fiberglass is also very common in daily life. For example, the chairs in the park look very similar to plastic, but they are actually made of fiberglass. The material of fiberglass is actually a composite of fiberglass and various resins. Its rigidity and impact resistance are far stronger than ABS plastic, and it is not easy to deform, but its weight is heavy, Fiberglass helmets are generally used on middle helmets
3. Carbon fiber
In fact, carbon fiber is a very thin carbon fiber material, which is then woven into different shapes. Carbon fiber is more expensive and has many advantages. First, it is light in weight, but has very high strength; Second, it has strong impact resistance and is not easy to deform; Basically, all the advantages required by helmets are assembled, so carbon fibers are generally used on high-end helmets
4. Composite materials
Composite materials are integrated with other materials on the basis of carbon fiber. Similar to glass fiber reinforced plastics, they are improved through the characteristics of different materials to enhance the applicability and safety of helmets. In line with the attitude of being responsible for their own safety, we recommend that you choose helmets made of glass fiber reinforced plastics and above.
3、 Size
Maybe there's something to say about the size of the helmet, just buy one that suits you. In fact, it's not true. The size of the European helmet and the sub helmet has little to do with your actual head size
1. European helmet
AGV is the most famous European helmet. AGV is also very common in MOTOGP. However, the biggest problem of European helmets is their size. Because the head shapes of Europeans and Asians are quite different, and the European head shapes are relatively thin and long, the internal design of European helmets does not conform to the head shapes of Asians. The most common problem is that they are very pinched, Generally speaking, European helmets need to buy helmets that are actually one or two sizes larger than your head circumference
2. Sub series helmet
SHOEI is a Japanese brand, which is more consistent with the characteristics of Asians' head shape. Generally speaking, you can choose a sub series helmet according to your head circumference, but if your face is fat, you still need to choose a larger helmet
4、 Brand
Common European and American brands are AGV, BELL, SHARK, AIROH, SUOMY, Scorpion, etc. Some of these brands have good test scores, and others have average test scores. You need to choose carefully, but the big brands are still big brands, and their products are guaranteed in quality
The most common Asian brands are SHOEI, ARAI, HJC, LS2, Malushen, etc. Why do I choose these brands? It goes without saying that SHOEI, ARAI and HJC are regular customers of MOTOGP, but LS2 and Malushen are relatively ordinary brands, but they were able to send products to SHARP for testing, and they also achieved 5 stars, which is really commendable
5、 Test
The most important part of any product is the testing agency. Only by passing these test standards can normal use be guaranteed. The testing in motorcycle helmets mainly includes 3C, DOT, ECE, SHARP and SNELL. These three testing agencies are basic testing certification agencies. DOT is the certification agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, ECE is the certification agency of the European Union, and 3C is the certification agency of our country, 3C is basically better than nothing. It can be ignored that DOT and ECE are the most basic certification bodies. If you don't have a helmet even DOT and ECE, don't buy it. There is no guarantee of safety.
Having said so much, you should understand that when choosing a helmet that is suitable for you, you should first determine the type of helmet, then the material, and finally the brand. Of course, it is better to buy authentic helmets from more famous brands. The safety is relatively guaranteed. It is recommended that you should not buy fake high imitation helmets. After all, it is related to your own life safety.
