Buying a Motorcycle Helmet

Harley Tips Episode 2: Shopping for a Helmet

Welcome back as Motovan presents the Experience, I’m Dave Hatch and now that we’ve got you all fired up for another summer of riding we’ll wrap up our show by discussing what to look for when you go shopping for a helmet. Joining us now at one of the best places to look for a helmet, the Toronto Motorcycle Show, is the chief riding instructor at Georgian College.

 

Dave

So Jenn, here we are back at the Toronto Motorcycle Show, we’ve been poking our noses around the Harley-Davidson booth before they actually open to the public and I was looking at this helmet display and I was thinking, right, April is always helmet month and there’s a reason we have helmet month… I guess the main thing is a helmet life span is really three to five years, right?

 

Jenn

That’s right, I mean you want to check your helmet and if April is the month it just puts it in our head. Three to five years depending on how long you wear your helmet or how many times you wear it or how much riding you’re doing. It’s a good rule of thumb.

 

Dave

Right. So really, if you’re taking your helmet on and off you’re wearing it a lot, it compresses and therefore, after three years you should be replacing it.

 

Jenn

For sure.

 

Dave

When it drops?

 

Jenn

When it drops, that sound, yeah, definitely replace it. You don’t know where it’s been compromised, where there’s a hairline fracture, you can’t see the damage. So I mean, it’s the most important piece of equipment I think anyway for a rider, so be sure to invest in another helmet.

 

Dave

And make sure it fits. If you’re going to invest make sure the fitment is correct. You don’t want it too tight, you don’t want it too loose… no pressure points.

 

Jenn

Definitely… put it on in the store and everyone should know. You’re walking around like an idiot, you might feel like you’re looking weird but everyone should know, that you’re checking it. After five minutes, if you’ve got some pressure points and you’re getting a headache, perhaps that’s not the helmet for you.

 

Dave

Right and let’s just look quickly at the products that are available to you now…when you talk about fitment. Like look at this half shell helmet right. This year they’ve actually got a full adjuster in the back for the headband strap so you can adjust this as tight as you need it. Like when you’re going up on the highway, you don’t want it floating around, you can tighten it up, I just think that’s terrific. Again with the halves, they’ve got the visor now built right in, so no more sunglasses, goggles sort of boggling around you can go with one of these babies.

 

Jenn

And they’re great to interchange; you can get clear advisors or the smoky ones.

 

Dave

Pops in and out. You know we were talking about protecting our helmets, making sure they don’t fall…what about having something like this, this is great. You can hang it up in your garage or in the hallway or whatever. No worries of if falling off a shelf or getting kicked on the floor.

 

Jenn

Definitely proper storage for the helmet.

 

Dave

They’ve got the universal locks now for the bikes, so they can lock it to the bike, any bike, but then, you know, three quarters…

 

Jenn

Yes.

 

Dave

You know, if you want to give them more ear protection for instance.   That’s actually a woman’s helmet.

 

Jenn

Yeah and reducing the noise and actually they’re easy to pop in and out and if you start getting cracks and you know, scratches on them, you know, change them out for sure.

 

Dave

Right. And this one allows for communications now… so many people are going for two-way communications.

 

Jenn

Yup, absolutely.

 

Dave

And then check out that full screen.

 

Jenn

Well you know I like the full face helmets and this one’s a modular one that’s amazing that Harley’s come out with so I mean you can flip it up and put the helmet on and make sure that when you go to ride put the helmet back on and make sure when you go to ride pull it back down but then this also has the uh…

 

Dave

Very nice.

 

Jenn

… the shield which is great.

 

Dave

And then you don’t have to squeeze glasses or get goggles in there.

 

Jenn

That’s right, yeah.

 

Dave

And those are fantastic for when you’re filling up at the gas station you can just flip it up.

 

Jenn

Go get a drink of water.

 

Dave

Go get a drink of water. Yeah off you go.

 

Jenn

That’s right.

 

Dave

And did you see this?

 

Jenn

Yeah the new ones.

 

Dave

Yeah they’ve got the low profile now and this brings up a very good point. This is a low profile helmet, Harley went after this one. DOT… so anything you purchase make sure it’s compliant.

 

Jenn

Anything and that the sticker stays on, that it’s not a removable one which we’ve seen around.

 

Dave

Yup, that’s going to stay there.

 

Jenn

Perfect. So we’re good safety wise.

 

Dave

Shopping for motorcycles, shop helmets… right, great stuff.

 

Dave

Well that’s it for this week’s program folks.. .sorry, track’s closed, we’re all out of time… so for next week keep your feet on the pegs and your right hand cranked… bye for now.