I'm pretty sure the article was in Motorcyclist Magazine, and what they determined was that the Snell rated helmets were too hard, and the DOT rated helmets were softer, protecting your brains from getting scrambled better than the Snell rated helmets.

 

So if it's DOT & Snell then they're just over-easy?

 

DOT is not a standard just a requirement for the helmet to be street legal in California. I do not know how DOT works in other states but in Cali all DOT requires is that there is a shell and a strap. DOT does not test anything unless they receive too many complaints about a helmet. Any manufacturer can place the DOT sticker on their helmets. If you make your own ball cap and place a DOT label on it you are good to go. I do not recommend doing this if you care about you face and brain. SNELL on the other hand is a private foundation that was setup to provide some testing guidelines to manufacture safer helmets.

The article in Motorcyclist was complaining about helmets being to hard and the helmet manufacturers response was to create dual density shells. One layer to absorb impact from lower speed crashes (which Motorcyclist supposedly used for their unscientific study) and another layer for higher speed crashes.

Motorcyclist did not use any scientific standards with their supposed studies, they were not supervised and were not peer reviewed. Peer Reviewed in the academic community means consulting with other specialists in the field so they have the opportunity to add to or reject ideas. Motorcyclist did their own tests, I am not saying this bad but a lot people took that article as some kind of truth without doing any further research. SNELL's website is full of information if you ever want to know how they test helmets. A good if not better standard is B.S.I. this is the standard AGV and Suomy meet. If you check out Suomy's website you will find a lot of info on their standards.

All I am saying is there is a lot of info available to make a good decision about which helmet is good for your purposes.

I hope that helps if anyone has any q's let me know I can refer a lot of good sites.

By the way I wear an Arai, in case your curious. But I do own an HJC and Icon. Arai's are great compared, lightweight, no wind lift problems, great ventaliation, yada yada yada....

 

http://www.mmsp.org/helmets/snell.htm

 

so far, my garage is full of helmets that start with "S" I have a Shoei RF1000, Scorpion EXO 700, and a Suomy Extreme. My wife (Ninja Honey) has a matching Shoei RF1000, and my daughter has a Scorpion EXO 400. I guess I'll be buying a Shark next?!

 

Thanks suprakawigrl,
Good response. good to know.