The Annoyed Man wrote:KBCraig wrote:There is some debate about Snell v. DOT ratings. I tend to side with Snell, but the argument is interesting.
The argument says that Snell is a high speed racing standard, designed for impact at speed. The shell is stronger, but the padding is firmer, meaning it can actually transfer more energy to your noggin. A DOT-spec helmet is designed for lower speed impact, has softer padding, and will (theoretically) transfer less energy at speeds it was designed for.
It is true that there is such an argument, but I can offer the following personal anecdotes:
1. My lowest speed get off was at 0 mph. I was sitting feet down on my bike in the middle of an intersection, with an oncoming car which was slowing and signaling a right hand turn, waiting for him to make his right turn before I made my left turn. A 16 year old driver, reaching for a fallen tape on the floor of his car, rear ended me going 25-30 mph. My bike was launched across the intersection onto the sidewalk. I went up in the air maybe 2-3 ft above the car and came down next to the left side passenger door, where his left rear tire ran over the back of my head. I was knocked out cold, and there was a large tire mark across the back of my helmet. I was wearing a Snell rated Shoei. I awoke laying in the street, staring straight up, with a circle of faces all looking down at me. I had a pretty nasty leg injury, but my head was OK.
2. My next lowest speed get off was at probably under 10 mph in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl in California. I was wearing a Snell rated Arai helmet. I was turning and apparently rolled my front tire through a small oil or sand patch I didn't see, and it was like somebody yanked the bike out from under me in a low side. My head and shoulder hit the pavement first. The only way I can describe the impact was that my head was struck a
mighty blow. I remember thinking at the time "MY GOD!" The impact was tremendous, but I never lost consciousness, and I never exhibited any symptoms of a concussion.
3. A friend of mine killed himself in a sort of freak accident riding his Moto Guzzi on the Angeles Crest Highway when he took too tight of an inside line on a turn, leaned waaaaaaaaayyyyy over, and collected a snow marker pole on the crown of his DOT rated Nolan helmet. The pole pretty much caved in the helmet and his skull underneath it. Knowing the turn in which it happened, I would guess his speed to have been somewhere between 65-80 mph.
FWIW, my opinion is that the argument about Snell versus DOT ratings in high and low speed impacts is largely academic. In my personal experience, a Snell rated helmet has saved my own life in a low speed impact, and a DOT rated helmet has killed a friend in a high speed impact. I wouldn't wear anything other than a Snell rated helmet. Can you get killed wearing one? Sure. But the odds are better in your favor than with a DOT rating. BTW, it is my understanding that the DOT rating is mandatory for ALL helmets sold for street use in the U.S. "DOT" stands for "Department of Transportation." Thus, your Snell rated helmet must pass a DOT test in order to be sold in the U.S., but a DOT only rated helmet might not pass the Snell test. OTH, DOT only rated helmets, while street legal, generally cost less than Snell rated helmets because the manufacturers pass the added expense of both the Snell rated construction AND the actual Snell sticker along to the consumer. So it boils down to a simple question, "What is your head worth to you?"
I don't believe that bikes are particularly inherently dangerous, but the world in which you ride them IS. Wisdom and discretion would seem to dictate buying the best protection you can get, and chalking it up to the price of admission. That's just my 2¢.
