Helmet check

[howlieboy]

Buy a new helmet, then send that one off to Suomy.  More than likely it's ok, but $370.00 isn't worth the risk of brain damage.  Ask Nick and Greg, my leathers may be from 1970, but I don't mess around with helmets.  Better safe than sorry definately applies to the brain bucket department...

See you at Hallett?

[Super Dave]

Anyone know how to get a helmet checked for damage after a crash?  Someone said you can send them off somewhere to get checked?

Does it have external damage?

[funsizeracing]

Does it have external damage?

Nothing major, I just want to be safe and make sure before I trust it.


We should probaly be more worried about the track than my head. 

[Super Dave]

If you've got external damage in the paint, well, you're standing on the edge.  It can go either way.  It's a structure, and if the integrity is not so good, what's the cost of living on that edge?  I don't know if Suomy x-ray's stuff.  The BSI standard might have some guidelines, I don't know.  If I was reasonably questioning it, I'm not using it.  Might be nice ice or play helmet, I don't know.  If you can get a hold of Donny at Suomy, he's gonna give you better guidance.

I know that a friend of mine had a helmet, I don't remember which kind, and he sent it in to be tested.  They looked at it and they told him it saved his life.  He didn't get it back.  In the age of litigation, giving a person back a helmet that has been "tested" sounds like the opportunity for a law suit.  No protection is perfect.  Give a person back a helmet and tell them "it's fine" and they get hurt. 

[racrx451]

it took an arm and a leg to get my Suomy back from the insurance company but I signed a waiver and got it back. 

[foughtstrong]

Damage internal sometimes will not be visible on the outside.  If that foam is either cracked or delaminated it will not do it's purpose if you wreck again.  The "x-ray" is not that reliable.  Not 100% accurate in determining the extent of damage.  Thats why they won't send it back to you.  Most helmets are meant for one time use(wreck).  Chances are the foam is delaminated.  Buy a new helmet, you nugget is not worth taking that risk.

[HAWK]

Before i get started  I'm not attacking, I just hate reading about my friends getting hurt.


Helmets are designed to literally destroy themselves to "Waste" the energy that would otherwise go into your head causing injuries to the brain. If a helmet takes ANY kind of a hit some of its ability to absorb this energy is lost, it is a cumulative process. You drop the helmet loading up after the weekend, it loses some of its protection. You store it in your trailer and it loses some of its protection, the reason that race orgs require a helmet to be less than 5 years from date of manufacture is that things in the air cause the EPS foam inside the helmet to degrade and after 5 years of sitting is storage the degradation is sufficient to make the helmet suspect. In racing there is no place for a helmet that has hit the ground, period. Need to get your money out of that $600 helmet? Think about this, you lose consciousness and  many tracks will transport you, priced the bambulance ride lately? How about the cat scan? Brain injuries are real and more often than not permanant, it is just not worth the risk. That $600 helmet is less than the cost of a typical race weekend, as I understand it you have missed one weekend already so a new lid should be in the budget now.

Sorry about that but I really don't want to read about anyone else getting hurt.

Heal up quick and get back to the business of having fun.

[funsizeracing]

Holy Crap people, calm down!  I'm not about to go racing in toasted helmet.  I am aware of th general rule of tossing a helmet once it's been down.  I know how helmets function to asborb impact only once.  I had heard from other racers that some of the helmet companies will inspect a helmet and deem it safe or unsafe. I was only asking to see if others had more info on it, because I had only heard about it but never tried to do it myself.  The only reason I'm even considering it with this one is because the few scratches are only as deep as the chips in the paint from bugs.

CALM DOWN!

[EM JAY]

Holy Crap people, calm down!  I'm not about to go racing in toasted helmet.  I am aware of th general rule of tossing a helmet once it's been down.  I know how helmets function to asborb impact only once.  I had heard from other racers that some of the helmet companies will inspect a helmet and deem it safe or unsafe. I was only asking to see if others had more info on it, because I had only heard about it but never tried to do it myself.  The only reason I'm even considering it with this one is because the few scratches are only as deep as the chips in the paint from bugs.

CALM DOWN!

                           

  We just love you!   

[Super Dave]

CALM DOWN!

I HATE IT WHEN YOU YELL!

[Spooner427]

I went to send an old Arai helmet back for inspection and asked a few people who had done it what to expect. They said if it doesn't pass the inspection they will drill a large hole in it. That is their way of letting you know it didn't pass and they are not liable any more. I guess there is no miscommunications there.
Oh and I didn't end up sending it in. I just bought a new one instead and put the other on display.

Spooner

[RCR_531]

If you had only went to Road America. The Suomy Rep was under the Lithium tent all day on Saturday.