helmet fitting advice, please!

[alun111]

Hi, I was reading the SHARP helmet ratings website this morning after getting home from work. Now I've been concious for a while of my helmet not being a particularly good fit, but I've not done anything about it! Well, this morning was a kick up the arse. I realised just HOW BAD this helmet is for fit! If it was a little bigger I reckon I could roll it off my head with the strap on!

I gathered this by going in to my brother's room (where we keep all our old helmets) and trying them all on. I soon realised that some were a fairly good fit but still not perfect. I then went and tried my current helmet on again and I laughed out loud, but soon stopped when I realised this is a serious issue!

I watched the video on the left hand side of this page. This made me truly realise how a helmet should fit. I've never had any fitting advice in shops, so have always had to use my own initiative.

Right. To the point of the thread:

What are your opinions on the SHARP ratings, accurate?
I'm attracted to the Lazer LZ6 as it's around the £60 mark and it scored a 5 with SHARP. As long as the fit is good and it's comfy is this enough reason to buy one? Note that it does not have pinlock and I can't live without this. How easy is it to drill and not get the spacing wrong?
If you watched that video is there any other fitting advice you could give me? I'll be going at it alone.

Thanks for your time!
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Summer: '00 Honda CB600F Hornet
Winter: '93 Suzuki GSF 400 Bandit VP Variable Valve
Past Bikes: Lifan LF100-5 Lifan LF125-A Honda C70

[Scouse]

[alun111]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Advice?

Spend as much as you want to on a lid. I'm not sure if I'd be swayed by SHARP though, I'm not convinced it's that good.
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My Flickr

[Itchy]

Cus helmet sellers aren't always that good.

Its typically:

Hamster cheek tight face pads,

can't rotate the lid from pushing (a lid WILL rotate if you push it hard enough)

doesn't tip when you move your head (a very bad fitting lid)

and you can't stick your finger into the gap between forehead and helmet roof

Doesn't dig into anything in your head,

Is still cush after 20 minutes
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[alun111]

Hi again.

I decided to go and have a look at some helmets and try them on. I went to Bill Smiths (local shop) and Hein Gericke.

The helmets I tried on and my opinions of them were as follows:

AGV (model?) - Dug in at forehead
Lazer LZ6 (because of the SHARP rating) - terribly uncomfortable as there was next to no padding
Other Lazer helmets - alright but not perfect and a little too big
Shoei Raid - Couldn't get a good fit
Shoei XR1000 - Pretty nice but not perfect
RST, Nolan, X-Lite, among others - All dug in at the forehead
Arai - now we're getting somewhere. Tried the Condor on (Basic Arai helmet) which was a nice fit and pretty damn comfortable but was unimpressed by the lack of features for the price (the lining wasn't even removable at £250!). Then tried the Viper on which wasn't as good of a fit, but the lad said a smaller scull cap may make it better but was convinced it would bed in anyway. I liked the features it had (chin bar, browe vents, anti-fog lock etc) but at £400 I couldn't kick myself to go for it.

I then mentioned that I would probably go to some other shops anyway and try on different makes. I mentioned Simpson and he said not to go for them as in his opinion they're driving helmets not riding helmets - apparently having a letter box view, being noisy, and having crap ventilation. I mentioned Schuberth (another expensive make that came to mind) and he said "We sell them, do you want to try one on", I said yes why not and he handed me an S1 in large. I put it on and straight away thought "fuck me this is comfy", It sounded like I was wearing earplugs (apparently really quiet helmets) and with the nice addition of a flip-down sun visor I'm tempted.

It was getting late (30 mins past store closing time!) so he told me to come back tomorrow and he'll try more schuberths on me and see what's the best.

Fair play to the lad he knew what he was on about and all the questions I asked he answered so I understood. He was really helpful and walked me through it all even though I turned up at 17:50!

+1 for Hein Gericke!
____________________
Summer: '00 Honda CB600F Hornet
Winter: '93 Suzuki GSF 400 Bandit VP Variable Valve
Past Bikes: Lifan LF100-5 Lifan LF125-A Honda C70

[virus]

This thread has made me realise that my lid is a bad fit, I can roll it off my head one handed when ive undone it.

Must get a new lid when I get paid.

Cheers
John
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[alun111]

[deanoet]

Nice to see a shop offering a decent service, not to mention a shop assistant who is well trained and cares enough to help you out passed hours,

No help to your helmet problem, just an observation.
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CBT Passed 18th July 2007 : Previous Bikes> CG125 : Current Bike> Hornet 600 : PASSED DAS 30th Oct 2007
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[alun111]

[Itchy]

Try a Shark? , I have an iffy head shape and no helmet fit in HG , a caberg did the flip front but I fobbed it off until I went to a bike show and met Mick Byrne and tried on a Shark S800 Fever, it fit very well , my RSF2i fits even better.
____________________
Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.