Do cheaper helmets cause more buffering due to being less

[Davemc37]

Aerodynamic?

I’ve moved to a bike with afairing but I’m still experiencing a lot more buffeting than expected even when it’s not that windy. Is my helmet a factor?

I know it’s pointless asking some of you to avoid answering about the safety angle of more expensive helmets but please don’t go into one here .
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born again biker with a mere 23 year gap between bikes.

[pepperami]

Your physical size may be a factor ie where your head is in relation to the fairing.
I have that issue on one of my bikes, so I just lean a bit more forward or slow down.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[NJD]

When I first moved from my first bike (a naked) to my second (a faired) I instantly noticed the defending increase in wind noise, and that was on 30 mph roads.

I purchased a jacket with a wind collar (RST Pro Series Adventure) and that helps a million.

I changed routes, and that helped too.

I think over time you just get stronger neck muscles and ignore the wind. Saying that, though, I couldn't say what my set up would be like in a 60 - 70 mph zone, for example (the roads of which really tell you how you gear performs).

Perhaps try a different screen?
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[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[chickenstrip]

When I switched to my current choice, it was a revelation. Never had less buffeting from wind, including Shoei and Arai lids I had years ago. And I've ridden the same model of bike with various height of screen with these particular lids - makes no difference, still better than any other lid I've used in that regard. But I wouldn't call them cheap either. What bothers me about answering questions like this though, is if I tell you what lid it is, and you go out and buy one, I just know what will happen
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[Kawasaki Jimbo]

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AL1XUWVuNso/maxresdefault.jpg

[chickenstrip]

[stinkwheel]

I wear a very cheap airoh lid which has a tiny shell. Catches the wind less and causes a lot less neck strain over longer journeys. A mate commented that it looks like it was painted on. Super noisy though.

Safety, meh. Look at any objective helmet effectiveness tests and price doesn't seem to come into it. In fact, often cheap lids do best in energy transmission tests because they tend to smash to bits on impact.

Helmets don't help as much as most people seem to think. Try not to fall off and if you do, try not to land on your head. I wear one mostly to keep the wind and rain off. You ever tried to do 100mph without a helmet on? You can't keep it up for long.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[chickenstrip]

[M.C]

Only bike I've ridden with a fairing/proper screen resulted in appalling wind noise all the time. Can't say I've noticed a difference with helmets but cheaper lids can use one shell size across the range, so it could be a factor.

[DJP]

[stinkwheel]

[Landy10]

I ride a naked bike and have two different helmets one is the Horizon and the other is the Gt Veloce and there are definitely different levels of noise and buffeting from them both. The horizon is quieter but bobs around in the breeze more, the veloce is noisier but cuts through the wind much better. So yes the helmet will make a difference.

[Bozzy.]

[Polarbear]

There's fairings and then there's touring fairings.

If you have one that directs the airflow straight at your head then you need to change your screen. The air needs to pass over your head or hit your chest.

I can alter the height of my screen electrically as I go along and a few mm can make one hell of a difference with comfort, noise and buffeting.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Evil Hans]

Buffering? Are you saying cheap helmets can bugger up your internet connection?
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Triumph Sprint ST 1050. And it's Red.

[M.C]

[Bozzy.]

[hellkat]

Are you sure you've not mistaken your helmet for a pair of willy boppers?
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Bonnie Lad]

[NJD]

[M.C]

[TheGazWaz]

I think it's a bit of both. Helmet and screen. Obvious other factors such as riding position, height of rider etc..

I had a half decent Caburg helmet and on my RF600 with double bubble at motorway speeds it would buffer so badly my head would be violently shaking.

Same bike with Cheap Spada helmet it was much much better to the point where it was hardly noticeable.

Caburg and Spada helmet on my Bandit 1200 with double bubble. No buffer at all.

I think some bikes are more sensitive to buffering when certain conditions are right so changing one of those conditions should sort or at least make it better.

I'd be looking to borrow a mates lid to try and see if that makes any difference.
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Went like this.. 43 years old(2013) decided to do CBT to get a 125 for new job. Bought 2011 YBR, loved it for three months then hated it because it was too god damn slow. Did DAS 4 months later then bought RF600 Loved it, sold it bought Bandit 1200(K3). EFFIN lOVED IT. Wanted something a bit more sporty so got Triumph Sprint ST 955i (53). Not sporty enough so now on my GSXR 1000 K3 and absolutely love it. 1 year down the line, nearly died way too many times on this bike. Sold it. Had a 6 month break. Missed biking so now, Aug 2019 have a 1999 ZX9r. What a beauty she is too.

[Teflon-Mike]

The Aerodynamic 'efficiency' of a shape, is measured by its cD or co-efficient of drag. An index that compared the shape of an object to a perfectly 'streamlined' teardrop, and a perfectly unstreamlined brick... in relation to its length and frontal area, to derive a pure 'index' a number with no dimensional units, like height, width or weight... A-N-D... to all practical extents and purposes its almost utterly irrelevent!

The drag-force exerted on an object moving through a fluid, is most significantly proportional to the objects frontal area... more area, more force. Next, on the density of the fluid... denser the fluid, more force to move it. Then on the speed of the fluid; faster the fluid moves, more has to be shifted by the object in any period of time, so more force... all pretty simple stuff.

Air... has a density that is pretty constant. Changes a bit depending on the humidity level, and you can add a bit of rain into that, but in the real world its density is pretty much constant.

Speed? A motor-vehicle, may crawl along at under 20mph on suburban streets, limited by council signs, and may get up to the 70mph allowed by other council signs, before they start getting worried by yellow boxes or blue lights, and continue up to maybe around 120mph, when fear of losing hard won licences tends to start to take effect. On a track, where yellow-boxes and blue lights don't influence things, speeds of perhaps 180mph or more might occasionally be attained.... the range of wind-speeds a person on a motorcycle may experience though, is pretty limited and constrained, more often to up to about 60mph, where even very big differences in measured Aerodynamic Efficiency or cD makes very very very little real difference to drag compared to everything else.

Frontal area... probably the biggest variable in this little trilogy... how big is your head? A-N-D sticking a hat on it is only going to make it bigger, so subject to more drag.

Here, is about the only place 'expensive' helmets may start to win over cheaper ones, where manufacturers of more expensive hats may have a range of shell sizes they pad down to fit different head sizes.... but still some-what pot luck whether you win on that score.... if you have a middle-sized head and are lucky that a middle sized shell size sleeved to fit it has a smaller frontal area than if you have a little head in a hat with a lot of padding to sleeve a bigger shell size, you 'may' get a little less drag..

But, in the real-world, wind comes from all directions, not just straight ahead; and unlike a wind tunnel where an artifact is bolted to the tunnel floor pointing directly along the axis of flow.... we move our heads...... a perfectly tear-dropped ski-jumper or speed-cyclists helmet is no-where NEAR as aerodynamic, if they turn their head to look side-ways or over their shoulder! And that is before you start to consider 'turbulence' wind buffeting in any and all directions off other obstacles, like a motorbike fairing, even in a wonderfully idealized wind-tunnel model.

So, short answer, is that the 'aerodynamics' of a motorcycle crash hat make bog all practical odds to anything! There are simply too many variables in the equation, and so many more of them so much more influential than aerodynamic cD in any one 'plane' of travel.

As to buffet... now we are considering not so much the actual force the hat experiences, but how much it moves about on your head in travel....

We are now looking at a model more closely related to suspension systems than aeroplanes, and how much 'bumping' you experience driving accross a plowed field on a tractor with little more than a sprung seat, compared to say a Land-Rover crossing a smoother grasy pasture with cart-springs, or down a bit of corporation road, with pot-holes, in a Bentley!

Little asside, interestingly, in years of off-roading trials bikes and Land-Rovers, the only place I have suffered a suspension failure was taking the dang Landy to an MOT down council maintained tarmac! Welsh tracks did not bother its springs! Err... do we count lost ball-joints on an MG metro on the by-=pass as suspension failure?! Humm... still!

Point is, its SO cirtcumstance dependent, that the aerodynamics of a lid, as measured in a lab are almost completely irrlevent, the shape of a hat is almost inconsequential to its size, and both to how fast you go or how 'blustery' ambient weather conditions.

Hint... you want to suffer less drag, more les buffet, you will get more reduction in ANY situation by SLOWING DOWN, and only a couple of mph, than you will almost any facet of design!

When you look at the design facets of motorcycle crash helmets FIT IS ALL!

In any sircumstances, how closely the hat fits, the space or lack-off between hat and head for wind to grab and tug at, will make more difference than its shape or cost.
There 'may' be some small difference in how much 'complience' a hats padding has, and here a more expensive hat is likely to have better pading that limits movement more, but more significantly, it is likely that that padding is just more durable, and will over time relax les than in a cheaper hat...

Which is where more expensive hats are more likely to score, they tend to last longer, so practically you will probably experience less buffeting, les often in one, than a cheper hat thats gone soft on you... but still in the lap of pretty much, A-N-D the biggest influence remains how good a 'fit' you got to start with, then how blustery the weather, A-N-D how fast you try go.....

Remember, a 3bhp moped can push a person sized shaped object through air at around 30mph. Takes about 9bhp for a 125 to push that same person shaped and sided object through the same air at 60mph, and around 27bhp to shove still the same sized snd shaped person-like object through air at 90mph.... ie, at twice the speed you are subject to the the force squared. That is how aerodynamics work.. with the same sixed and shaped object, you will always get far bigger difference from a change of speed, than you will from a change of frontal area, and even that, more than any question of cD factor!

Basically the answer to the question is that its pot luck, and there's no guarantee that a more expensive hat will be less buffeted than a cheaper one.. there are just far too many other variables in the equation.

But you 'probably' stand a better chance!
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