You might want to read this.
They come to some very interesting conclusions regarding Snell vs. DOT rated helmets. And the winner of the tests will surprise you.
The DOT helmets we had were all plastic-shelled, and none cost more than $100. How did they do? They kicked butt. In what must be considered a head-impact Cinderella story, the DOT-only helmets from Z1R delivered less average G force to the headform through all the impacts than any others in the test.
And they still excelled in the big-hit, 150-joule impact—a blast 66 percent harder than any actual DOT test for a medium-sized helmet.
The Z1R ZRP-1s continuously amazed us. After all the testing, its outer shell looked essentially unharmed: The slight road rash at the impact sites caused by our stubborn insistence on hitting actual pavement looked no worse than we’d expect if the helmet had fallen off the seat at a rest stop.
I know what helmet I will be buying next time I need one. And it’s not going to be expensive.
