I was just checking out this Motorcyclist article on helmets. They discuss how motorcycle helmets are constructed and more importantly how they protect our brains. Especially critical to helmet design is EPS, (expandable polystyrene foam) and how well it absorbs the energy from an impact. It’s a huge article and takes to bat the controversial Snell standard to which Snell responds at the end. Way too much information in the article to relay here but check out this excerpt about brain float:

Your brain basically floats inside your skull, within a bath of cervical-spinal fluid and a protective cocoon called the dura. But when your skull stops suddenly—as it does when it hits something hard—the brain keeps going, as Sir Isaac Newton predicted. Then it has its own collision with the inside of the skull. If that collision is too severe, the brain can sustain any number of injuries, from shearing of the brain tissue to bleeding in the brain, or between the brain and the dura, or between the dura and the skull. And after your brain is injured, even more damage can occur. When the brain is bashed or injured internally, bleeding and inflammation make it swell. When your brain swells inside the skull, there’s no place for that extra volume to go. So it presses harder against the inside of the skull and tries to squeeze through any opening, bulging out of your eye sockets and oozing down the base of the skull. As it squeezes, more damage is done to some very vital regions.
All this head injury talk reminded me of something. How come there are so many of the old timers riding around with those worn out rotten old helmets? I’m always amazed at how often I see guys riding around with those old 1960’s helmets that they had bought back in the day. Helmets aren’t meant to last forever.
When I finally convinced my father in law to let me fix up an old bike he had parked in his garage, he insisted on taking it for a spin. It was quite a sight. A white bubble shell with clear bubble face visor. It looked more like a space helmet that Steve Austin would use rather than a motorcycle helmet.

helmet1

Now don’t get me wrong. My brother and I used to wear these kinds of motorcycle helmets a long time ago. We would putt-putt around the old trails and backyard track on our minibike with a couple helmets that my dad had laying around the garage for 30 years. The really cool thing was the yellow face visor.
We didn’t really care how stupid we looked. We were so excited to be riding that thing around. The taunts and name calling from the other track riders were drowned out by the roar of our 50cc Honda….er… come to think of it, they weren’t really drowned out. We were just happy to be riding around the track. Nothing else mattered. So maybe that’s the way those old guys feel about it.

This got me to thinking…I wonder if I could find one of these old knoggin shields on Ebay. And wouldn’t you know, I found a few for sale! Look closely because guess what, “it is approved by the American Motorcycle Association.” HAHAH! Interesting “older helmet for my collection” indeed.




I think I’ll stick with my current Arai Quantum for now. But I’m starting to wonder where that old white and yellow helmet is. Maybe in my mom’s garage.