Favorite Helmet

bell sport. Good overall helmet. No regrets

Stilo

Tomster said:

bell sport. Good overall helmet. No regerts

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Fixed it for ya ;)
Can't go wrong with bell.

Fit is by far most important. Then visibility, price, weight, features, looks etc. My first helmet (and only so far) is a Bell M4. I tried several other brands before buying the M4. Am happy with it.

I have the HJC AR10. I think it's a 2010. Most clubs here allow you to run either the current standard, or one standard previous. So you can get close to 10 years out of a helmet if you buy one early in the lifecycle. I'd be hesitant to buy a 2010 now, only because you might not get more Than a few years out of it.

But in terms of choice, buy for fit as others have said.

-T

for those with a full face, did you try on any of the open chin models? I'm leaning more towards the open design, just looking for any thoughts on them

I used a "borrowed" open face model for a charity drive. I liked it. Am sure there's safety difference between the two. Just my guess and am sure others will chime in.....Prob not ideal if you're not fully secured in your seat via 5/6pt harness and less fire protection.

dron_jones said:

for those with a full face, did you try on any of the open chin models? I'm leaning more towards the open design, just looking for any thoughts on them

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C7 B8 said:

I used a "borrowed" open face model for a charity drive. I liked it. Am sure there's safety difference between the two. Just my guess and am sure others will chime in.....Prob not ideal if you're not fully secured in your seat via 5/6pt harness and less fire protection.

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I realize that it offers less protection from debris, for me i am a track novice, going to be using it for open track days and autocross at most, for me the safety is important but equally important are the comfort and the ease of communicating back and forth with a potential instructor.

Bought this Racequip PRO15 I like how it fits me and has SA 2015 rating. My friend Dave is doing the custom paint and its turning out great.

HJC's new AR10-III

Why do helmets have a 5-10 year life span, how does a helmet go bad?

Blaze489 said:

Why do helmets have a 5-10 year life span, how does a helmet go bad?

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The helmets themselves don't really go "bad". They go out of spec. Helmet safety specs get updated every 5 years. Most track days require current, or previous spec so if you bought a SA2015 helmet, it should be good at almost all track days until about 2025. Some groups allow current + last 2 SA ratings so you might be able to use it until 2030 with a few clubs.

That said, I have a Stilo ST5 and I love it.

dron_jones said:

for those with a full face, did you try on any of the open chin models? I'm leaning more towards the open design, just looking for any thoughts on them

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I currently have an open face/chin helmet that I use for track days and a full face one on my motorbike.

The open face is beautifully comfortable haha. I am just concerned that as I start to hit more and more track days and push the car a bit, that a full face one is ultimately going to be better in a worst case scenario.

I will use the open face for autocross though.

Big fan of the one below - mainly for it's versatility. Can function open or closed equally as well with styling that can't be matched. Superior crash protection too - notice how relatively unharmed he is after a collison in the 3rd pic.