Which of the three big standards are acceptable lids to race with. In other words, what standard will pass tech when racing with Westwood?
we accept DOT as per our referee Rick Johnson. However, that being said, DOT is the minimum standard. Protect your head by what you feel it's worth. Personally, I don't ever want to run a helmet that is not ECE rated anymore after my last crash.
Thanks for the info. I found a lid this weekend. It fit great, looked great, and was DOT+ECE rated. It wasn't Snell rated so I didn't want to drop 350 on a helmet only to find I couldn't wear it racing (which is the point of the purchase). I am assuming the standard ladder is DOT at the bottom, ECE is middle of the road, and Snell is the highest standard. Anyone know if ECE is acceptable in Seatle or Portland?
To the best of my knowledge ECE is higher than Snell, but at that point your really splitting hairs and it depends on which section of the testing your talking about, as they test single and multiple strike locations as well as repeated strikes to the same location and each standard is slightly different. Either rating is good. I think Seatlle and Portland accept both ratings, but I haven't been to Portland at all and Seattle was only for a track day.
I posted a link about helmet testing, go find it, http://www.westwoodracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4657
Thanks Simon. That was a lot of info to digest but was a great artical. Finally gave me a grip on what the standards are and what they mean. Based on the test results, looks like DOT/ECE is actually the best choice for me because I have a small head. Snell standard is over kill.... I got a good chuckle that the best performing lids were under 100 bucks. It's nice to save money and feel safer while doing it. Jupi
Your right, its alot of info, but I think it makes sense, some agree, some don't. I really think Snell is too hard, maybe ok on the street but not for us that most of the time, we hit the ground, HARD.
