ALT-3 Buyers Guide to Motorcycle Helmets
Regardless of the type of helmet you choose whether it is an open face, full face, half helmet etc, it's extremely important to choose one that fits perfectly whereas the padding throughout the helmet feels snug against you're head. Most think that the outer surface of the helmets ability to withstand an impact should be the criteria when buying one.
This is of course a very wise way to think, but its more than the protection that the helmet offers in the way of protecting against severe bruising of the head should the outer surface be compromised upon impact. The old saying that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link and that goes for helmets as well.
The padding in a helmet has to be of top grade material in that it has to be able to absorb most of the motion that the head will travel within the helmet, and if the padding isn't sufficient in that respect, it won't be that you protected you're head from getting as a result of the outer surface giving way during impact, but rather what cushions your head within the helmet.
In other words, the more your head is protected from the harder inside surface of the helmet via of top grade padding, the more you're chances of surviving brain damage. Just think of the padding as an airbag. The amount of motion is the same, but the airbag is between you and the hard metal surface of the inside of the car.
The more you have between you're scalp and that hard surface, the less chance of serious damage as a result.So regardless of what type of helmet you choose, its not a matter of style or the law that requires using them, its about protecting the most vulnerable part of you're body, and that is the brain within you're head.
Upon impact, the brain continues to travel in the direction of impact, and unless you have something that slows you're skulls motion in the direction of a hard surface, and that is what the padding does, it not only cushions the blow, but slows the heads tendency to stop suddenly when the padding has reached it's limit for protecting the skull.
This in turn will lessen the brain slamming in the same direction within the skull, and most brain damage comes as a result of this violent collision between the brain and the skull that is suppose to protect it.
So when choosing a helmet, choose wisely and make sure that the manufacturer has taken the steps to provide as much protection as possible in the way of a durable outer surface, and just as important the best padding possible.
