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Overseas helmets
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
We at at Mt Buller doing a National Round and yesterday in the cross country the officials checked my helmet twice for the Australian compliance sticker (in practice and on the finish line). So don't bring your overseas helmet! Downhill today so it will be interesting to see if they check there.
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Why would any company make helmets for our small market here in Oz! Such a stupid ruling.
The Australian Standards Sticker on motorcycle helmets is in the process of being removed very soon, they are going to adopt the worldwide CE standard which makes sense. This will also bring down the price on all helmets, good for the consumer. So the governing body for mountain biking should do the same! Reducing costs gets more people into the sport. I know people are going to jump up & down, but you can't tell me helmets out of the UK or USA are any less safe than ours, they cost more just so you pay for the unnecessary Australian Standards testing, & a sticker!
... for what @Slash said. Hear, hear!
Partially agree - but the Aus standards were higher than some other standards, particularly the US ones. There have been some helmets, mainly US (eg. think there was an early Specialiased S-Works), that didn't pass the Aus standard testing and had to be redesigned to pass them, or were not allowed to be sold. The new standards appear to be similar to the Aus ones (though others may have better info) so seperate testing is no longer required.
A major difference is that Aus standards required batch testing, that is testing of sample helmets from every manufacturing batch. The range of tests conducted (eg. retention, impact, stability) are all conducted on each helmet tested, whereas some standards (eg Snell) allow the tests on different helmets. Therefore an Australian approved helmet has to pass the impact test, and the stabilty test, and the retention system test. Whereas other standards would require the helmet only to pass the impact test, as another helmet would be used for the stability and another for the retention tests. The batch testing allows continuous monitoring of standards, whereas other helmets standards use randomly selected helmets.
Helmets are suggested to be replaced every 4 years (+/-1yr) as UV rays, oil, even sweat can degrade a helmet
as an aside the standards indicate that the helmet should have no external rigid projections greater than 5 mm in height, except for ventilation holes and associated depressions. - so do helmet light and video mounts contravene the regs
The short answer is that if they can be removed by hand they do not form part of the helmet and therefore the *helmet* remains AS/NZS 2063-2008 compliant. The only requirement is for us to wear a compliant helmet.
There was a brouhaha recently in WA where a motorcyclist was pulled over for having a camera on his helmet. The thing went viral and the charges were dropped. The police did not say why.
Besides the questionable legality of the ticket, they may have decided they didn't want to dissuade citizens from using cameras. That might have been driven in part by their recent campaign to catch phone use while driving using motorcycle cops with helmet cameras.
Bottom line, no issues for us.
I find it immensely frustrating that the industry uses this legal requirement to charge oligopoly prices, especially when they made a submission in the 80s when these stupid laws were passed that claimed the testing would only add 1 percent to the cost in the hands of the consumer. Bool sheet.
Surprisingly, camera mounts are actually fairly dangerous. It's critical that a helmet strikes the ground and slides but doesn't grip. Stickers, protrusions all reduce that effect.
As usual though, Australian regulations assume that the public service in Australia are much smarter than anyone else in the world, and are the only ones who can design good tests. Comical really, and commissars checking helmets are just confirming the prices that australian distributors justify for their identical but overpriced Aussie stickered jobbies.
The camera mount on my helmet is built in. It's a moulded spine that runs down the middle that mates with a soft nylon slide-on bracket that breaks free with very little force required - ie, don't brush anything low hanging or you may lose it.
If the angle you are coming from is correct, then most visors on mtb helmets are also illegal / very dangerous.
Tech regs for DH say Australian or equivalent international Standard
The Commissaire should have a list of common helmets that comply.
Blah blah blah.
They did start enforcing the UCI ruling that no POV/helmet cemeras were to be worn during seeding and racing at state and national races a couple of years ago, citing safety.
The UCI ruling is clearly protecting exclusive broadcasting rights.
When it was pointed out that saying it was un safe during seeding and racing but OK during practice made no sence + if it was truely unsafe we'd have to ban helmet mounted lights and kill off 12/24 racing they stopped being so anal.
I do look at some of the newer after market CNC machined mounts and think while they look nice I'd rather have the filmsy plastic mount as the weakest link.
Hawkeye, maybe I should rephrase - more dangerous than not having one.
And yes, visors are designed the way they are not to make it easy for you to take them on and off so you can look like a roadie, but so they come off very easily in the event of impact.
Nice helmet btw.
I was in Ireland for a while and bought a helmet there (a fairly cheap one).
I discovered after purchase that the strap adjustment design was such that it could slide off the end with time, and did so a couple of times during use.
I don't know what standards it was but every helmet I've seen in Australia is better in this regard.
Since this I have thought there may be something to our stringent standards.
Hawkeye - Same setup as I have for Ayups - problem could be (for a strict scrutineer) that you can't rip off the battery when secured by the velcro strap. A strict interpretation could be that the battery is a protrusion that won't detach on impact. Didn't like the weight of the battery so changed it and used the extension lead and put battery in camelbak. But the rear pointy bit of the helmet could be 'grabbed' by the ground anyway. Though I have similar helmet always thought it a dumb shape compared to a fully domed shape.
Must admit I've never replaced a helmet due to age - always wrote them off first!
Given how common they are at 24 events (at least half the field) I don't think that overenthusiastic scrutineer would have a job for long!
And if it's a daytime event I'd be either using a different helmet or would have removed the lights 'n battery.