[silverluxe]

After hustling on ebay and trading gear with a friend I've ended up with this combo to go with my red icon. It's a nearly NOS Arai Quantum helmet (in Italian red) from 1994 that I picked up with the box and a clear visor for 15 dollars. Fitment for me is better than my Quantum II helmet.

The Quantum II was traded even across for this Alpinestars jacket. It's really heavy and by some oddity, fits me properly. The sleeves are a bit loose in the bicep area for my taste, but the chest and waist are spot on.

I need to find a set of boots that I'm happy with. Do any of you have suggestions for something with laces that doesn't look like moon shoes and you can wear once you're off the bike and walking around?

I just sold a set of Chippewa Rally boots because they're just not my style.. I don't like that they don't lace up and look loose.

 

[notworried]

Did I get it wrong or the helmet is actually 21 years old? If it is that old, it has lost it's protective properties a very long time ago.

 

[silverluxe]

Did I get it wrong or the helmet is actually 21 years old? If it is that old, it has lost it's protective properties a very long time ago.

Looks just like my 2010 Quantum II and was stored indoors. I'm not that worried about it, given that the helmet I normally wear is not DOT legal. I understand the theory of it all, but proceed at my own peril.

 

[JWA]

Cool setup. I was just looking at these shoes yesterday. The red and black combo seem like they'd match that gear and your criteria nicely: http://www.ssgear.com/usa_english/run-with-the-bulls-moto-shoes.html

 

[silverluxe]

I'm not sure I could pull that off.. So much red. The red jacket was a weird random occurance because my friend really liked that other Quantum II helmet I had (fits his face better than mine) and I knew he wanted it. I already have too many jackets at the moment.

I have never ridden in riding hi-top shoes. What sort of stuff to the makers put in them to make them safer than regular old leather work boots? Are the ankles supported with plastic inside or something?

I saw some of the reviewers wearing ones that looked similar to this.. I've never owned any though. They look sort of interesting. But I've been riding for 25 years wearing boots that have heels on them, so it might feel weird with flat soles.

 

[outofthebox]

I saw some of the reviewers wearing ones that looked similar to this.. I've never owned any though. They look sort of interesting. But I've been riding for 25 years wearing boots that have heels on them, so it might feel weird with flat soles.

I have the same ones in black suede with a red Dainese logo. The most comfortable riding shoes I've ever owned and best suited for shorter city jaunts. The sole is flat but hard and there is CE rated protection for the ankles. Absence of heels is not felt at all. No hard toe box in the front though.

I now have these on order from Pro Italia in anticipation of my Scrambler.

They are manufactured by TCX for Ducati:

 

[silverluxe]

Are you able to walk around leisurely in the Dainese ones? I do like the look of the ones with the red logo on the side.

 

[outofthebox]

Yes Silverluxe, comfort is their main trade off with extra protection in my opinion. They are very light & comfortable to walk around, with a good grip from the rubber soles. I can wear them all day without any discomfort.

 

[littleowl]

I do like the short boots, but since my bike fell on me and broke both bones in my lower leg I always ride with full armour!

I wear Daytonas and they are really comfortable (also do short boots)

 

[silverluxe]

I've determined that I'm the age that it doesn't matter if I'm wearing a steel suit of armor, it's going to hurt badly if I fall off of the bike or it falls onto me.

There's this weird, completely non-scientific equation in my head for my unwillingness to be uncomfortable for the whole ride by burdensome gear versus my desire to stay whole, in one piece if something goes wrong.

I've (luckily) gotten away for years wearing not much of anything. But the older I get, the more it hurts when things go wrong and the longer it takes to heal.

 

[DenverDuc]

Not here to criticize, but that's a dangerous way to think in my opinion. Just like in the stock market, prior performance is not an indicator of what might happen in the future. The helmet looks cool, but I'd be concerned about it's protective capabilities with it being that old. Not only have the internal designs changed dramatically since then, the material isn't likely to absorb impact being that old. Again, not trying to be preachy, but after having a father nearly die from a traumatic brain injury on a bike and watching another friend get killed I don't take safety lightly in this sport.

 

[silverluxe]

I understand the concern. The helmet looks like it was stored in its box for most of those 21 years. It's like everything motorcycle related in that it's a roll of the dice. I've known people to die in full leathers in city traffic and then seen drunks flung off of harleys at 100+ mph with no gear and live to tell the tale.

The Arai by all rights looks better built than any present day helmet under 200 dollars in terms of safety tech and quality. I know that styrofoam can degrade and I'm sure we've all seen rotting styrofoam buoys in water and sunlight that eventually turn to white dust. But this looks and feels solid. But like I already admitted, I haven't been wearing a DOT rated helmet for the past 10 years, so it's a step up from what I have. Also having the safest helmet made that doesn't fit you right is more dangerous. I need something that I'm not fiddling with constantly while riding. These helmets are pretty straightforward and fit my head properly.

There's not much magic involved in modern helmet design. It's plastic, fiberglass, or carbon laid over top of styrofoam and some padding for comfort. The companies we all know and love PROBABLY try to make it such that the outer shell works as a structural unit to save your brain. I have ZERO faith in the cheap companies like HJC, Gmax, Fulmer, etc.... who seem to just be rushing to create next year's 100 dollar eye candy at the motorcycle shops.

By the same logic that helmets expire, bikes should also expire though. A 5 year old bike is typically less safe than a new one in terms of wear and tear. Most people don't maintain their bikes to the T and safety items like the brakes and tires put people at risks of a wreck. Coats should expire since rain and UV probably damages the materials, and the list goes on and on. Helmets are like motor oil. Most people have pretty set and strong opinions about them just based on how our culture has evolved. There's no helmet law here, so it's rare to even see anyone wearing one. I'm not saying it makes any sense, but that's just how it goes. It's also less populated here, so not that many people die per year on bikes as compared to other parts of the nation where traffic is a lot heavier.

I trust this Arai over any new 3/4 or 1/2 helmet and would go so far as to say almost any modular helmet. But that's just me gambling with my own head trauma risks. I've always thought of helmets in the terms that you get one bounce to protect your brain. Then the full face chin bar is there for when you slide. I've had the good fortune to not need to find out in my past 25 years of riding. Soon we're all going to be owners of a 75 horsepower motorcycle that could kill us regardless of what we're wearing, in an instant IF the cards are not in our favor that moment.

The owners manual for the Arai is interesting... It has anime drawings before anime was even a thing in the USA:

I don't expect anyone to think I'm the beacon of safety since I'm not. I also am very much in favor of nobody copying my behavior, or do so at their own risk. I am also not looking to argue back and forth about it since I doubt anyone's opinion would change

I just got this jacket for summer time. It's basically a skin tight hockey jersey with armor. But it has chest armor which I felt was important given the amount of people who have nice jackets but no armor in them. Then again, if I slide, that mesh is going to shred and all of the armor is going to fly out of it. But it's just one of the calculated buying decisions I've made.

 

[littleowl]

I would never judge anyone by what they wear on a bike; I would think that most people who ride know the risks and ultimately it's up to you if you want to chance your skin in the name of comfort. I absolutely hate wearing a full face helmet but do so to give me a better survival rate in the event of an off (hopefully!) - and also because I can't stand large insects hitting me in the face . A friend of mine has never worn protective gear, his helmets usually don't fit or are second hand and he's been riding since the 70s. He's lucky!

I did try on the Scrambler open face helmet the other day and thought, hmmmm, shall I ...

 

[silverluxe]

The main thing is that if any of us knew on what day we were going to wreck, we'd just hang up the keys that day. I just try to avoid people, objects, and animals to the best of my ability.

I like having my face covered because of rocks and bugs. I don't want to ever wreck a bike even if I'm wearing the safest helmet ever made. It's still going to hurt!

I was thinking about the Icon Variant helmet, but I haven't ever seen one in person to try one on.

 

[Phil in CA]

Old helmets

I've always heard that "helmets only last 5 years and then are somehow no good" but as a materials engineer I have a hard time believing it.


Assuming it's a decent fiber reinforced epoxy unit then the shell should last a LONG time. Just look at any sail boat, airplane wing or other similar product which spends its life in the sun and humidity and it's clear as long as it is painted to resist UV, the basic matrix and fibers should outlive us and our children.


Pretty much the same for the Styrofoam. Unless it sees UV it will outlast all of us. The EVA soft foam can degrade with ozone exposure from smog however. Anyone who has reconed a set of woofers understands this. So maybe the soft foam would degrade and that would make it less comfortable and perhaps reduce the level of protection but the shell and Styrofoam should be OK.


Does anyone have some scientific data to support the 5 year rule or is this mainly to prevent liability lawsuits against helmet manufacturers? I'd really like to know as so far it doesn't make sense to me

 

[silverluxe]

I've read anecdotal evidence from helmet breaking engineers that they submitted their own personal helmets to the head banging machine after their helmets were 5, 10 years old and the helmets did in fact NOT perform as a new one should have.

You're right about soft foam though. It turns to goo on its own. The only part of this Arai that has deterioration is the neck curtain. It's painted with black vinyl type coating and that stuff has crazed with age and feels a bit tacky. The liner foam is still just like a new helmet and it fits my head properly. I just got home from a ride with it and it's not noticeably different from my other newer quantum II (which I bought new from a Ducati dealer in 2011.)

I bought some vintage NOS MX boots two years ago and wore them once. Only once. All of the foam on the tongue turned to goop and stained my shins bright blue. And all of my leg hair was stuck together for a week afterwards! And that was through knee high socks. The foam just like you mentioned had completely deteriorated.

It wouldn't shock me at all that this 1994 era helmet is less 'good' than a brand new one, but I still posit that it's 'good' especially compared to say a brand new 100 dollar Gmax.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

It wouldn't shock me at all that this 1994 era helmet is less 'good' than a brand new one, but I still posit that it's 'good' especially compared to say a brand new 100 dollar Gmax.

By "good" do you mean "just as safe"? I don't know anything about Gmax, but I would've thought my brand new cheapo HJC CL-17 (DOT and SNELL rated) is just as safe (though far less refined ) as any high-end Shoei, Schuberth or Arai that is similarly rated, and probably much safer than ANY helmet from 1994....?

 

[outofthebox]

Newer helmets from the late 1980's and the 90's may or may not need replacement. First look to see what standards sticker is inside. If it's ASTM or Snell, the helmet was designed to meet today's standards for impact protection, and you may even find that Consumer Reports tested it in one of their articles. Most manufacturers now recommend that helmets be replaced after five years, but some of that may be just marketing. (Bell now recommends every three years, which seems to us too short. They base it partially on updating your helmet technology, but they have not been improving their helmets that much over three year periods, and we consider some of their helmets since the late 1990's to be a step backwards, so we would take that with a grain of salt.) Deterioration depends on usage, care, and abuse.

from Helmets.org When to replace a helmet?

 

[silverluxe]

By "good" do you mean "just as safe"? I don't know anything about Gmax, but I would've thought my brand new cheapo HJC CL-17 (DOT and SNELL rated) is just as safe (though far less refined ) as any high-end Shoei, Schuberth or Arai that is similarly rated, and probably much safer than ANY helmet from 1994....?

Mostly I say that based on the way they're built if you have them sitting side by side. The visors on the cheap helmets shatter more easily where as the more expensive ones have flex in them that should take more abuse if you're thrown off of the bike. The helmet testing in the lab is to ensure your brain isn't getting trauma so all of the helmets probably prevent that from happening. But at the point I'm sliding down the pavement I'd rather have a 500 dollar helmet on my head than a cheap one for all of the secondary facial damage, etc... that can occur. I've known people to wreck in HJC and it most certainly saved their lives though, the visors held up against pavement, etc... so they are probably fine.

The UV damage to parts probably occurs more quickly on some cheap helmets, but I have no proof of that. I've seen some helmets that aren't even painted, and thus the sun is just hitting the poly or fiberglass shell at all times. Expensive helmets have nice layers of paint, but so do a lot of the 100 dollar ones.

I'm not an expert on the subject. I just do what feels right to me. I've been wearing a retro british helmet the past several years and would probably die in a 10mph collision if I was wearing it.

 

[Jerry Winder]

There seems to be a lot of conjecture regarding the quality of helmets here. Do you guys in the US not have a minimum standard that all helmets have to reach? Here we have three lots of tests for helmets. The European standard, the British standard and the SHARP tests.

The Sharp test was introduced by the UK Government maybe 5 years ago to address more accident based testing and you'd be surprised by how many so called premium helmets don't score 5 stars and how many budget lids score well.

The rule of thumb is that a helmets used every day will be past their best after 5 years of use. If you don't use it every day it will last longer. 21 years? It's not my head so you do what's right for you.

Jerry