That's also what we were told by an EMT at an accident scene where the biker's helmet took some good hits and saved the rider's brains.

 

Dropped mine twice in Florida. Rode from GA to Orlando to meet my buddy for bike week. Took the damn thing off to put into his truck. When I went to get it out at his house, sheet, it fell out. I thought about the whole 1 drop and done rule but the helmet looked fine. Did nearly the same thing when it was time to ride back to GA. I thought to myself, it's still better than dropping my bike! Maybe this is a good excuse to get a carbon fiber one.

 

This is true. I did a remodeling job at the Snell testing area a couple years back. The tech told me the area that had the impact will not be safe for a second impact to their standards. I have dropped mine, and not replaced it, but I wear a beanie half the time, so no real difference. he also told me that helmwts only have a 5 year life, before the impact protection material starts to break down. Now these are Snell standards which are far more strict than DOT. The facility was very interesting they drop a vertical weight on a track directly onto the helmet.

 

I do not want to be a contrarian but this has to be one of the silliest things I have ever heard. The structure of the helmet would not be altered by a fall. If the structure of the helmet is so brittle that micro fractures would occur in the helmet that would compromise its over all strength than the helmet was incorrectly manufactured in the first place. The polymer structure of motorcycle helmets is not any different than football helmets and correct me if I am wrong but I have never seen football players changing helmets after each lick. Just think about it a sec folks. This is nothing but Urban legend probably created to sell unsuspecting people more helmets. So long as the fall does not literally crack teh helemt it is fine. Another goof example is a military hemet. Do you thing soldiers throw away their helmets if they drop them? Of course not and they are intended to turn away bullets and shrapnel. A bit more sever and with a bit more energy per square inch than even the worse motorcycle accident impact.

The only thing and I mean the only thing that a helmet will do is prevent fractures and lacerations. This is accomplished by placing a solid structure between your head and the object it is striking with the addition of a shock absorbing material to prevent the transfer of energy to a single spot on your head. So long as your helmet does not have severe and generally obvious damage it will accomplish this task. It need only stay in tact long enough to spread the blow laterally across the interior padding before giving out. If this issue really concerns you than buy a Carbon Fiber Kevlar helmet from carbonhelmets.com

Unfortunately, and why many say helmets are next to useless, it does nothing to stop the principle reason for head trauma death. That is the sever concussing and thus tissue damage and bleeding caused by the sloshing of the brain with in the skull from the sudden stop. Helmets can stop fractures etc and thus some injuries that might have caused death but he truth is that most accidents of this kind would have resulted in death none the less. The biggest thing a helmet can do is prevent disfiguring face injuries from minor accidents. However that only works if you use a full face and few HD riders do that because it destroys so much of the feel of riding.

One thing Helmets absolutely do is cause a gigantic increase in the number of high vertebrae spin injuries resulting in severe paralysis as a result of placing so much additional weight on the head and even in minor accidents many peoples necks cannot handle the additional weight and peoples necks get broken. Particularly if you use large DOT helmets or even worse full face helmets. This si why after Dale Earnhardts death NASCAR went to securing helmts so they cannot drive the driver face into teh steering column and or snap their necks. Helemts can be as much or more of a danger to drivers than a safty device in many situations. This is one of teh reasons I went with the light weigh carbon fiber helmets. It helps minimize the chance of spin injury caused by having this dangerous weight perched on your head.

I know many people will disagree with this but it is simple biomechanical physics.

 

Definately replace after drop. Especially if you can see a mark from the impact. 5 year rule as well. Between degradation from being in the sun and being exposed to your sweat it's a good idea.

Carseats same thing. Never use a carseat after an accident. Things can look good, but they may be structurally altered.

You can't tell by looking. It may be, it might not be. You don't really want to find out later that it wasn't up to spec anymore. Not everyone is out to scam you, some are out to protect you. Snell has no reason to tell you to buy a new helmet. They aren't getting paid by the manuf to say this stuff.

If you are wearing a helmet, shouldn't it at least be able to do it's job? Why wear one that might not work.

On the whole cervical spine injury deal, just remember that if the impact was enough to break your neck from the added weight of the helmet, it was more than enough to crack your skull like an egg.

Football helmets aren't designed for protection from a solid object like the road, and people rarely run 20mph or greater.
Military helmets (correct me if I'm wrong) can not stop a bullet. They might deflect if hit at the right angle. Again, not designed to protect you from a higher speed fall.
Nascar needed the restraints because during the extreme decelleration from a crash, the body was fully restrained, and the head moved without the body. On a bike, the head and the body move together. Neck injuries are possible, but no studies show a correlation between neck injuries and helmet use. If you have some, I'd love to see them.

Thank you, Please drive through.

 

I read somewhere that if you drop a helmet it compresses the foam in that spot ,by absorbing the impact of the helmet striking the ground just like it was designed to do,and it should be replaced not knowing if the same area would take a second impact. I've seem alot of friends drop helmets on the pavement ,sometime multiple times during one day of riding,lol they still wear the same helmets,never replace them.
as said above..... i guard my helmet from falls 1) it's a nice helmet with a ghost flame on it 2) helmets aren't cheap 3) I really dont know if it is true about replacing them if you drop them on the ground, why chance it when the time comes to protect my head ,i'd hope it worked as designed

 

Dont worrry about it. [8D]

 

What Stucarius said make a lot of sense to me. I wear a light weight DOT 1/2 shell. What good is it? Could it cause more harm than protection? I have always wondered.

 

I can see replacing it if you take a fall and hit your head with the helmet on. You head weighs about 20 lbs and a fall will generate some significant force. A helmet, alone, weighs only a pound or two, and a drop of 25-30 inches shouldn't create enough force to ruin it.

 

I think I have a big head, must weigh in at about 50#'s or so