£16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Saw this on the Ebay daily deals. Might be of interest for someone looking for a cheap spare lid.

Don't think I'd want to wear a £16 helmet though.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/?_nkw=M...in_kw=1&_sop=1

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

I think i value my head (and life) at more that £16!!

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Including postage too! :shock:

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Personally I wouldn't buy a helmet without trying it on, but if you've had that brand before...

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

If you're skint, far better than wearing some multiple-crashed secondhand POS.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

one of the salesmen up here in an Aberdeen bike shop told me something when i was loking for my new helmet.

There is no such thing as an unsafe Helmet. all helmets meet road safety standards & to pick the best fit even if its the cheapest one in the shop.

£16 bargin if it fits your head.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

+1. They all have to meet the safety standards but some meet and exceed the safety standards.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Yeah, we're talking about these in work... there's gotta be something up with them as it's likely a tenner if the P&P is free (which it is).

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

If your stupid enough to buy a £16 helmet then a £16 helmet is fine.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Well it appears that the ones are eBay are these: Red Zed RZ-401

A quick Google Product Search of RZ-401 shows M&P Direct Ltd sold them for £17.99 (they're no longer listed on their website, though various other models are).

Looks like it's just left over stock from a discontinued (no idea if it or not) model.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

what would be a good way to sort this out is buy one & film you launching it off a wall & see how it fairs.

only an idea.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

That particular helmet is a rebranded Nitro N750VX. Take it from me, I should know these things as I was Nitro's sales rep for the eastern region for a few years.

That helmet - same design and same method of construction - was retailing at over 80 quid 4 years ago.

It's not a 16 quid helmet, it's an 80 quid helmet being sold much cheaper.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

value my head and life more than £80! let alone £16.
For a decent helmet in general you looking at £200, then the price spirals for not much improvement. look at shoei and arai, thay have there own tests....... a flower pot will pass the EU tests!

this is one thing you do not want to save money on!

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

I have 1 but problem with helmets.

My head wont fit AGV ARAI or SHOEI just wont sit right.

i have a CABERG that fits perfect & only cost me £120.

if you have a head like mine you cant buy the £200 to £500 helmets & why should you if you can get one for less.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

You know alot about helmets, their construction and design and the testing proceedures then, do you? Obviously not!

Posting from a position of ignorance does you no favours.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Will a £500 ARAI & SHOEI fight off a stone chip any better than a £80 helmet?

id say no. i had to change my helmet last week due to a stone chip from a car & im glad it was a £85 one not a £500 one.

why claim its cos you value ur head & not that you just want that badge on you helmet?

they all smash much the same anyway

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

i went into my local bike shop and tried on about 12 different helmets ranging from £80-£400 I was looking to spend about £300 on one, in the end i left with a Caberg V2R for £120 because it fitted the best. Even the salesman said that it was the one he'd buy if he was me as its all about the fit.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

That must have been one big stone chip to warrant writing the helmet off like that. You sure it wasn't a half-brick?

I wear Arais because value for money wise they are the best on the market, as well as being one of the safest helmets available. I'll get 5 years use from an Arai costing 200 quid. I'll spend 300 quid on cheaper helmets over the same period of time. I can afford to blow 200 or even 400 quid a time on a lid, but there are a huge number of people who can't, and for them an 80 quid helmet makes sound economic sense.

Having said that, I recently bought a 100 quid Nitro flip-front to wear when I'm doing long distances as it's quieter than my Arais and the earpieces from my bluetooth headset fit it better. I trust Nitro lids because I've been involved in the design, and have seen the methods of construction and testing they go through.

Very very wrong. You need to research this subject very thoroughly before making claims like that.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

I looked into testing and the difference between the old BSI and new EU helmet tests. Whilst not an "expert" in helmets i am a full time engineer and do actually know a fair amount about materials.

Brand name doesn't matter, (well, maybe not some!) but people have heard of shoei/arai.
If you must know the helmet i want is a schuberth, has no "name" on it, but it's a bit expensive.
so do some research, and actually look at the figures for helmet impact test, in particularly look at the different areas of the helmet they test, and the tooling they use to test them...... then maybe you might have a different opinion.

maybe you got a good deal.... they do do nice helmets.
£200 is a rough guide. there are things called sales... i like them :)

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

This is the stupidest helmet argument, but it comes up everytime.

So go out and buy a top of the line Arai - by your own rational, you're only valuing your head/life at 500 quid?

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

took a chip just above the visor & split the shell. so said bye bye to it.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

But if it fits you like crap - would you still buy it?

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Did you miss the part of my post where I explained my involvement with Nitro helmets design and construction? Of all the people posting to this forum I think you'll find I'm more than likely the only one qualified to make professional calls on stuff like this. You may well be a full time engineer who knows his materials, but in the real world you know c0ck all about helmets, their construction and test proceedures.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

If the stone was big enough to do that sort of damage, I'd say the hemet did its job as designed. It saved your head from getting mullered, that's all anyone can ultimately ask of any helmet.

What make of lid was it?

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Easy Tiger, he's a full time engineer and stuff.

And people wonder why Britain doesn't have a manufacturing industry any longer.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Design and construction? don't know that many sales reps that have an input into them. I'll have to ask the car saleman tomorrow how he influenced the new model.:D

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

it was a HJC CS-R1 samurai.

yes it did its job & as i say im glad it didnt cost me £500 all cos of a stone.

as long as it fits & you are happy wearing it what does it really matter.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

I may well have been employed as an area sales manager, but at Nitro you get involved in all manner of stuff during your time with them. It's a really interesting firm to work for.

We'd be shown prototype helmets and asked our opinions, then as a sales force we'd suggest modifications. That's where we'd be told why they could or couldn't go ahead with the mods, and why they may fail testing if we were to incorporate our mods. I have seen helmets tested at an independent test facility, and they really are quite rigorously gone over.

Nitro are a very open minded and young thinking firm, the 3 joint MDs are all under 30 years old and have been running the firm for the past 7 years at least, with guidance from their father. While I was with them the youngest MD was still studying for his degree.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Thats why i didn't get arai either. the was like a glove :) but was near 400 :(

you be warned........ that "stuff" is amazing :)

they will know the construction and tests, and the features of it, as a car salesman knows about the airbags in a car. but its all public......

Off to bed :)

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

[QUOTE=


they will know the construction and tests, and the features of it, as a car salesman knows about the airbags in a car. but its all public......

Off to bed :)[/QUOTE]
At the end of the day Nitro are considered a budget helmet search ebay for nitro helmet and the most expensive one is £165

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

MY chipped helmet had this clain from HJC & it cost me £85

These helmets are to the same GOLD ACU standard as a £400+ Arai or Shoei

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

i love the helmet arguement, recently looked at the test ratings of my caberg vs the missus shoei costing over double the price guess which came out on top,

lozzo i must say im not in the least bit surprised you have a wealth of knowladge on helmets if you were a sales rep but im very surprised and somewhat frightend that they invited a sales reps input on design and construction, surely things like this are down to designers and engineers?
please dont take this as another bit of keyboard heroism but with over 2.5k members from all walks of life i find it somewhat big headed to assume your the only one quallified to make professional calls on these matters, and weather your qualified is irrelevent if that was the case none of us would take advice on how to repair our bikes from anybody but suzuki trained technicians?

edit: people thinking along the same lines as me in the time it took me to post, and it seems youve aalready replied

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Does that make it a bad helmet?

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

+1, although I understood it to mean they were invited to make suggestions on design features and aesthetics that might sell a helmet, and then constrained by the engineers who knew what would and wouldn't work.

In any case, I don't doubt that I could eventually whack together a helemt in my garage that would meet the standards, but it'd still be crap, heavy, poor fitting, inadequate venting, noisy, and made from budget materials. I do believe that a light, comfortable, quiet helmet goes a long ways towards safety in terms of minimising fatigue and enabling maximum concentration.

I buy name brand helmets in solid colours, becuase that's where I think I get the best bang for my buck. I do believe that spending a bit more, while being critical about what you're buying, provides you the benefit of a bit more research into safety, more comfort, and better materials.

What's the cost to Nitro of designing and manufacturing and tooling for a lid that has a full retail price of £80? £20 out the factory door? Less? Have they stumbled upon some miracle of cost control, or are we to believe that the major brands are in a price-fixing scam? Maybe Nitro is spending a little less in these areas. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle, but I'd personally rather gamble on spending a bit more.

Is it somewhat telling that the Nitro sales-rep wears Arais, except where convenience is concerned, and then chooses a Nitro because it has a flip front and fits a headset -both safety compromises?

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Three years ago I highsided a Bandit 600 and did some aerial acrobatics at a height of 10 to 12 feet above ground - at some point as I headed back to planet earth my head struck something solid. My helmet was written off but I hobbled away with a broken ankle (surprisingly, I was wearing Alpinestars MX boots, which I thought would have saved my ankle). The helmet I was wearing was a Nitro N1400. I trust Nitros.

There was once a bike racer called Joey Dunlop, he wore an Arai RX-7 Corsair - he's now dead after hitting a tree. That doesn't mean to say I distrust Arais, it simply goes to show that no matter what helmet you wear, the worst can still happen.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

So why do you now wear Arai

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Was that due to a head injury?

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

I work for a parcel delivery company who drive red vans and might be connected to the Post Office/Royal Mail. Personally I wouldn't wear a £1000 helmet that had been sent through the post. However if you buy one from a shop you still don't know what has happened to it before purchase so there is always some risk involved. Additionally you can't sue a lid shop for a defective helmet when you're dead. Maybe the only sure way is to always have it tested after purchase for another 60 or 70 quid or whatever it costs.
I bought an AGV GP Tech(reduced to £440) at the same time I got my bike (what's good enough for a pro racer is good enough for an inexperienced road rider like me). Although I could only afford it because of the loan I got for the bike. Previously I had a noisy £60 Takai helmet - no not Takachi and no not Arai. Never seen that brand name before and never seen it since. I wonder if it was bits of Takachi and Arai helmets that had been prit-sticked together and resprayed. If I had to get a new now I would struggle to pay more than a couple of hundred quid tops.
Interesting point made earlier in this thread about about what value we put on our heads: Even £500 isn't alot when you consider what's at stake.
A mate of mine came off with a £160 lid and when his head bounced off the curb it split in 2 along the glue line of the 2 hemispheres. He's still alive so it did its job but who knows what might have been if he was going a bit faster or landed at a different angle or this or that or the other or...
£16 does seem ridiculously cheap but the daft thing is they might sell more if they charged alot more for exactly the same helmet based on our fears about price and quality.
I think the way forward (right on my soap-box now) is to specifically state how much impact force a lid will take rather than a simple yes or no to whether it's up to the EU gold standard.

Re: £16 Helmet on Ebay
 

Why is that? Apart from the fact that Rossi's is almost certainly not an off the shelf model built the same as yours his does not have the prospect of the same number of hazards as a road helmet does - There is not as many things to hit on a race track.

I'm surprised about the 'splitting down the glue line' incident, I though the shells of most helmets were molded in one piece and the 'glue line' was infact the joint of the mold, not like a cream egg. Perhaps not all helmets are created equal, maybe I'd like to know more about how my helmet was made before I make a purchase.

I'd not worry too much about impacts in transit, it will have protection presumably. What damages a helmet is impact while carrying a load inside such as a heavy skull and it's contents after this the all important shock absorbing foam will be useless even if the shell is perfectly serviceable.

Having paid top dollar for your helmet how long will you be tempted to keep it? Perhaps it would be better to pay half as much and replace twice as often.