….literally between life and death. But how does an ordinary guy in street make an informed decision about what kind of helmets give best protection? There are so many makes, models and styles. Not to mention DOT approved, Snell approved, ECE approved! It is enough to make you go goggle eyed when confronted with so much information.

Tests have shown that it is perfectly possible to suffer a fatal injury falling off a stationary bike if you hit your unprotected head on kerb, so clearly choosing right helmet is important.

But which one?

Wouldn’t it be easier if someone just said, “Look, when you are in a crash, you need to protect this part of you head, because this is part that is most likely to get hurt”…

Well that’s what I thought. But it wasn’t that easy. The kind of information you need to make that kind of call requires someone, somewhere to look at a whole bunch of motorcycle crashes, look at motorcycle helmet damage, assess where point of impact occurred and put information into a form that allows ordinary motorcyclists (like you and me) to make a decision for themselves.

However, good news is that if you look hard enough, information is available. A study was carried out a few years ago by Deitmar Otte, at Medizinsche Hochschule in Hannover, Germany on damage incurred to helmets worn by motorcyclists involved in accidents. His analysis was extremely detailed; in fact it was far to detailed for me to go into here, but it was extremely important.

Protection in right places…

Not many people realise that most motorcycle injuries occur below belt. Your legs and feet are extremely vulnerable, so make sure that you wear a decent pair of high boots and some protective pants. The pants should be reinforced at knees and hips; ideally they should attach to your jacket by a zipper. Boots should be thick leather, with a sole that can flex with foot but has a resistance to crushing across foot.

Traditional material for motorcycle clothing is leather, but thick nylon and other synthetic materials work well too. Kevlar reinforced jeans are better than normal jeans .Normal jeans last 0.6 seconds in European standard abrasion test, while protective motorcycle pants will last 5 seconds or more. You don’t really want to be ripping your skin open within less than half a second of falling of your bike do you? Thought not.