The UK Department of Transport is now providing star ratings for motorcycle helmets, in a bid to improve safety and offer the buyer a rough idea of each product's protective qualities.
Freelance motorcycle journalist Alastair Walker reports...
Most UK bikers don't really known how motorcycle helmets are designed, manufactured and tested. Once there were BSI standards, now we have the UN ECE 22.05 tests, but many riders still make a judgement by asking other bikers for recommendations, or assess the overall construction, comfort and fit, when trying lids on in a shop.
But all that is changing as the UK government backed SHARP ( Safety Helmet Assessment Ratings Programme ) comes onstream in 2008, offering ratings from one to five stars for most popular biking lids. The idea is to give consumers an idea of the potential protective qualities a helmet might have, with one star at the lower end, and five stars being the top rating.
The initial DoT SHARP results are suprising, as some helmets from top brands like Arai, Shoei and AGV only made three stars, whilst budget brands like Nitro or Lazer were rated five out of five in the SHARP tests. All of which begs the question; what testing methods are they using exactly, and is a cheap £50 helmet as good as an expensive £300 plus item?
