Spending a lot of money on a helmet does NOT guarantee that it’s safer. In fact, there is strong evidence that the most respected helmet certification (Snell) is too stringent and may very well contribute to injuries.
The Snell test requires the helmet to survive a severe strike to the outer shell twice, in the exact same impact spot. In order to pass this test the outer shell is made so strong that it defeats the basic premise of impact absorbtion.
I had a 100 mph get-off on turn 9 at Willow Springs raceway and suffered a stage 3 concussion….even though the outter shell of my Arai stayed intact. If the shell had a little more *give* my head injury may have never occurred.
Of course it’s a fine line between too hard and too soft, so there is a lot of debate on what is the best combination. Motorcyclist magazine had a huge article on this a few years ago and they concluded that sometimes the more expensive Snell rated lids performed WORSE than the lower DOT helmets.
