DOT and Snell

[Joel K-Man]

DOT and Snell

I'm a little lost here. I have two full face helments both are DOT rated and one is Snell rated as well. What exactly is Snell? I haven't heard much about it. I was assuming it was another certification kind of like Underwriters Lab.

[JWR]

Short answer...A hardness test or impact test.

Long answer...Google helmets DOT-Snell. There is more debate on this than it is on which motor oil to use.

[blaine]

Snell helmets have to withstand a higher impact & absorb more force than a D.O.T helmet.Generally a Snell approved helmet is more expensive to buy.Most stock car drivers will not wear anything but a Snell approved helmet.
:) :cool:

[alantf]

Over here, we don't have DOT or Snell. The helmets are just marked CE which means that they comply with European Community regs on the manufacture. Come to think of it, EVERYTHING we buy is marked CE, so DOT & Snell would be rather meaningless, as everything has to be manufactured to the EU specs, & marked CE. That's probably why you can't get Airoh helmets in America - the manufacturers can sell enough in Europe to not be bothered to get them DOT & Snell approved. :cry:

[patrick_777]

One way of putting it is that if it's Snell approved...it's DOT approved, but not necessarily the other way around.

[5th_bike]

Yea, like JWR says, just Google it please and you'll see.

I have a full face helmet but the front flips up, so it's only DOT approved, not Snell.

[Water Warrior 2]

Very few if any flip ups are Snell Approved for a couple reasons. First, the manufacturer has to lay out some big change for the testing and right to use the label if they pass the test. Second, the Snell Foundation just hasn't got around to testing flip up hats yet.
There has been some discussion for the past few years as to whether the Snell standards may be too severe for moto riders. Meaning the Snell hats are too robust and do not have enough give when suffering an impact at normal riding speeds. So unless you plan on impacting a wall at 140 mph you probably won't need it. Of course at 140 the rest of the body is just so much hamburger anyway. DOT helmets will do just fine when it counts. As per usual, here it my plug for ATGATT. Protect your joints and hard parts. Hands, feet, elbows, knees, shoulders, hips. You get the picture.

[alantf]

Very few if any flip ups are Snell Approved

Over here, all the police motorcyclists wear flip ups, so that they don't have to remove their helmets when they pull you over. They just flip them up to speak to you.

[music man]

Very few if any flip ups are Snell Approved

Over here, all the police motorcyclists wear flip ups, so that they don't have to remove their helmets when they pull you over. They just flip them up to speak to you.


Here in Hot Springs, they wear half-helmets, AKA brain buckets, for that same reason.