If Icon made crappy helmets, would the DOT really put there stamp of approval on it? In the situation where I had seen a helmet split, the helmet did EXACTLY what it was made to do. The rider lived and was 100% fine. Imagine the crashes you saw with out those helmets. Just my .02

 

it takes nothing to get DOT approval, some of those chopper helmets sport DOT stickers. A helmet splitting in two is bad, damage like that happens diring a crash not afterwards so if your still bouncing down the pavement when it splits wide open, what happens to the head inside it?

Yeah a crappy helmet is better than no helmet but its certainly not better than a good one

 

hey woody....i completely understand your point of view on things and am not necessarily disagreeing with you on any of it...i was just putting some stuff out there....you came back and backed up your statement....

there's way too many people out there that make blanket statement about x or y gear or bike without biking up why they think so.....if you have good reason for your opinions, i have no problem with that and nor should anyone else...it's only when they are baseless that i scratch my head a bit...

like i said, i have no dout you saw what you saw...but the things i have read, both testing and testimonials have said they are just fine....just as good impactwise as other helmets...i am not going to repost that one article that EVERYONE posts when talking about helmets and snell testing and the lot...but bottom line.....what it SEEMS like to me is that 95% of the helmets that are sold right now are going to protect you in a crash....that each one is going to protect you from becoming a vegetable......[:-]

maybe i am just trying to justify in my head my Icon...lol...but i tend not to do that....i could just return it, but i like it.....it seems to me more that Icon is looked down upon not because people have any real beef with their quality, just that they are seen as "squid gear".......which is a shame, because some of their stuff is not squidish at all and is pretty quality and comfort...

oh well....like i said...hopefully we will never have to debate the effectiveness of ANY gear....good luck to all and keep the rubber side down!

 

If the U.S. Government allows cigarettes to be sold to the public and they are PROVEN to cause cancer, what makes you think that they really care if you wear a crappy helmet? You are a trusting soul.

 

Well on that same note. I have seen an Icon helmet someone was wearing when they went head first into a car at 25 mph and the whole thing cracked almost in 2. and I have seen a kbc helmet that went head first into a car at 45 mph. The KBC only cracked by the lower front area but the way it cracked it took the impact without hurting him that much a few scratched but nothing else major. if you would like to see the helmet I can get my buddy to take a pic for me if you would like to see it. I am sorry I can;t get a pic of the ICON.

 

This thread brings up an interesting point. While I really do value individuals first hand experience, I think having some emperical scientific data on how different helmets hold up under impact would be excellent. Does snell do something like this? Are there any resources online that provide information like this that anyone knows of?
I will definitely think twice about getting an ICON helmet now, but I'm quite happy with my HJC as it is, so I doubt there will be a need.

 

A friend of mine hit a 200 ish pound deer at 60mphwearing an icon helmet. He hit the pavement face first then flipped to his back and skidded down the pavement. No head injury or even a knockout. He even has a clear memory of looking up at the most beautiful starry sky he ever saw while still sliding, heh.

The helmet only had a small crack right above the windscreen, and then a broken windscreen and vents.

Not to worry though, it was only an R6 that met it's end that night.

 

Well it's nice to see my thread jumped the track and ran off course and then had a head on collision with another train. But in all seriousness.It doesn't matter to me, but there should be a real test that the consumers can view. Cause most people do not know what DOT or SNELL approved actually means like Woody said it takes nothing to really geta helmet DOT approved other than a few basic tests.
This discussion about helmets made me think abouta video of a wreck i saw on youtube. I believe it was a isle of man race and a racerlost control during the high speed section and walked away from it. They show his helmet and its only rashed up not cracked. I believe it was a suomy or arai helmet. This is the type of test results i want to see.

 

KBC Force RR Airborne 2[8D] I got compliment on it within the first 5 minutes I had it on, its real light and crazy comfortable. And its got a naked chick on the side, what more you could you need? lol[8D]

 

Probably shouldn't bring this topic back up but I have some info about the Icon being made by HJC thing. Icon is a sub company of Parts Unlimited, the helmets are manufactured by the manufacturer of Xspeed helmets in China and the Alliance helmets are copies of the original Xspeed helmets. Xspeed was started by 2 former employees of HJC which are mostly made in Korea but some of their models are outsourced to China but as far as I can tell the two companies don't use the same manufacturer