Track day helmets

[marctwo]

Hello everyone.

I am going to be going on my first track day soon (woo hoo!). I wanted to ask about the standard of helmets required to attend these events. I realise thet may differ depending on the organiser but would a 'gold standard' motorbike helmet be acceptable?

Can you please let me know what your experiences have been as I can't take it back once I buy one and I don't want to throw away the oppertunity of breaking the sound barrier in my mate's griff!

Thanks,

Marc

[scoobysnax1963]

Hiya

I did my first track day at Cadwell with TVR club, on the 12th. I used my helmets from my bike, they are gold standard Shoei and FM (Magic Roundabout characters - Sad I know!!). We had no probs with them, they were accepted and perfectly good. Didnt help my driving thou!!!!!!!

Mark

[marctwo]

Thanks Mark. Trying to borrow one but if I can't then I'll have to buy something and I want to make sure it's future proof.

Hopefully taking a mini-dv camcorder with me to Bruntingthorpe this weekend so I shall be sure to share the results if I survive!

Marc

[stevied]

I've borrowed a friend's type A bike helmet and thought I should get my own, so I'm going through similar fact finding to you.

The 'gold badge' is certainly ok for Bruntingthorpe this weekend for instance. Octagon Motorsport (Brands and others) state helmet must be BS 6658 type A.

Been in a couple of decent motorbike shops today to try some and the BS system has now been replaced with a European one - ECE2205. Therefore they had only 1 or 2 older lids with the BS kite mark type A label as all new stuff is mainly ECE2205.

Found this link on easytrack.co.uk which covers Octagon accepting the new ECE marking...might need to be a member to read it but free to sign up.

www.easytrack.co.uk/forum/fmess.asp?type=FIND&subjectid=28099

I'm still very confused as I don't want to spend £200 only to find it is not legal for some things ?

Is it just that UK car sport stuff is behind European motorbike helmet regs, or will all organisers be reviewing things so that ECE2205 is allowable ?

I appreciate that helmets are designed differently if specifically for car use, but these are then not legal for motorbike use on UK roads.
Also, I believe a bike helmet is zero vat registered as essential where as a car specific one is not deemed essential so you are paying 17.5% vat too.

Feel free to correct me as this is all new to me. Beginning of the week I just thought I'd read a few pages on the web for research and then just stroll into a bike shop - voila - a new helmet ! How wrong I was.

Hopefully I can verify the ECE2205 story tomorrow and then buy a standard decent bike lid ? Will update with any findings.

[marctwo]

Thanks stevied, this is really helpful. Please let me know tomorrow if you get any answers to this one as I have to get something before Saturday!

[Don]

Interesting.

Has anyone ever had their helmet actually checked at a Track Day/School Day.

So far no-one has looked at mine - other than to check its on my head.

I have two helmets. One is a Full-Face motorbike Schoei which is excellent. The other is a open-face cheap motorbike helmet which would require goggles to use on a bike but is perfect for use in a closed car as one can speak more freely to reassure one's passenger that you do indeed intend to brake sometime before the corner just not yet.

They both have the British Standard XXXXXX sticker on 'em. Should I have looked for something else?

[roy c]

Don said: Interesting.

Has anyone ever had their helmet actually checked at a Track Day/School Day.

Only once - last year's TVRCC City track day at Snetterton.

www.grandpri.com/helmetinfo.html

[raceboy]

Don said:Has anyone ever had their helmet actually checked at a Track Day/School Day.

The last TMS track day at Brunters, the state of some of the helmets lurking about the pabdock I think you could have got out on track in a pushbike helmet
But really it's down to how much you value your head, if your not planning to ever use the helmet on a bike, just in a car, I go for a car specific lid, I think Dontlift can still get some good deals on them

[Breadline Racing]

See here - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=34770&f=18&h=0

[stevied]

Hi marctwo et all...

I spoke to Carol at the Club office this morning and she is going to talk to Bernie (Track day co-ordinator) as it has got a bit silly saying a helmet must be Type A when the majority of bike lids have now gone from type A to ECE2205.

I've given up and just bought a plain silver Shoei XR900 (£200) which is ACU Gold Standard and ECE2205 spec.
It was a BS type A before ECE came along, so fingers crossed.

Bruntingthorpe on Saturday specified ACU Gold so I'm ok for that one anyway.

Hopefully this will all get sorted out officially in the coming months.

Happy helmet shopping.

Steve (Blue Chimaera with a silver bash hat if anyone is also going to Brunters on Sat....)

[shpub]

The specs are laid down by the MSA and these are then picked up by the track. The club/organisers have very little control in this respect.

Been checked at Oulton, Brands, Silerstone, Snetterton, Cadwell BTW

[shpub]

Is it just that UK car sport stuff is behind European motorbike helmet regs, or will all organisers be reviewing things so that ECE2205 is allowable ?

Quite the reverse. MSA support the snell and SFI standards which are a lot tougher than the BS or ECE ones and have been for some time. These standards were developed when various people died in accidents when a standard helmet failed big time to protect them.

Most car racers/sprinters use SNELL/SFI as a result. The problem is that the UK/EU has not accepted them as better standards and that is why they are not approved for Motor cycle use.

Having seen helmets that are BS/ECE approved and compared them to Snell, there is no comparison. I switched to a SNELL about 8 years ago.

[Icarus]

"snell and SFI standards which are a lot tougher than the BS or ECE ones "

Steve,
do you have any good links on the details behind this?
would have been useful to know this before (recently) purchasing a helmet for karting and occasional track day/bike use.
cheers,
hamilton

[stevied]

Typical, after trying to find out as much as possible before buying one, I thought I was getting somewhere and bought an ECE2205 one.

And then Mr Heath adds his as ever well informed thoughts. Thanks 'SH' for updating me, shame it's 24 hours too late. Ce la vie......

[shpub]

stevied said: Typical, after trying to find out as much as possible before buying one, I thought I was getting somewhere and bought an ECE2205 one.

And then Mr Heath adds his as ever well informed thoughts. Thanks 'SH' for updating me, shame it's 24 hours too late. Ce la vie......

Sorry about that but I don't spend all my life in front of a keyboard
Had a new shock absorber mount to machine and fit and then there was the new master cylinder that needed some custom pipework...

As for websites. Both Snell and SFI have ones which detail the history and specs. Can't remember the URLs but Google should find them.
www.smf.org for the Snell site



>> Edited by shpub on Tuesday 27th May 12:08

[rat]

Did you get an answer from TVRCC Stevied?
I'm in the same boat, with brand new ECE2205 helmet that I fear may be useless for track days.

Went to a track day as a spectator and I thought some of the lids being used must be home made. Went out to buy one without checking PH first and let sales guy mislead me into thinking 'E' standard had superceded 'BS'.

Bought it months ago with track days in mind then lost use of my car for ages, so I can't expect to take it back now.

No complaints, if ECE2205 ain't good enough I've had my fingers burnt, but IS there any good news for me?

Andy