Getting The Fit Right: A Guide To Helmet Sizing

Visors are a wear item, not a lifetime part of the helmet, and most riders find a spare on hand is worth having, especially before a long trip.

A certified helmet carries a label inside the shell showing the standard it meets, along with a homologation number that identifies the specific model tested. This label is worth checking on any helmet, since it confirms the exact helmet in your hands passed the test, not just the range it belongs to.

Once the shell is formed and cured, it moves through finishing: sanding, painting or leather trimming, and fitting the internal padding and retention system. Every stage is checked before the next begins, since a fault caught early is far cheaper to fix than one found at the end.

The result takes longer to arrive than an off the shelf helmet, and that is by design. A made to order piece is fitted, finished and checked individually before it ships.

Getting helmet sizing right starts with a proper head measurement, taken with a soft tape around the largest part of the head, just above the eyebrows full face and open face range ears. That figure points to a starting size, but it is only a starting point, since head shape varies as much as head size.

Any impact, including a helmet dropped from a moderate height, can compress the inner liner in ways that are not visible from outside. A helmet is designed to absorb one significant impact by sacrificing that inner material, so a helmet involved in a crash should always be replaced, not inspected and reused.