Re: Which Helmet? Tips on buying a good helmet During mid 90's, my father got me a bike and the second day me & mom went for shopping for a nice helmet. I never thought or imagined of riding the bike without a helmet. Although all my friends hardly wore helmets during those days, but somehow I was completely averse to the thought of riding a bike without a helmet. Those days Studds was a branded ISI marked helmet, so I picked a very nice one "Studd design by Porsche", it was a neat cool helmet with the visor going inside the frame. I'm not 100% sure about the costing (can't remember now) at but it was a whooping amount I guess around 1000rs during those days.
Almost during the same time, a close friend of mine also got a Studd helmet Ninja, I liked his helmet, because the front can be opened for more air during slow rides, but I have already one, so just gave up with the thought. And he wanted to buy the one which I had, but unfortunately the stock was over and he couldn't find one off the shelf (no online shopping those days). So he asked me if we could exchange helmets, I instantly said YES and we exchanged.
Story time - I have had multiple falls from this bike (with helmet) and have bruised my knees and elbows at many occasions, all of those happened at pretty low speeds and the head was always protected by the Ninja helmet. Mind you during those days, elbow/knee guards where alien terms. Then I took this bike with me to the college during my engineering days.
Around 20+ years ago, Some of my friends were doing their engineering at Pune, so it was my fortnightly routine to ride on my bike from Mumbai to Pune during weekends, a section of newly built expressway was opened up, so the old section road was pretty empty and fun to ride. It was a 2 lane road with no dividers in between. One fine day, after the college, I started to ride towards Pune and just after crossing Khopoli, I was behind a dumper doing around 60, there was another truck coming from the opposite lane, I was tailgating the dumper pretty closely (huge mistake) and waiting for the truck in the opposite lane to pass, so that I can do my overtake pass. As soon as the opposite lane truck passed the dumper and I was about to make the overtake, the dumper in front slammed on the brakes (till date I don't know why).
My head got hit at the corner of the dumper (head and that dumper corner were at same level), yes rear ended the dumper, with the impact, the grip on the bike handle was lost, and I went flat on the bike seat, mind you still riding the bike after the impact but with no control, it kept going straight, till I regained the control. Luckily never fell down from the bike. Looked into my rear view mirror and could see the helmet (the same Ninja) cracked from chin to the back of the head, with nose and mouth numb and bleeding. Thanks to the chin strap that it didn't fly off at the time of impact. I wasn't feeling any pain but I wanted to ascertain the level of injury, so pulled up in a village across the road, got down from the bike and headed towards the hand pump where few village folks where washing clothes, the moment I removed the helmet and they saw my face, they were in shock, called their male counterparts, meanwhile I washed my face on the handpump while the women folks where shouting get Kapus get Kapus to their males, that day I learned Kapus is cotton in English, cleaned my face and checked myself in the mirror, nose numb, mouth numb, but no pain. Stuffed the cotton in my nose and in my mouth, behind teeth and took a lot bunch of cotton in my pockets, called my friend in Pune to keep a first aid kit at home, as I will take another few hours to reach.
The sun was already setting down and I did put on the same helmet (Atleast it protected me from the wind blast) and proceeded towards Pune, as soon as I reached my friends place, I removed my helmet and he puked right there seeing my face. This was when I saw my face in the mirror, swollen broken and scary with battle marks, but still with no pain. He said, this doesn't need first aid, we have to rush to the hospital. He took me to the hospital, the doctors did a CT scan and few more scans and X-Rays, luckily no internal head injury, the visor was broken and had cut my lips, a part of visor was shattered and stuck inside my nose, which the doctors removed. By this time, I had started to get fever. By this time the X-ray report came and doctors said 2- fractures in nose bone. I was like damn NO. That day I realized, the nose fractures heals off its own, when they sent me to a cosmetic surgeon, if there's anything to be done. Gave me painkillers and few more medical stuff, swelling started to subside eventually in few days with no fever and the battle scar on nose is for life. Apologies don't have pictures, it was Nokia 3310 days, with no cameras. Have stopped riding the bikes anymore, but I'm sure will ignite the passion someday again.
Lesson learned - Don't tailgate and I could only type this here today because of the habit of wearing the helmet religiously. It protected me as a last line of defense. And I bought another "Studds Ninja" from Pune for my ride back. So IMO a quality helmet is the necessity of the day, but going for a super expensive GP level helmet is kind of unnecessary unless you are doing some insane speeds on the tracks, public roads are anyway not meant for those speeds. And last don't forget to use the chin straps and have a snug fit, this is the most crucial thing when you want a full 360 degree protection from the helmet. Oh yes, the bike was RX-100.
Last edited by NomadSK : 30th October 2024 at 13:22.
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