The US loves self regulation. It’s a crapshoot. The DOT allows self certification for motorcycle helmets as well. Their admittedly low sample count of random helmet testing still fails at a rate of ~40%.
My understanding is that the testing methods have diverged enough that very few helmets meet both the ECE 22.06 and DOT(FMVSS 218) certifications. A European helmet with only the ECE certification would not be ‘street legal’ here in the states. I own a Shoei RF-1400 with a Snell/DOT rating. I believe the EU sells it as the NXR2 (with only ECE 22.06) but while they look identical they have tiny differences for the certifications they need to pass. I think the ECE 22.06 standard is better than the DOT one by far and I wish the US would just conform with most of the world but we don’t really do that. The major problem helmets are generally not from big name manufacturers but the hundreds of ‘DOT certified’ helmets you can find on Amazon for $30-100 from brands like GIDLVV and other such gibberish. You can basically guarantee those are absolute junk but they come with the correct sticker…
That’s what I’m complaining about
The US loves self regulation. It’s a crapshoot. The DOT allows self certification for motorcycle helmets as well. Their admittedly low sample count of random helmet testing still fails at a rate of ~40%.
That’s abysmal. You should look for CE marked helmets (and things in general) that have been approved for sale in the European Union.
My understanding is that the testing methods have diverged enough that very few helmets meet both the ECE 22.06 and DOT(FMVSS 218) certifications. A European helmet with only the ECE certification would not be ‘street legal’ here in the states. I own a Shoei RF-1400 with a Snell/DOT rating. I believe the EU sells it as the NXR2 (with only ECE 22.06) but while they look identical they have tiny differences for the certifications they need to pass. I think the ECE 22.06 standard is better than the DOT one by far and I wish the US would just conform with most of the world but we don’t really do that. The major problem helmets are generally not from big name manufacturers but the hundreds of ‘DOT certified’ helmets you can find on Amazon for $30-100 from brands like GIDLVV and other such gibberish. You can basically guarantee those are absolute junk but they come with the correct sticker…
That sounds like a right mess.
US, the land that keeps giving.