Last weekend Shane Byrne crashed out of the BSB season opener at Donington Park, and suffered a bit of concussion that ruled him out of the racing - doctors made the call on safety grounds. What gets me is that his visor came off in the crash, and I think it caused some minor injury in itself. It seems to me that we think of visor mechanisms only in terms of how they relate to wind noise, and how easy they are to change visors, and how easy they are to flip up and down ! Never thought of the idea of the visor coming off and sticking in your face, or coming off thereby leaving your face open while you bounce along the ground. Is this why Arai have persisted with their side pod design ? Seem to have forgotten all about this aspect of helmet design, and I am not aware of any testing in this area, of visors coming off.... (maybe I am wrong, as usual )
Dont you remember when Simoncelli died in 2011 his helmet came off? It makes you wonder sometimes if things go wrong what the impact may be..
I had a crash in an Arai and the visor came off on that one, whilst the side pods stayed on. You would be very unlucky to have the visor damage you by going into your face, and I would rather have it come off than shatter etc. I would be surprised if the visors don't undergo some test and have safety requirements.
Visors coming off in a crash is part and parcel of the way a helmet is designed and is not uncommon. As far as a helmet coming off, it is quite common in cases where the helmet is a poor fit (all too common still these days) but if you can find it, look at the case of Finnis v Caulfield (2001). In that case, and along with other several studies where it has happened at GP level as well as with ordinary road riders, in certain impacts the head can shrink by several sizes momentarily but just enough to allow the helmet to rotate and come off the rifrrs head. This is what happened to Simoncelli. The helmet was tailor made, bespoke and a perfect fit, but it still came off. This is why if you ever come across a crash where the riders helmet has come off, check that the straps are still done up. If they are, then chances are that shrinkage of the head was the issue. In the Finnis v Cauldfield case, I had first hand knowledge as I was the expert and had to prove that cause of the injuroes was not down to the helmet being a poor fit, insecure or poor condition.
Wow ! And the side pods stayed but the visor came off. I can imagine they test the visor fabric for puncture resistance - that sort of thing. But I was not sure about tests to make sure the thing actually stays on the helmet during a crash - whether there are standards for that. Anyway interesting that it happened on your Arai as well. Wow again ! Two expert answers ! Very interesting, the dynamics of what can happen in a crash, even the head changing shape a bit, and also about the visors coming off. I do remember the Simoncelli accident, and remember the comments about it being because of his hair that his helmet didn't fit - tragedy. Just thinking that there are some different designs now, with Arai sticking to their rather traditional shape on the basis of safety. Then we see slimmer more aerodynamic designs, with integrated visor mechanisms - and I am thinking there are two arguments here - so which is one is right ! Then I saw poor Shaky Byrne loosing his visor and thought - proof - of one side or the other. But it seems to be maybe more complicated. Thanks, interesting.
That's facinating...so what causes the head to shrink? I take it its just the muscle mass & soft tissue that shrinks?
I believe so. I am no Doctor or medical expert. I found the head of the FIM medical team who went to every GP (the Sid Watkins of Bike GP's) who was also a specialist at the JR2 in Oxford and had done a lengthy study of just such incidents. It was explained to me, but I am not sure that I really understood it other in the basic terms that I explained in my origina post
