Buying a helmet sure ain’t as easy as it used to be. I wanted to combine some of the questions that I battled over the last few weeks with my informal ring side observations of the maturing Indian motorcycling riding gear segment over the last 7 years. It would be great if other forum members could pitch in with their thoughts as well. Am I right? Am I so wrong that I should be laughing at myself? Bouquets. Brickbats. It’s all welcome.
* How much should I spend on my next helmet?
The toughest question of them all. How do you really put a practical price on your own safety? There are riders who can afford only 150cc bikes and yet ensure they have the best riding gear they can afford. There are riders who have much more expensive bikes and yet kit themselves up in open face helmets and entry level gloves. Every person looks at safety and riding gear differently, often with the inherent mindset "Hey, I ride safely, so the chances of me getting into an accident are pretty low". I think many of us here agree that if you spend more money, you are likely to get a better helmet (
notice I used the term better not necessarily safer). As per my observations, the two most critical factors that determine a helmet (
or for that matter any other) purchase come down to
1. Perceived Value
With helmets, the base reference for value perception comes down to the certification / safety ratings. The options can include fake ISI sticker, ISI, ECE, DOT + ECE, DOT + ECE + SNELL. I don’t want to get into the whole which safety rating is better debate, that’s another story for another time. There are other, oft ignored aspects, such as weight, wind noise, sun visor etc which also contribute to how well a helmet is perceived by potential buyers.
The thing is, beyond a particular price point, almost all the helmets available meet the same / similar safety standards which makes it very difficult to differentiate between them. Which is why in a budget conscious market like India, many riders don’t see the need to spend a lot of money on a helmet when they can get a similar rated one for half it's price instead.
2. Relative Affordability
Relative affordability (
I believe this is the right term instead of Cost) is a big factor especially in the case of younger riders. When you are dependent on your parents for your income, you want to ensure that you get a good helmet but at the same time you don’t want to burn a hole in your dad's wallet. For someone who is in the formative years of his / her career, stretching every rupee for what it is worth is top of the priority list. Similarly, someone who is well off and can easily afford a Rs 15,00,000 superbike is similarly likely to put his money down on an expensive Arai lid because it isn’t going to pinch his pocket (
relatively speaking that is).
However I have seen that as income levels rise, the willingness to move up to a better helmet doesn’t increase in the same proportion. As the years go by, we all yearn for bigger, nicer, better things in life. Strangely that somehow that doesn’t seem to apply to helmets / riding gear yet.
* Which helmet should I buy?
The MT range of helmets seem to offer maximum bang for buck and for Rs 5,000 you can get a DOT, ECE and 5* SHARP rated helmet in India. So what about the HJC CL17 which retails for Rs 9,500 and comes with DOT and SNELL 2010 rating? Is it twice as safe as the MT Revenge? Is it twice as good as the MT? Or is it better than the MT and is the additional 4,500 rupees worth the differences?
Buying the ever popular AGV K3 that meets DOT and ECE standards but not SNELL 2010 would set you back around Rs 15,000. Could it be thrice as good as the MT? So the similarly priced HJC IS17 or the AGV K3 with snazzy Rossi graphics? A good ARAI lid costs a staggering Rs 50,000. That's a lot of money, so is it really worth it or are you better off buying a lower priced lid and keeping the rest of the money in your bank account? Questions, questions and more questions. Skeptics will say that as you climb up the ladder, the difference in safety is really negligible and all you are paying for is the brand.
For me, I wanted to get something better than the HJC CL17 which is probably me favourite helmet to date. So I looked at the FG range which was for around Rs 18,000. I asked myself, if I can afford this, surely I can afford the RPHA10 series for Rs 30,000. Now if I could spend Rs 30,000 on a helmet, could I spend Rs 50,000 on an Arai? Despite all the research I did, and try as I might, I just couldnt come around to spending more than Rs 35,000 on a helmet. Before you think I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, let me assure you that I come from a hard working middle class family. Every rupee in my bank account is there because of my hard work, blood, sweat, many many sleepless nights and dare I admit it, a few tears. Every rupee is important to me. As is my own safety. The Nolan N86 retails for $ 300 in the US so the asking price of Rs 20,000 price was fair. Sure, I felt the N86 is a little expensive for what it offers but I didnt have any options at the moment and I sure didnt want to continue riding around in my old MPA AGV.
I did a rough mapping of the helmets available in India, it isnt scientific and I don't have questionnaire responses or email surveys to back it up. As you can see the X axis is not really to scale but you get the point.
For an Indian customer that puts VFM over most other factors, the perceived value in a helmet seems to drop beyond the Rs 5 – 6K mark. From what I understand (
and I could be way off the mark here, dont have any facts to back this up), in more mature markets like the US, for a similarly plotted graph, the point at which perceived value starts dropping is much higher and further away from the meeting of the two axis. To me, this is a function of availability of higher displacement motorcycles over the last few decades in mature markets which in turn has driven the riding gear market.
13 years ago when I started riding, we never had any fancy foreign helmets that met international safety standards. Slowly brands like GPR, GP One, AH, Cross, KBC / Sparx and finally LS2 made their way into the market and improved safety levels. SOL came along a few years ago and a lot of people thought it was great VFM at Rs 5K. It is heartening to see so many different brands entering our market which is slowly maturing and I hope that with more choices, buyers can take more informed decisions about their own safety.
At the end of the day, between spending Rs X on a ‘good’ helmet and spending Rs X + delta Y on a ‘safer’ helmet, try and stretch you budget to get the better one. Just because everyone gets a particular brand doesn’t mean you have to as well. Your life, your family, your kids, your parents, your responsibilities are on your shoulders (
quite literally). There is no right or wrong. It’s your life and your safety. Do your research. Think about it. Invest smartly. Ride safe.