Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Mintbread wrote:I would rather spend the extra 10 bucks and keep my local dealer in business.

+1 on that. $10 is not worth my time and effort. I paid what the dealer was asking. They stock alot helmets, and spent alot of time with me. I tried not to look at price too much, and ended up with a Shoei RF1000. It fits good for me and feels light on my head.

Unless you live in a really small town, your $10 bucks isn't going to keep the stealer in business. They have plenty of other schmucks to pay full price on bikes/parts/service than to worry about you.

I buy from the stealer out of convenience and that's it...THEY MOSTLY RIP YOU OFF ON PARTS (like popcorn & candy at the movies.) Until they get competitive with their pricing, I'm shopping on the net. Go free market enterprise!

The internet stores have the same stuff at a MUCH lower price. Ex Boots I bought $110 at HD Stealer - $85 online incl shipping..tail bag $120 metric bike stealer - $65 online. Just two items and saved enough money for another accessory. If you look harder, I bet you'll save more than $10.

If you really have guilt over not buying from the stealer, take the money you saved and donate it to a bike related charity or charity event.

First question is what shape is your head. Some helmets are oval shaped, such as Shoei and HJC. Others are round, such as Arai, however in recent years Arai has added a line of oval shaped helmets.

We had a Shoei and an HJC. I was surprised at how well the HJC was made and frankly could not see the difference in price. Shoei has great customer service, though. They sent me some replacement plastic fasteners free after I let mine get loose and fall off.

Mad Mac
Best-Motorcycle.com

M109R wrote:Unless you live in a really small town, your $10 bucks isn't going to keep the stealer in business. They have plenty of other schmucks to pay full price on bikes/parts/service than to worry about you.

I buy from the stealer out of convenience and that's it...THEY MOSTLY RIP YOU OFF ON PARTS (like popcorn & candy at the movies.) Until they get competitive with their pricing, I'm shopping on the net. Go free market enterprise!

The internet stores have the same stuff at a MUCH lower price. Ex Boots I bought $110 at HD Stealer - $85 online incl shipping..tail bag $120 metric bike stealer - $65 online. Just two items and saved enough money for another accessory. If you look harder, I bet you'll save more than $10.

If you really have guilt over not buying from the stealer, take the money you saved and donate it to a bike related charity or charity event.

Excellent, so when dealers only stock bikes and the only way to get gear is via the internet, the money you saved due to the dealer mark-ups will be spent on postage back and forth until you get something that fits!

Plus I save in other ways at my local. I go in for a few bits and pieces (engine bolts etc) and they don't charge me for it. I get discounts here and there on larger purchases but most of all it is nice just to go in for a chat about bikes and window shop whilst you get what you need.

To each his own...

My stealer gets plenty of my $$$ from my bike purchase and future service fees. If they won't match or come near the price I find on the internet..it's a no-brainer where I am going to spend that money. My parts stealer even told me that I should buy certain accessories on the net because he could not hit those prices. Plus the sizing charts on the net are very accurate.

Those bolts you are getting handed and the chat are not free..you are paying for that in inflated prices. I would like to know if you also hold to this policy when you buy your electronic, computer parts, books, etc...to keep those stores in business.

Amazon and the booming internet economy are proof that there is a cheaper more efficient way to get what you need. It is the future....Plus competition keeps prices and profit margins fair for the consumer.

Nalian wrote:

tex1230 wrote:I think fit is the most important thing - I went helmet shopping last week and tried on every helmet in the shop. it came down to Shoei and HJC as the two that fit best. after a bit or research I found that there is not much difference in impact protection between various DOT/SNELL aproved helmets, so I bought the HJC and saved about $400

Er - just curious but what Shoei were you looking at that you saved $400? My RS-1000 didn't even cost that.

Didn't look at the model # but Shoei & Arai Helmets at this dealer were in the $500-$600 range, Nolan $300 - $400, and HJC $100-$200
You have to add in the fact that I'm in Fairfield County, CT where everything carries a 10-20% markup over the rest of the country...

Fit is definately top priority. I was told at a small Arai only seller that fiberglass is super fantastic for saving your skull, which I immediately considered to be made-up as I've worked with fiberglass before when doing stuff with boats, and its not some miracle material. I thought I'd look it up and I found a really long article that I pulled this excerpt out of:

"The stiffest helmets in the Big Drop test, the Arai Tracker GTs, hit our hypothetical head with an average of 243 peak Gs. The softest helmets, the Z1R ZRP-1s, bonked the noggin with an average of 176 peak Gs. This is a classic comparison of a stiff, fiberglass, Snell-rated helmet, the Arai, against a softer, polycarbonate-shell, DOT-only helmet, the Z1R. OK. So let's agree that we want to subject our heads to the minimum possible G force. Should we pick an impressive, expensive fiberglass/Kevlar/unobtanium-fiber helmet—or one of those less-expensive plastic-shelled helmets?

Conventional helmet-biz wisdom says fiberglass construction is somehow better at absorbing energy than plastic—something about the energy of the crash being used up in delaminating the shell. And that a stiffer shell lets a designer use softer foam inside—which might absorb energy better.

Our results showed the exact opposite—that plastic-shelled helmets actually performed better than fiberglass. In our big 3-meter hit—the high-energy kind of bash one might expect would show the supposed weaknesses of a plastic shell—the plastic helmets transferred an average of 20 fewer Gs compared with their fiberglass brothers, which were presumably designed by the same engineers to meet the same standards, and built in the same factories by the same people.

Why is this? We're guessing—but it's a really good guess: The EPS liner inside the shell is better at absorbing energy than the shell. The polycarbonate shells flex rather than crush and delaminate, and this flexing, far from being a problem, actually lets the EPS do more of its job of energy absorption while transferring less energy to the head.

Remember, these polycarbonate helmets from both Icon and Scorpion are also Snell M2000 rated. So they are tested to some very extreme energy levels. And Ed Becker, executive director of the Snell Foundation, is on record as saying that a low-priced—that is, plastic-shelled—Snell-certified helmet is just as good at protecting your head as a high-priced—that is, fiberglass—Snell-certified helmet. So at the high end of impact energy, we have the Snell Foundation vouching for their performance. And our testing, without the extreme two-hit hemi test, says they're actually superior. "

whole thing here: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearb ... et_review/

There are some Great helmet studies results in this Forum if you do a little searching.

M109R wrote:To each his own...

My stealer gets plenty of my $$$ from my bike purchase and future service fees. If they won't match or come near the price I find on the internet..it's a no-brainer where I am going to spend that money. My parts stealer even told me that I should buy certain accessories on the net because he could not hit those prices. Plus the sizing charts on the net are very accurate.

Those bolts you are getting handed and the chat are not free..you are paying for that in inflated prices. I would like to know if you also hold to this policy when you buy your electronic, computer parts, books, etc...to keep those stores in business.

Amazon and the booming internet economy are proof that there is a cheaper more efficient way to get what you need. It is the future....Plus competition keeps prices and profit margins fair for the consumer.

So you would buy a new style helmet online because the sizing charts are very accurate?

Of course not....I meant clothes.

I'll go to my local stealer and try a helmet on first..no guilt there..I still buy some things from them..just not the stuff they try to rake you on like clothing, bags and helmets.

Trust me..they still get a whole lot of my hard earned dollars in many ways whether I like it or not..I'm just in favor of minimizing the damage when I can.

It's just like parts for your cage..you go to the stealer for the special stuff and the Auto Zone or whatever for the rest.

Not a black and white for me....lots of grey (factors) in my buying decisions