HELMETS ,

[big kev]

[steventh]

For clarification helmets are required to be certified to pass the Aust Standard wether or not they are required to show the certifcation mark.

Victoria requires the standards certification mark as well - weather its the five ticks or some other mark ( I think its still the 5 ticks).

In practice the police forces in NSW, Vic and Qld (I spoke to seniour offices in these states) said they expect the sticker (how else do you prove the helmet complies?) and if you have a helmet with the sticker and remove it the helmet no longer complies.
Cheers

[1300hayabusa]

For clarification helmets are required to be certified to pass the Aust Standard wether or not they are required to show the certifcation mark.

Victoria requires the standards certification mark as well - weather its the five ticks or some other mark ( I think its still the 5 ticks).

In practice the police forces in NSW, Vic and Qld (I spoke to seniour offices in these states) said they expect the sticker (how else do you prove the helmet complies?) and if you have a helmet with the sticker and remove it the helmet no longer complies.
Cheers

Am I getting this correct??????? Senior officers told you that the only way they can identify a helmet as being compliant is by the sticker outside?????...............if so its safe to say they dont have a fcukin clue.The helmet has a Aus standard tag/sticker on the inside either under or attached to the padding!!!Some of the rules here in aus are world wide laughable if you take in account that a cheap $100 HJC helmet passes aus bullshit standard but an Arai from the UK or Germany without some scam tag does not!!!!

[steventh]

Kev,

There is the written letter of the law and the practice.

I wrote a thread on this last year called helmets which details what I discovered. I spoke to the RTA (equivelent) and police in NSW, Vic and Qld.

All of them (police and RTAs) believed that the 5 tick sticker had to be on the outside. In fact only Vic requires a certification mark which does not need to be on the outside but must be easily visible.

However, as all helmets in Australia that comply with the standard have the mark on the outside (at the time of my research) this is a defacto requirement. (As Victoria requires the certification mark it is put on all helmets because our market is too small to make "Vic" only helmets). Removing the sticker is a modification to the helmet making it non compliant.

Summary -

1. all helmets in Aust that meet the Aus standard have the sticker on the outside.
2. removing the sticker is modifying the helmet making it non compliant
3. therefore the police look for the external sticker to demonstrate compliance.

As for the helmet having the mark on the inside only; the senior police I spoke to conceded that this would probably be OK. However, if the sticker was orginally on the outside and it was removed the helmet would be non-compliant even if the mark was sewn on the inside (this is being really pedantic I know). They only agreed after I read through the respective regulations and showed that the "requirement" for the mark on the outside was non existent.

You may be able to convince the police in the street that its OK. I suspect their view would be to issue a fine and let you contest it in court at your expense.

Expensive and wasteful even if you do win - simplest is just to wear the approved helmet with the external sticker (apparently someone in Vic challenged this successfully before my investigations and it had no impact on the Vic authorities views)

There are arguments about which are the best standards. Some European standards are for one impact use, the Aust standard is that the helmet has to survive two impacts (if I remember correctly). Some in the industry beleive that our standard is better than the DOT but as you say "opinions are like arseholes....

Cheers

Steven

[Throwdown!]

I just can't see manufacturers like Arai and Shoei making different helmets for the UK and Australian markets. The same model helmet is a world item with a different sticker on it - has to be.

That said, it's the one area where I have no Police complaint. If I'm wearing a senisble looking helmet and get stopped, they never question it.

[CeeJay07]

In fact only Vic requires a certification mark which does not need to be on the outside but must be easily visible.


Where else but on the outside is a certification mark easily visible?

[big kev]

ive hosted this info for all members to read and to take from it what they want , the MCC provides this info to inform riders so the info they suply is correct from what i know . so im sure the MCC wont give out the wrong info

[steventh]

[Throwdown!]

"The US Snell test and the Australian test are similar. Both are much more rigourous than the DOT requirments and the EU standard".

So wouldn't a helmet passing US Snell and Australian tests pass the EU standard test? I'm just thinking that manufacturers like Arai and Shoei would surely be building their helmets to the higher standard, because that would lessen production cost. That would make more sense than building the same model helmet to different countries certification requiements.

If this is the case then a UK Arai helmet should be allowed in Australia. The onus should be on the Police to prove Arai UK helmets are different to Australian helmets, and that can only probably be done through an Arai statement.

Not a foolproof argument I know, but I'm wary of this rort when it comes to multi-national companies' products that are clearly the same item..