Wearing a motorcycle helmet is a good practice to ensure maximum safety in accident times. It is as important as fastening up seat belts when driving a car. A helmet covers your face along with your head, especially your eyes when riding a motorcycle or scooter.
Just wearing a motorcycle helmet is not sufficient to ensure your full safety. You have to wear a helmet that is the proper shape and size for your head. Otherwise, you will face different problems while riding a motorcycle. And the problem will not be limited to the accident but dust, wind blowing, and smoke from other cars can get into your eyes.
For that, it is crucial to wear a perfect head shape helmet that provides the highest protection while riding a motorcycle. For your convenience, we will tell you different things about the head shape of a helmet in this context.
Why You Need to Wear the Right Head Shape Helmet
A helmet is a crucial gear while riding a motorcycle that helps to prevent head injuries. Typically, helmets are designed to have a skull-shaped structure to make sure the perfect fitting. When you fall in an accident or your head tends to hit the ground, the helmet prevents your head from being hurt too much. And the shape of a helmet is the most important factor in getting a perfectly fitting one.
For that, the shape of the rider’s head plays an essential role in selecting a suitable helmet. Manufacturers of motorcycle helmets are designed to fit a particular head shape. According to the riders, helmet head shapes are divided into three primary designations: long oval, intermediate oval, and round oval.
Although we all generally have a round or oval-shaped head, it is crucial to wear the actual shape. For example, if you have an oval skull, you may need to wear a round-head helmet. Now you may consider where you will find this particular type of helmet. Well, you will find the best motorcycle helmet for round head at both online and offline motorcycle gear stores. You will also find oval and intermediate head shape helmets as well.
What You Need to Know About Helmet Head Shapes
Getting the right motorcycle helmet is challenging from a wide range of collections. Also, it is crucial to choose the right helmet that fits you so that you feel comfortable while riding a motorcycle. Otherwise, a poorly fitted helmet increases the risk of serious injury. That’s why below we have described some important things about helmet head shapes.
Measure your Head
Measuring your head size is the first significant thing in getting a fit helmet size. If your helmet is too large, it may loosen up in the event of an accident which will put you at total risk of a head injury. To measure your head, see the steps below:
- First, take a soft measuring tape and enfold it around your head about half an inch outside your ears and eyebrows. Take the tape on the back of your head at the biggest point. This measurement will be difficult to do alone, so get someone to help.
- After measuring the size of your head, compare this size with the size of the specific motorcycle helmet manufacturer. Each manufacturer provides different-sized charts for their helmets. So, you just have to compare the size of your head and the size of the brand.
Determine the Head Shape
After measuring the size of your head, you will need to determine the shape of your head. One of the easiest ways to determine the shape of your head is to ask someone to look you in the head or take a selfie from the top of your head. Although most people have an oval head shape, some people also have long and slender heads as well as wide heads. However, helmet manufacturers divide the size of the helmet into three main categories. Below we have briefly discussed these.
Long Oval
The shape of the long oval head is long and slender. If your head looks like a wide football, your head is probably a long oval in shape. A regular head shape rider can feel quite loose on the side but very tight on the front and back. So try to choose a helmet that feels much tighter and makes less pressure on your forehead and the back of your head.
Intermediate Oval
Most riders’ heads will fit this category. Although most people’s heads are oval, which is taller, the difference between them is not so great. Instead of a wide soccer ball, it looks like a squash soccer ball with an intermediate oval shape. Since this shape is very common, you will probably find numerous helmets that will give maximum comfort. So you should go for an intermediate instead of a round or long oval.
Round Oval
The shape of this head is almost as long as wide. A round-oval shape probably looks like a soccer ball. Since the round-oval head is wider than average, the regular head shape can put pressure on the side of your head. So, if the shape of your head is wide, then choosing a round-oval helmet is the best choice.
Wear Your Chosen Helmet
Before purchasing a helmet, you should always try it yourself to check whether the hamlet fits perfectly. Although most people prefer to buy online stores, reliable helmet stores offer a return or exchange policy if a helmet is not perfectly fit. Your chosen helmet should be fitted snugly without causing any discomfort or pain. A poorly fitted helmet will leave red marks on your head when you remove it. Besides, rotate the helmet and move it up and down to check whether it is too loose on your head. In this case, your helmet is too loose if you feel no discomfort doing so.
What Are Different Helmet Styles?
Motorcycle helmets come in numerous styles, and each of them provides particular advantages to address the rider’s need. Some riders like to wear full-around protection-type helmets, whereas others like slim helmets. Below we have provided some information about the different styles of helmets.
Full Face Helmets
All types of riders widely use this style of helmet for road riding. It is designed to offer the highest protection and coverage from the head to the neck portion. Full-face helmets are an excellent choice for long or unpredictable riders. Chin bar is one of the most useful features of this helmet, typically made of materials like fiberglass, carbon, and plastic. It helps to prevent injury to your chin and jaw during an accident. In addition, many full-face helmets are designed with good ventilation that helps to circulate air during the warmer months.
Half Helmets
You may understand this helmet style by its name. Half helmet shields the top portion of your head. This type of helmet doesn’t protect your face making it less appropriate to wear on challenging terrain or in bad weather conditions. Unlike full-face helmets, a half helmet doesn’t offer any chin bar to protect your chin and jaw. This helmet enables riders to wear face shields, goggles, or other masks. As a result, riders can protect their eyes from sunlight, dust, insects, and raindrops. Half helmets are very popular among scooter riders, cruisers, and vintage riders.
Open Face or ¾ Helmets
As the name implies, open-face helmets don’t provide enough protection on the front. This type of helmet offers less protection to your face. This is because open face helmets cover only the forehead down to the bottom of the skull. Besides, it also doesn’t offer any chin bars to protect your chin and jaw in accidents. The good thing about this helmet is riders can communicate, drink, eat, smoke without removing the helmet. As this helmet is DOT-approved, it is an ideal choice for cruisers, scooter riders, trousers, and racers.
Modular or flip-Up Helmets
Modular helmets are designed with combined features of open-face and full-face helmets. This helmet style offers a chin bar so that you can rotate your head up or down as required. The good thing is some versions of modular helmets offer a detachable chin bar. This helmet also has a flip-up visor to protect the rider’s eyes. Some models of this helmet style also offer a secondary visor for additional protection against the sun’s rays. For that, these types of helmets are perfect for everyday riding styles.
Off-Road Motorcycle Helmets
Off-road helmets are suitable for those whose riding is rough and strenuous. This helmet is made with a chin bar and elongated peak. Its extended chin bar allows riders to breathe easily and better get circulated air. For that, an off-road helmet offers maximum protection even in harsh biking conditions. Typically, this helmet protects riders from obstacles like dust particles, flying debris, as well as low-hanging branches.
Conclusion
We have tried our best to provide you with adequate information about motorcycle helmet head shape in this context. As a wide range of helmets in styles and shapes is available on the marketplace, you should choose suitable ones. If you read the entire article, you might have understood three different head shapes that you should consider before having a helmet.
Whether your head shape is round oval, long oval, or intermediate oval, you have to find one that tightly fits on your head. And also doesn’t make you feel discomfort while riding. However, you will also find several helmet styles but check out the section above to get the right style.
