 Poster: A snowHead
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... but not a sweet sized wallet.
I popped into Ellis Brigham the other day with 20 minutes to kill and tried on their helmets. It would appear that my head is both small and is more like a rugby ball in cross section than a football. Nothing came remotely close to fitting until I got to Sweet Protection where the Trooper and Igniter M/L fitted sweetly.
The trouble is these two wonderful safety items were two to three times as expensive as I had arbitrarily decided to spend. So the question I have is, are there other helmets that are Sweet Protection shaped but considerably cheaper?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I don't know the answer the that question, but I do know that Sweet Protection stuff seems to come up on SportPursuit, certainly there was loads there at the end of last season...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks @Tubaski, I'm guessing that they'll go at 50% off rrp on Sport Pursuit, so still North of what I'd hoped to get away with but a good fall back position.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Penry, I believe POC and some GIRO helmets fit oval heads, but I guess neither of those brands will fit your price criteria.
I might be better if you listed what Brands/Models didn't fit, so people can suggest alternatives.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| PowderAdict wrote: |
@Penry, I believe POC and some GIRO helmets fit oval heads, but I guess neither of those brands will fit your price criteria.
I might be better if you listed what Brands/Models didn't fit, so people can suggest alternatives. |
POC and Giro oddly enough. Plus Salomon.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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There is the sweet rambler as an option to look for that i have seen good deals on in the past. That is roughly as plastic version in the trooper, i have both and nothing against the rambler.
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@Penry, would a L/XL fit you? I have a Sweet Igniter I'm looking to sell, new in box (just a fraction to small for me, unfortunately!)
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@Kamikaze Pete, Cheers. I didn't see a Rambler on the Sweet website. I did try on a Blaster which fitted my head but the ear flaps were uncomfortable, I suppose if there was a real bargain I could attempt to take some of the padding out..
Sorry @HandyHand, I have a teeny head and M/L is perfect.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I can't remember how much I paid for my Sweet Protection helmet but I do know how much my head is worth to me. As well as being an excellent fit and comfortable I'm very impressed at how light the helmet is compared to my previous Giro model
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| On the rocks wrote: |
| I can't remember how much I paid for my Sweet Protection helmet but I do know how much my head is worth to me... |
My head's worth half as much, it is very small.
There is a spectrum for most products that runs from Inadequate, through Adequate and Enhanced, ending in overkill. it will change for different people depending on usage. My usage for a ski helmet will be limited and unadventurous and anywhere to the right of Adequate would be fine.
I want my own rather than hiring simply because I struggle with fit as well as the thought that if I'm going to encase my head in somebody's stale sweat, I'd rather that somebody was me.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Sweet Prorection helmets look cool, which is the main thing 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I bought a trooper mips, squeezed my temples a bit too much and to be honest the 680g felt too heavy.
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Sweet and POC are equally comfortable on me, although both brands are at the expensive end of the spectrum. I have a Sweet Rooster which I bought directly from Sweet (via their website) for half price in an end of season sale. Worth keeping an eye on their website, as well as Sports Pursuit.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Penry, how much did you honestly think a helmet would cost....... igniter is only £150 for a hell of a lid, the trooper MIPS is a bit more pricey at £230 but in independent tests is the safest helmet you can buy.... what price on your brain good fellow
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@CEM, If my brain's safety was paramount, I wouldn't take it skiing.
Funnily enough, it's not really about cost, it's about being able to make a choice. Obviously I don't need to spend any more, so I'm looking for a cheaper option, then I can decide whether the marginal utility is worth the extra cost. Having gone into a largish retailer and found only two out of dozens of helmets fitted, I thought I'd save myself the pain of fruitless trying on sessions by narrowing my search down to particular brands or products. Hence the thread.
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Poster: A snowHead
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My Blaster is available from Amazon at around £120 or less. I have separate helmets for skiing, cycling, rock climbing and ice climbing. None were chosen on price. Having said that you are spot on ensuring that the helmet is a good fit, poorly fitting helmets are all to easy to knock off in a collision
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Penry, here's the thing, and you have already discovered it... out of all the helmets you tried only the sweet fitted well.... it is just like a ski boot shape is everything, and Sweet have worked on this over the years. many helmet brands use stock molds in Chinese factories where the only difference between brand X and brand Y is the colour and the logo, Sweet spent years researching the human skull and developed their helmets from there
thing is, if that helmet fits you really well (where others didn't at all) it is unlikely you are going to find too many other options, so buy it in the sale, get it from an online retailer or whoever, but what is the obsession on this site for everything being CHEAP... whatever happened to good value????
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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CEM makes great points. In motor racing the moto of Bell helmets is well known "If you have a cheap head buy a cheap helmet" !!!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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CEM makes great points. In motor racing the moto of Bell helmets is well known "If you have a cheap head buy a cheap helmet" !!!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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These are some quotes related the points CEM was making:-
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort"
John Ruskin a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. 1819-1900
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@CEM, 
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I too have a Sweet shaped head. Several years ago I went into our local ski shop and told them the problem I had getting helmets to fit. The answer was 'Sweet', straight away, with no hesitation.
'Great' I said, 'let's be having them'.
Then I saw the price and decided to try on a few other makes. Well, really all the other makes. And in the end the Sweet was the only comfy one, so I wasted half an hour before doing what I'd been told at the start! And it really is comfy, I don't regret the cost at all, and if anything it means I look after the helmet better than if it had been cheap (when it's off my head, obviously. When it's on it has to look after me).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Penry, @Tom Doc, this season I upgraded my 6 years old Sweet Trooper to a Sweet Trooper MIPS, & it's far and away the best helmet I've owned. Comfortable so you don't notice it, and they've got the venting absolutely cracked, it's warm but stays miraculously dry, evening in the baking heat of PdS 2 weeks ago.
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I wish I had a Sweet Protection shaped head, or more correctly a Sweet sized head, as their helmets are one size smaller than practically every other brand (with the possible exception POC). This is particularly applicable to the MIPS models, where they are the same shell as the non-MIPS, but with the added size reduction of the MIPS layer (maybe 1 cm). I have friends who swear by the Sweet Rooster helmets which are closer in design to motorcycle helmets, than than the cycle helmet style of many ski helmets.
As it stands the current best fitting helmet for my big head is the Giro Range with its clam shell design.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Neilski wrote: |
| CEM makes great points. In motor racing the moto of Bell helmets is well known "If you have a cheap head buy a cheap helmet" !!! |
Bell would say that, wouldn't they - after all they're trying to sell you a very expensive helmet.
But it's not that simple.
As a motorcyclist, I've used helmets for decades. In the past, testing helmets for level of protection wasn't really standardised. The "best" helmets used to get tested and approved for racing (silver or gold ACU sticker for off - road, and gold ACU sticker for racing on tarmac and other hard surfaces). Though it wasn't quite clear what those tests were.
Then, a government - backed, standardised way of scientifically testing helmets for crash protection properties kicked in (S.H.A.R.P.):
https://sharp.dft.gov.uk
That shook things up quite a bit - as some hideously expensive helmets were found to offer very poor (inadequate) protection and, shock, horror, some very cheap helmets turned out to offer maximum protection.
All of a sudden, "If your head is worth £30, then buy a £30 helmet" got found out for what it was - a marketing bull5hit peddled buy big marketing departments of rich helmet manufacturers.
I carried on using the same brand and model that I had been using, as I found out in practice that it is excellent. 
But it's not just about the protection; an expensive helmet will invariably have excellent fit and finish, be very light (if you're riding for several hours pulling Gs, a difference of ~100 grams will become significant). They'll be much quieter (VERY important in a motorcycle helmet), have excellent vents that actually work), be super - comfy and often have removable & washable interior etc.
So, usually, when one spends big money on a helmet, one can see where it's gone. BUT, is it the case that only expensive helmets provide good protection, and cheap ones don't - absolutely NOT.
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Many thanks for the helpful suggestions especially Blacksheep for putting me onto Amazon Warehouse. At the time a black Igniter as new was 80+ quid for the black from there which seemed a cracker of a deal but I was really after something brighter so the kids can spot me from a distance as my jacket doesn't stand out much. So seeing as I was in no particular rush, I waited to see if the price of the orange version came down from its £150+ mark.
Next time I checked, a German site was offering the orange at £90+ once postage and special offers and discount codes were all added and subtracted. So I decided to buy it, but just as I was putting in my card details, it occurred to me to check Amazon Warehouse. £45.12 for the black, as new, unmarked, still in the cellophane; so went with that instead and will have to tackle the visibility issue a different way - garish trousers perhaps.
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You know it makes sense.
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Nice one, glad you got sorted. Bargain as well
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Penry wrote: |
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£45.12 for the black, as new, unmarked, still in the cellophane; so went with that instead and will have to tackle the visibility issue a different way - garish trousers perhaps. |
Stickers!
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FAQ
