A helmet is the one purchase where the cheap option and the expensive option look nearly identical on a shelf and behave nothing alike on the road. It is also the one people most often buy a size too large, because a correctly fitted helmet feels tight for the first hour and most riders interpret that as wrong.
Here is how to get it right.
Fit comes before everything else
A helmet that does not fit does not protect you, regardless of what it cost or what stickers are on the back. Impact energy management depends on the shell and liner staying in contact with your head.
Measure first. Run a soft tape around your head about an inch above your eyebrows — the widest point. Take the measurement three times and use the largest. That number maps to a manufacturer's size chart, and every manufacturer's chart is different. A large in one brand is a medium in another. Never assume your size carries across brands.
Then check head shape. This is the part most guides skip and it matters more than the number. Human heads fall roughly into three plan-view shapes:
- Long oval — noticeably longer front-to-back than side-to-side
- Intermediate oval — slightly longer front-to-back. Most common.
- Round oval — nearly as wide as it is long
Buy a round-oval helmet for a long-oval head and you get pressure on the forehead and crown with gaps at the sides. That is not a break-in issue; it will never be comfortable and it will not perform correctly.
The checks that actually tell you something. With the helmet on and the strap fastened:
- The cheek pads should press your cheeks up enough that you look faintly silly. They will pack out 15–20% in the first few rides.
- There should be no gap between the brow pad and your forehead.
- Grab the chin bar and try to rotate the helmet up and off from the back. It should pull your skin with it, not slide.
- Wear it for 20 minutes. Any hot spot that becomes uncomfortable in 20 minutes will be intolerable at hour three.
If you can slide a finger between the brow pad and your forehead, it is too big. Go down a size.
What the certifications actually mean
The alphabet soup on the back of a helmet is not marketing.
DOT (FMVSS 218) — the US legal minimum. It is a self-certification standard: manufacturers test their own helmets and declare compliance, with NHTSA doing spot audits. Any street-legal helmet sold in the US carries it. Treat it as a floor, not a recommendation.
ECE 22.06 — the current European standard, which replaced ECE 22.05. It is independently tested before sale rather than self-declared, and 22.06 added rotational-acceleration testing, impacts at multiple speeds, and testing at more points on the shell than its predecessor. If you are choosing between two otherwise similar helmets and one is 22.06, that is a meaningful difference.
Snell (M2020, M2025) — a private, voluntary standard with a harder impact protocol, and mandatory for some track organisations. Snell certification is worth checking specifically if you plan to ride track days; some organisers require it and will turn you away at tech inspection without it.
FIM — racing homologation. Relevant if you are racing; overkill otherwise.
In Oregon, helmets are required for all riders and passengers regardless of age (ORS 814.269). There is no exemption to plan around.
Full face, modular, or open face
Full face protects the chin bar, and a substantial share of impacts land there. If you are choosing on protection alone, this is the answer, and it is what we would recommend to almost every rider.
Modular flips the chin bar up. Genuinely useful for touring, glasses wearers, and anyone who stops often. The hinge adds weight and a structural joint. Look for one certified with the chin bar in both positions.
Open face offers no chin protection. Its place is slow urban riding and classic bikes where the rider has made an informed trade.
Adventure / dual-sport helmets add a peak and usually a goggle-compatible eye port. The peak generates lift and noise above roughly 70 mph — fine on a Multistrada at trail speeds, tiring on a long freeway slog.
When a helmet is finished
Replace it:
- After any impact, including dropping it onto concrete from seat height. The EPS liner crushes to absorb energy and does not spring back. Damage is frequently invisible from outside.
- Every five years from the date of first use, or seven years from the manufacture date moulded inside the shell — whichever comes first. Liner foam, adhesives and comfort padding degrade with sweat, UV and heat.
- When the fit has gone loose. Packed-out cheek pads can often be replaced individually and are far cheaper than a new helmet. Ask us.
Never buy a used helmet. You cannot see EPS damage and you have no idea what it has been through.
Caring for it
Wash the liner — most modern helmets have removable, washable pads. Clean the shell with warm water and mild soap only; petroleum solvents attack both the clearcoat and the polycarbonate of the shield. Never hang a helmet on a mirror or handlebar, which deforms the liner exactly where it should not.
Try it on
Head shape is not something you can determine online, and size charts disagree. We keep a wall of helmets in the showroom at 2170 NW Wilson Street in Northwest Portland, and we will happily spend twenty minutes checking your fit properly even if you leave without buying anything. It is a better use of everyone's time than a return shipment.
Browse helmets or women's helmets, and see the rest of our riding gear while you are here.