Safest Helmet Colour

Pugzilla

The British Medical Journal had a publication back in 2004. It found that riders with white helmets were 24% less likely to suffer a crash related injury in comparison to black helmets due to increased visibility.
http://www.bmj.com/content/328/7444/857

I think white helmets are dull as hell , but I might buy wear one in the future if this is true.

Does anyone notice a difference on the road when wearing a white, or other birght coloured, helmet?

serious3

since switching to a predominantly white helmet on my dark blue bike i've noticed people move out the way quicker than when i had a matt black lid, i reckon its due them thinking its a garda behind them!

goodlad

serious3 wrote: »

since switching to a predominantly white helmet on my dark blue bike i've noticed people move out the way quicker than when i had a matt black lid, i reckon its due them thinking its a garda behind them!

Yeah i agree with this. I have a white helmet and I also have blue light covers on my bike a lot of the time.

Its awesome how people gtf out of the way, lol

Pataman

Stick on a high viz also, and horse on.

Max Headroom

..get a set of white leathers too....just to be sure ...:p

the drifter

i bought a lime green bike with a scorpion exhaust....


my helmet is mat black :P

Wossack

if it aint purple, get thee to a doctor asap

Bikerguy

as mentioned, the key here is the sound not the visuals. so open exhaust and you are good to go.

Sagi

I'm thinking of getting a High Viz yellow coloured helmet, the matt black one I have feels a bit too big anyway

CJhaughey

I had white helmets for years, got a matt black Nolan last year.
To me I can see no difference in driver behaviour.
There is still the same amount of idiots if not more on the road and relying on hi-vis helmets or jackets is just asking to be knocked off.
People that don't look can't see. No matter if its a biker or a 2t estate car.

Sagi

CJhaughey wrote: »

I had white helmets for years, got a matt black Nolan last year.
To me I can see no difference in driver behaviour.
There is still the same amount of idiots if not more on the road and relying on hi-vis helmets or jackets is just asking to be knocked off.
People that don't look can't see. No matter if its a biker or a 2t estate car.

It's not about relying on it, I'm relatively new to motorcycles but I'm on a bicycle in City traffic for many years now and I have learned that the safest way to ride is to assume that everybody else is either an idiot or out on the road to kill you, but making it easier for the idiots to spot you can't be a disadvantage.

galwaytt

Makes no difference.

But as as mentioned coupled with hi viz jacket or bib people are in inclined to make assumptions. .....

For ultimate paranoia factor buy a white Deauville and watch the traffic melt away...

I used to have a white BMW K series and it had a small blue/red M Sport stripe on it (came new that way)......K's being the constabulary bike if choice in the UK at the time it just cleared a lane on it's own on the M4/5 where I lived....

Later here, on an R1150RT doing a RoSPA assessment in Dublin on the M50, my instructor had same bike, same colour, same colour helmet and we were doing laps of M50 ......what would you think if you saw two BMW like that ridden in formation and you were in a car..? ...exactly. . :pac:

P.C.

Bikerguy wrote: »

as mentioned, the key here is the sound not the visuals. so open exhaust and you are good to go.

I am not convinced that a loud exhaust helps others to see you.

In my experience, you normally hear a bike when it is going away from you, not when it is coming towards you.

CJhaughey

Sagi wrote: »

but making it easier for the idiots to spot you can't be a disadvantage.

Thats my point, if you had a 6 foot diameter flaming halo above your helmet the idiots still wouldn't spot you.
Having a white or yellow helmet might make you feel better but in terms of overall visibility I feel it makes no difference at all.

galwaytt

P.C. wrote: »

I am not convinced that a loud exhaust helps others to see you.

In my experience, you normally hear a bike when it is going away from you, not when it is coming towards you.

Sorry but I disagree.

The Doppler Effect means the sound you hear as a bike approaches differs from it going away - it does not mean there is no sound at all as it approaches. Naturally a louder bike is louder both approaching and departing.

The fact you only hear current bikes going away is indicative if them being TOO quiet in the first place. The auditory sense is a very important one as it not only announces your presence but also gives an indication of your rate of approach.

You really do want that guy on the side road to know both before he decides to pull out....or a pedestrian crossing the road.

Electric cars now have the same problem and some manufacturers are now planning to ADD sound for that very reason...

Idleater

I disagree on the amount of benefit attributed to other driver's awareness of motorbikes due to the exhaust.
I know that from an advanced driving perspective, the lights are far more important than the noise of an approaching vehicle. Even when overtaking, the lights will be visible before the noise of the engine. Modern vehicles are pretty well insulated for sound, and add in the radio. I've often as a passenger only heard a passing motorcycle when it was pretty close.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, I prefer the noise from the sv with the akrapovic cans rather than stock, but I'm under no allusions that they are somehow safer.

Interesting enough that you mention the electric cars too, I was cycling home on a Semi busy back road at give or take 30kmph only to get a "fright" by a prius overtaking me at not much faster, but only on electric power. I could probably have had a conversation with the driver had his window been open, it must have taken him 10 seconds to pass with oncoming traffic.

galwaytt

Idleater wrote: »

I disagree on the amount of benefit attributed to other driver's awareness of motorbikes due to the exhaust.
I know that from an advanced driving perspective, the lights are far more important than the noise of an approaching vehicle. Even when overtaking, the lights will be visible before the noise of the engine. Modern vehicles are pretty well insulated for sound, and addnin the radio. I've often as a passenger only heard a passing motorcycle when it was pretty close.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, I prefer the noise from the sv with the akrapovic cans rather than stock, but I'm under no allusions that they are somehow safer.

Lights only work in one plane and in line of sight. Sound is useful from all other angles.

Its not that loud is safer, it's that silence or no sound is giving away one more item in your defensive arsenal.

The lights on my bike can't be switched off anyway, nor on any new bike, so that issue is a "given".

I ride a H-D and took the Screamin' Eagle pipes it came with off and put std on instead, so I'm not a Loud Pipes Save Lives nut, but the few dB's it now has keeps people on their toes......I think it important they are aware of my presence.

Chris Dolmeth

There's a guy near me with a hi-viz yellow helmet and you can see him sooo easy it's amazing.

Chris Dolmeth

Max Headroom wrote: »

..get a set of white leathers too....just to be sure ...:p

I do, and a white bike