Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Yo,

I was about to buy a ROOF helmet online from the UK, but a mate mentioned that because it wouldn't come with an AS1698 compliance sticker the helmet would be 'illegal'..

So if a cop noticed it you'd be fine and lose demerit points.

Anyone know about this?

Seems like even with hefty shipping buying a helmet via an overseas website still works out cheaper.

GO Sydney and its over inflated F*&king prices!

The australian industry seems content to price differently to the rest of the world..... mostly because of its precious sticker...

But yeah.... if for some bizarre reason a police officer were to check your helmet..... and they happened to notice the sticker missing, you would get a ticket........

People tend to remove the stickers from their helmets because they look ugly.... so you might get away with that line of argument...

I would say the boys in blue would rarely check for the sticker because
A. The Snell DOT standard in Europe is just as good
B. You cannot buy a helmet in Australia without a sticker

This is true. If you are checked and found not to have the sticker then you will be charged with not wearing a helmet. I don't know what would happen as far as insurance in case of an accident either as you will be deemed to not be wearing a helmet.
In saying that I have never had my helemt checked.

I can't remember how many times this has been covered before, but anyway...

It all depends on the helmet laws in your state. For example, here in SA, helmets bearing the British Standards sticker are compliant. This is not necessarily the case interstate.

If you are wearing a non-compliant helmet, fall off your bike and suffer serious brain injury resulting in you needing permanent care for the rest of your life, is your insurance company going to pay for it??

Helmets sold in Australia are tested in batches to comply with Australian Standards. For every batch bought into the country, nine are destroyed for the sake of testing. The cost of these tests and the destroyed helmets is paid for by the importer, and ultimatley, the consumer.

For what it's worth, the Australian Standards are pretty much as the standards used in the US and the UK, but our testing has a slightly different impact resistance test.

Last helmet I had taken it off (it got half wrecked).

No problem at all over the roughly three years with it and had probably 5 police *chats* in that time.

Never ever recall a cop taking an interest in the thing either.

Bikerboy, in my opinion it's prob. not worth the hassle. if you get picked up once the cost of the fine alone could be more than the what an aus helmet is worth. NSW you do need the sticker other standards are not accepted .

You can get some decent priced helmets around you just need to have a close look.

Hypothetical situation here guys....

What if you are involved in an incident... probably not your fault.

The police attend and note that there is no AS1698 sticker on your lid. You're in enough strife with injuries and a broken bike, so the police do not worry about it.

You submitt an insurance claim and some one in the insurance office notices on the police report that you were wearing an "illegal" helmet.

Does this now mean that, technically, you were riding illegally and are, therefore, not covered by your insurance or the insurance of the party at fault?

I don't know the answer and, as I said, this is a hypothetical situation....

Something to ponder.

Cheers,
Pete

Saturday a week and a half ago, cops were in moss st (street where the bike shops are) pulling over bikes and among other things checking helmets for Australian standards stickers.

It costs the suppliers a lot of money to get that sticker.. cost has to go somewhere

With all these non-compliant helmets about, it's only a matter of time before the police really start checking. Probably even set benchmarks...

Yea, point(s) taken, I wasen't really worried about police... generally police in NSW are either pretty lenient or ignorant when it comes to bikes (unlike melbourne)

But the insurance thing is a pretty important issue, insurance agencies generally do whatever they can not to pay your costs, so riding without AS1698 helmet seems too risky.

Anyways blah, now i'm looking for the lightest in wieght helmet i can find..

thinking about the new Shark RSR2 - 1200grams but $700, feels soo good on, i think i'll splurge.

thanks

im pretty sure if its for the race track use only u could get away with it.... i like the ROOF lids, there so cool...

Neka79 wrote:im pretty sure if its for the race track use only u could get away with it.....

No mate. They check for compliance during scrutineering.

aardvark wrote:

Neka79 wrote:im pretty sure if its for the race track use only u could get away with it.....

No mate. They check for compliance during scrutineering.

British standard is OK, as is Snell Certification for racing in Oz.

Strika wrote:

aardvark wrote:

Neka79 wrote:im pretty sure if its for the race track use only u could get away with it.....

No mate. They check for compliance during scrutineering.

British standard is OK, as is Snell Certification for racing in Oz.

thats wot i thought...some of the TOP race lids over here (i learnt this while in Revolution Racegear- a car race shop) are TOTTALLY legal for racing, due to their high standards, but not legal for road use...go figure...