Every biker knows the importance of wearing a helmet and those of us who’ve had a fall can attest to the fact that a good helmet can save your skull from getting smashed. A North American company ‘6D’ has just released their latest helmet – The ATR-1. It uses a series of elastomer shock absorbers to handle hits, while reportedly still providing adequate protection against big impacts. Normally, a helmet consists of an outer shell and a hard EPS foam liner which should stand up to the force of high-speed impacts. But unfortunately at lower-speed impacts the hard foam allows most of the energy to travel through into the wearer’s head. Newer helmets use multi-density foam to take care of that problem.
The ATR-1 has an exterior carbon fiber/Kevlar/fiberglass shell adjoined to a layer of EPS foam. A second layer of foam, nested beneath that outer layer, cradles the wearer’s skull. Between the two layers of foam, holding them apart from one another is an array of elastomer dampers which squish straight down and can also stretch sideways in any direction. While the dampers absorb energy from low-speed impacts, the foam is still sufficient to take up the additional energy of higher-speed impacts. The dampers also help protect against rotational injury. The ATR-1 helmet weighs approximately 1.5 kilograms and is priced at US$745.
Story: Rommel Albuquerque
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