What is the best helmet for karting?

I have noticed that most people including myself use arai helmets. What makes them better than other helmet brands?

Mostly it's down to availability and what you're comfortable with. I've normally used Bell although I've also got a Sparco. Talk to Mikko - he can supply Bells.

The one that fits best - be it Arai, Bell, OMP, Sparco, MQ, Shark, or any other brand - fit is simply the no.1 most important factor. Notice how in F1 drivers don't really think twice about switching helmet brands? They can get a custom fit made by any of the helmet manufacturers, whereas non-f1 drivers are stuck with the off-the-shelf fit.


Reputation, history, and brand image + the helmets don't look bad.

Many of them come to F1 having worn Arai for a long time (arai give out free helmets to top single-seater drivers very easily) so when they come to F1 they usually stick with Arai. Rumor is that Arai does not pay its F1 drivers a penny to wear their helmets - they simply give a lot of helmets and offer really good support at the track. Kimi was one driver that switched to Arai only when he got to F1 - before that he was on Stand21.

In F1 Ferrari is the only team that contractually requires their drivers to wear a certain helmet brand (they're sponsored by Schuberth), which is why you saw Kimi switch to Schuberth when he joined Ferrari, and Rubens switched back to Arai after leaving Ferrari.

Safety protection-wise I asked a guy that is the main dude with HANS in F1 and he said that Arai and Bell were the best helmets, with Schuberth next and Sparco was good as a plant pot - I suspect Sparco had problems meeting the new FIA carbon-fibre helmet standard which was why Trulli used Arai for a race or two and then back to Sparco. Cooling was best on the Schuberth. He's done crash testing on the helmets and was on the design team for the Arai GP4 so he knows what he's talking about. He also said Suomy came out with a very good FIA-spec helmet but I haven't seen that anywhere. Remember that now the helmets we use aren't the same as F1 drivers use although they were a few years ago - you can still buy them but starting price is somewhere around US$2000+.

And yes I have Bells going at really low prices.

hey mikko,

Can you send me a price list for your bell?

i think that arai Sk5 is very suitable for karting. But i've seen people using the simpson diamond back and it looks sweet!

any opinions on the simpson helmets? i heard they are pretty good also.

Yeah they are! I'm going to be their importer. The diamond back one. WOW. Sweet looking!

Please let me relate a true story to you.

We had a young teenager karter who had the best of all stuff - raced a Tonykart, wore the best in safety and when he had a simple run into another kart, he unfortunately slid off the back of his own kart and took a tumble.

Due to the angle of the tangle, his head hit the tarmac quite hard.....and the next amazing thing happen.

Just imagine a white ping pong ball boucning on the floor....and you can imagine how fast his helmet FLEW OFF after hitting the ground ONCE.

Thankfully, our young man did not hit his bare head on the ground and suffered no injuries.

What happened? How could his helmet just fly off?

After much commotion ( one of which I must confess was me ) - we learned that this fella only did not know how to PROPERLY DOUBLE LOOP HIS STRAP OF THE HELMET. He just loop in around the D ring and used the snap on button clip....see the OMPs they have this addition button clip.

The moral of the story - having the best in gear and even being scrutinised for the homologation means NOTHING if you dun know how to use the stuff correctly!

Sorry, I know its off topic but a relevant story to share. Mikko, maybe you saw this incident and relate also the story.....

I remember that, and a few years earlier I think Ferhan Fauzy had an off at the end of the fast section at Elite - I was following behind and saw him hit the tyre barrier and his Arai flew off into the distance. Ferhan didn't even fly out of his kart - but his helmet sure did! He said that he'd done the helmet up properly.

The F1 HANS guy I mentioned earlier didn't really have much respect for Simpson or Impact or other US-made helmets for some reason, said they weren't worth considering - he didn't elaborate much as to why though. I personally don't like the Simpson designs, all of them are very US-darth vader style, similar to the Bell X-15 style which I don't like. I'm actually doing a clearance on my current stock of Bell helmets - don't think I'll be bringing in any more.

I think the main reason for the helmet flying off is the helmet being too big size for the person.

Does anyone know where to get helmets painted in malaysia?

That's probably right - lots of people use helmets a size or two too large.

There's taymenairbrushing.com and a few others but I don't know where the others are.

I went off at the Eilite sweeps and into the barriers pretty much at full speed a couple of years ago wearing a Bell S2 and it saved me - although I never could get the imprint of the tyre barrier off it

But, I don't like the fancy design ones - helmets should be designed to protect you, not look good.

Helmet design is your identity on the track..

That's more paintjob though - not the actual helmet design/shape.

Ah yes. was suppose to say that. but u know what i mean..

Wanna know a tip that might be fun to try?

Try using a Fully Chrome Helmet at a race on a sunny day. If you see your opponent get to close to you, you can try to blind him with the reflection from your helmet. hehhe... Don't you say you heard it from me.