Scary, funny and somewhat embarrassing thing happened today

Duporth said:

Hmmm...there may be a case for drilling a 6mm hole in the chin bar of my SHOEI modular I'm now thinking. Instruction sticker for café waitress nearby

"In case of emergency give coffee via straw here".

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Only coffee?

ST Gui said:

First responders are generally fire fighters whose job it is to put out fire. My money would be on a Hurst or maybe a saws-all. But that could get noisy.

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Sawzall is a toy. My money would be on the Hurst Jaws of Life.

Igofar said:

This is why I always carry multiple knives
You think that was claustrophobic, imagine getting a Hard Hat Diving Helmet stuck on your head :salute1:

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Claustrophobia is no joke.

dwalby said:

great idea Jim.

For the D ring thread, I have a Spyderco knife with CPM-S30V steel, should I use that to cut the strap or one of my cheaper knives with a lesser grade steel?

For Quick release should I use the metal cutting or masonry cutting wheel with my portable Makita angle grinder to cut away the facebar?

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Cheaper knife - scratches on the good one reduce its value when you decide to sell it. The grinder might throw off sparks - dangerous so close to the eyes. Try a circular saw. Makita makes one that takes a 16" blade.

Rdt1953 said:

Seems like this happens after rides of 50 miles . Perhaps the solution for those who wear modular hard hats is keep your rides to 49 miles

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Or rides of 51 miles and longer.

This is a scary story - what kind of helmet was it?

Angle grinder with a cutoff wheel.

I see no reason why you can’t identify the helmet model now. The helmet failed and you reported it here. If you think threatening/blackmailing the manufacturer that you’ll let others know their product failed unless they give you a new one is naive, IMHO. Do you really want another helmet like that one...?

Full face for me. I saw Larry G.’s face (Putt, R.I.P.) after his deer strike.

John

John OoSTerhuis said:

If you think threatening/blackmailing the manufacturer that you’ll let others know their product failed unless they give you a new one is naive

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OP can speak for himself, but I assumed that he wanted to report the brand of helmet and their response at the same time because their response will color our perception. I think it's makes some sense to see what they say before they're "outed". That's not really blackmail.

So it looks like I am not the only one that has had issues. Thanks for the funny comments as I expected to read them when I wrote this.

The more I have thought about this it is a serious issue not being able to release and remove a helmet. I can think of several scenarios that this would not be good. Triple digit temps in the dessert and a broken bike. Yikes a boiling pot.

For clarity it was the chin bar not the chin strap that had the release mechanism fail. And as far as removing it the reason it was so hard to get off is because of the design of the chin bar I think. That is a big I think since all helmets need to pass government standard. When the chin bar is released and moved upward it comes forward a bit to clear the nose and such. When it goes to the lock position when open it moves back in a bit. So in reverse the chin bar comes down and moves forward and then come back to lock in place making the hole for the neck smaller and in my case making it very difficult to remove without the chin bar in the up position.

Is this a good or bad feature? If the chin bar release fail no not good. But I have found after a few years of wearing this helmet that it does reduce wind noise, and is very comfortable.

So what is it?
It is a Nolan N104, pre EVO edition. Nolan does want me to send my helmet in for repair and in a few word without saying it stating "We replace the centromatic release mechanism and it should work better than new." to me means a redesign. And reading into this that there have been others that this has happened to but I have no proof other than a their statement about the repair.

Nolan did get back to me in an hour with their response.

At the end of this we all can have a laugh about the predicament even though it is not a laughing matter. This also has brought up some good discussion points and thoughts about future helmet purchases. Topics like D ring vs Ratchet Strap. I love the ratchet strap on the Nolan helmets. "Two finger glove release".

Will I continue to wear this helmet after the repair? I have had two Nolan helmets over the last 6 plus years and never had an issue. Now it is a mental thing getting over not being able to get the helmet off.

Thanks for the info Grabcon. I certainly agree that this is serious issue - and it would sure frighten me if I couldn’t get my helmet off (I cannot bear sitting in the middle seat in an airplane either).

I’m glad that Nolan is standing behind their product and offering you a solution - but I also concur that putting that lid on again would be....challenging.

Please keep us posted on how this continues to unfold.

Pete

Igofar said:

EMT's should not be removing your helmet after an impact! I used to have a sticker on my helmets indicating NOT to remove my helmet before I am being treated in either the trama unit or by a doctor.

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How would you do CPR (the breath part) without removing the helmet? If you ain't breathing, you won't last long. ;-)
I was in that situation where a fellow rider went down hard and he was not breathing. We carefully removed the full face helmet
as best we could (cradling the neck and spine, etc.) to prepare for CPR (I am trained in it).
In his case, the chin bar had pushed up and jammed his mouth shut and his nose was blocked -closing all airways.
(He hit pretty hard off road - destroyed the front end of a ST1100 completely).
Once we got the helmet off, we heard him take a deep gasp and he regained consciousness.
He recovered fine after he was airlifted from a small local hospital (we were in the middle of nowhere - far from any trauma center).

My modular HJC , size 5 XL comes off with glasses on , after undoing chin strap

Off on a little tangent here..........
A few years back I had an opportunity to buy a neglected Delorean with a mouse eaten wiring system. As I was sitting in the car contemplating the purchase, I realized that: If a crash twisted the frame enough, the doors would never open from the inside (they are structural members) and none of the windows were large enough for me crawl out of.
Thoughts of a swim or a fire put my thoughts of ownership somewhere far away.
I still think like this about vehicles and accessories. Is the 'cool' worth any downsides?

ddemair said:

OP can speak for himself, but I assumed that he wanted to report the brand of helmet and their response at the same time because their response will color our perception. I think it's makes some sense to see what they say before they're "outed". That's not really blackmail.

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I stand corrected. Thank you.

Regards, John

Not familiar with the Nolan design and how far the bottom edge must tuck under your jaw/chin, but not an issue on my Symax 3. In closed position it's tight, but I can get it on and off OK.

I know a guy that owned a modular for 3 months before someone told him it was modular and that he could lift the face piece to put it on or take it off ..true story. Not sure what kind of helmet it is though. I can get my HJC modular off without lifting the front.

The last time I got recertified for cpr you only do chest compressions.

drtyrrel said:

The last time I got recertified for cpr you only do chest compressions.

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That's the sad thing about current CPR training with some courses, since people were getting confused, or doing it wrong, they decided to "make it easier" and only do compressions...
All this does, is keep the blood flowing in the organs for the donor parts, it does nothing to "save" the person your doing it to!
I can only hope that if someone ever does it to me (again) that they do the rescue breathing part to keep me alive.
.02

Grabcon said:

So I settled down a bit and went to the local fire station near my house. Yep another 50 miles home. I explained what was going on and several fireman came down to help. So they tried as I did to get the release to release the chin bar. And as I no luck. So two of them went to work, one grabbed the helmet straps and the other grabbed the helmet.

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Did you have to ride that last 50 miles helmetless?

Thanks for sharing! Never heard of this ever happening before.
On the lighter side of things My thoughts would lean toward carrying a cordless dremel grinder with cut off wheels on the bike.

Of course I agree with the earlier "use a torch" comment too!

cyclenut57 said:

Of course I agree with the earlier "use a torch" comment too!

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Actually I was think liquid nitrogen. Dip and hit on hard surface.

Grabcon said:

Actually I was think liquid nitrogen. Dip and hit on hard surface.

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Nitrogen would do it alright. Years ago at work work we tested it as a grinding coolant and it was hell on the equipment.

That's why I keep a bottle opener in my tank bag.

Grabcon said:

Actually I was think liquid nitrogen. Dip and hit on hard surface.

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Isn't this a bit hard on the hair? My wife wondered if getting into bed and going to sleep might be a problem (with the hat on) and I would ask what your wife thought of you crawling into bed that way.