So says new government new SHARP -safety helmet assessment rating programme – and as you can imagine this has gone down like a lead balloon with Arai whilst Lazer are feeling rather smug especially as their helmet is the by far the cheapest.

The new rating system uses stars to rate a number of factors from 1 – poor – to 5 excellent. The £450 Arai RX7, the most expensive helmet in the tests and favoured by many motorcycle racers, which costs up to £499.99 (gulp), got three stars compared to the Lazer LZ6 costing only £59.99 which received 5 stars.

As you can imagine this has led to some debate amongst helmet manufacturers with those coming out well in the tests backing the programme and those doing not so well saying that the testing methods are flawed and the results misleading.

SHARP meanwhile stand by their results, which indicated that good safety performance of the helmets tested did not depend on either the price or the quality of the materials used. So it would seem that in this case you don’t always get what you pay for.

For us, the riders and purchasers of the helmets, it at least gives us some guidance if safety is the feature we consider to be the most important when making a choice.
Personally, I already own a Lazer, so I am quite happy with the results findings but my choice came down more to how well it fitted, the colour scheme and the price.