Is your motorbike helmet made in China (& does it really matter?)︱Cross Training Enduro

http://www.crosstrainingenduro.com http://tractionerag.com Motorbike helmets made in China? Fox, Bell, Alpinestar, Leatt, Oneal, Fly Racing, Just1, Thor, Troy Lee and the base models of Airoh and AGV for starters. Which motorbike helmets are made in China? Do Chinese motorbike helmets matter? There are two components to this. First, people are increasingly not buying Chinese products because of China's human rights record, bullying of smaller nations, theft and copying of designs and so on. We'll leave that up to you. Second, are Chinese helmets likely to be lower quality? We argue this is possible. Over the past two years we've been looking into rusted helmet brackets that have even resulted in strap failures. And does it matter? Many believe that the flood of Chinese motorbike products is keeping prices low. And that with enough supervision enforced, the quality can be okay. Almost every report we've received concerns brands made in China. And when you look at a brand like Fox where almost all their products are now made in China, you will find a long long list of online complaints about their helmets, boots, gloves, clothing and so on. And their Chinese mountain bike helmets. Ask me how I know. Of course rusting brackets is only one aspect of motorbike helmet design. We popped into a pile of shops to check the fine print. Some of the major brands now made in China? Fox. Bell. Leatt. Alpinestar. Oneal. Fly Racing. Just1. Thor. Troy Lee. And the cheaper ranges for Airoh and AGV. It gets pretty hard to find brands not made in China nowadays. The stand out quality brands are the well known Arai and Shoei from Japan, and the lesser known brands like Shark and Shueberth. We would certainly hope that the key component, the foam liner, will always be good quality. As far as we know, the foam liners for every Chinese made helmet comes from the Chinese company Topkey, and we have been unable to find any lawsuits or complaints against this company as yet... or any Chinese motorbike helmet. In constrast with Shoei and Arai? Not a single case of rust. And one guy sent me a pic of his 20 year old Arai strap brackets. One thing's for sure, brands making their motorbik helmets in China don't want you know about it. It's usually not printed on the box or the paperwork. And it can be very hard to find the tiny print saying made in China buried inside the helmet. Some we couldn't even find it. I asked if this was a good thing. Could China finally lift its quality control, produce reliable bikes and give us good budget dirt bikes? Unfortunately, it turns out the Chinese factory producing the 450 never purchased the rights to copy Honda's design, despite telling hopeful importers otherwise. I became a bit more disillusioned when I began to investigate boots lately. So many brands that were previously known for good quality had dropped in recent year and the common theme here seems to be they are no longer made in their country of origin. Moose boots? Made in China. ditto for Oneal boots. Fly motorbike boots. Thor. And Fox boots. And speaking of Fox, it turns out the vast majority of their gear is now made in China. And the general consenus among long term riders is that this formerly passsionate US based brand has been on a long slow decline in quality as they rely more on Chinese made products. The good news? In the short term, most modern helmets are good nowadays in terms of protection. But it does appear that Chinese made ones, even the expensive ones, may put you at risk in the longer term. Keen to hear about your Chinese motorbike helmet experiences. The good, the bad and the ugly. Do you think the country of manufacture matters? Let us know in the comments. Two years ago, I reported on the first two stroke enduro bike from China, with the engine based on an old Yamaha design and bits and pieces borrowed from other brands. And then I followed up with a review of a Chinese 450 which copied Honda's old CRF450X design. Cross Training Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJAvmhgP0h1AEKY8vTEJPJg Cross Training Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cross.training.enduro.skills/?ref=ts Our enduro vlog series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlur54ugvzNJlUO0y6D10jVOGMLI4Raci Cross Training website: http://www.crosstrainingenduro.com Like to support our vids? http://www.crosstrainingenduro.com/cross-training-support-donations.htm Traction eRag: http://tractionerag.com Let us know if we used your music but forgot to credit you. Many thanks to the following artists for their copyright free music in various vids: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com Music: https://audionautix.com/ Music by Tobu: https://tobu.io Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music Music: https://soundimage.org #crosstrainingenduro #enduro #tractionerag #dirtbike Music by Atch: SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/AtchSoundCloud Spotify: https://bit.ly/AtchSpotify Instagram: www.instagram.com/atchmusic