Novelty Motorcycle Helmets

Novelty Motorcycle Helmets are hard to find these days. But if you’re determined to find one, you can. I suppose the first question to ask then, is what, exactly, is a novelty motorcycle helmet? The most basic way to look at it is that a novelty motorcycle helmet is one that hasn’t been tested by certifying organization such as DOT or SNELL, and isn’t made by any of the major motorcycle helmet manufacturers such as Shoei, Arai, Bell, KBC, HJC, etc etc.  More fundamentally, however, novelty motorcycle helmets tend to be sought after by people looking for weird, cool designs, whether it’s a police helmet knock-off, german motorcycle helmet style, or whatever. A lot of vintage motorcycle helmet designs, for example, can now only be found in the form of novelty helmets. This is because a lot of those vintage designs are incapable of passing the rigorous safety requirements of DOT or SNELL. And that really brings us to an important point: if you buy a novelty motorcycle helmet, you need to understand that it literally might not be protecting your head at all.

The Department of Transportation has really cracked down on novelty motorcycle helmets in recent years for this very reason. Unlike certified, full-face helmets (or even certified half or open face motorcycle helmets), novelty motorcycle helmets have absolutely no regulation whatsoever, and are often constructed with cheap, shoddy materials and little to no protective foam.

And hey, if you’re cool with that, then no worries.

Just understand what you’re buying. Novelty motorcycle helmets, whether used or new, for sale online or in a retail store (though good luck finding one there) exist for one purpose, and one purpose only: to look cool and add a bit of flair to your motorcycle gear. So if you’re a rider who’s comfortable sacrificing safety for the cool-factor, then a novelty motorcycle helmet may work just fine for you.

Okay okay, so now that I’m ranting about DOT and SNELL regulations, where can you actually find novelty motorcycle helmets? Well, where are you now? No, not literally, you twit. Virtually (dramatic music). Yes, you guessed it, the internet. If you want to find novelty motorcycle helmets, then buying online is virtually your only remaining hope. Even the stores that sell discount motorcycle helmets don’t tend to carry novelty helmets any more. They don’t wanna get penalized by DOT I suppose.

The sky is pretty much the limit online. There are any number of novelty motorcycle helmet retailers that can be found by pawing around on the web. And make no mistake, the designs do get creative. Whether we’re talking the good ol’ german motorcycle helmet designs, or even wilder stuff than that, if you crawl around long enough, you can probably find it. So if novelty motorcycle helmets are what you’re looking for, don’t let me stop you!