Betty on a Bike

Anyone know this club?

Thanks Marco for these great pics! Best I can tell this is Downtown Los Angeles on the 40s. Anyone know what club this was?

Del Kuhn

I've had the pleasure of talking with the Kuhn's via email. Great people and Del was without a doubt a pioneer. He was the man to chase for years! Del is auctioning off some great personal affects on ebay over the next few weeks. So keep a look out.

ORIGINAL MOTORCYCLE HELMETS

The Russian agency Good! decided to conceive a series of very original helmets, with a design playing on all that is rounded around us. Variations surprising around the sport, of the body and the objects. The whole of visual is to be discovered in the continuation of the article.

Lowbrow Open House This Sunday!

This Sunday, July 29th, 2012 come on by the Lowbrow Warehouse for our Swap & Meet and open house! Noon til 6pm or so. Ride on out and chill, food and drinks, but BYOB. We are going to be selling of lots of good scratch and dent parts and riding gear, and also selling off personal stashes of chopper and motorcycle parts. Let's wheel and deal, cash is king! 800 S. Progress Drive, Medina, Ohio 44256. Our driveway is loose gravel, and super sketchy, so take it easy coming in or you won't be the first to have ate gravel! Any details or updates will be posted at

DOT Motorcycle Helmet

First time riders often don’t know what a DOT Motorcycle Helmet is. You hear the term tossed around and figure out it’s got something to do with safety, but what exactly does “DOT” mean, and what does it have to do with Motorcycle Helmets?

A DOT Motorcycle Helmet is a helmet that has passed the safety requirements and tests of the Department of Transportation. In states with motorcycle helmet laws, a DOT helmet is the minimum level of helmet you’re allowed to wear legally. The good news is that it’s extremely difficult to find one that ISN’T DOT approved since, technically, any motorcycle helmet sold in the US is required to have met the DOT requirements.

So what are these requirements, and what do they mean?

The build and design of a DOT Motorcycle Helmet can be mostly simply explained in terms of a few key factors.


Inner Liner:

Here we’re not talking the “padding”, but the actual liner, the material that protects your skull. About one inch of polystyrene foam tends to be what you’ll find lining the inside of a DOT Motorcycle Helmet, though this can vary slightly with helmet design. Whether or not you can see it or it’s covered with some sort of additional inner layer, you’ll know a motorcycle helmet has this because, well, it’ll be thick. If you pick up a helmet and it’s only a thin plastic shell, it’s barely going to protect you in a fall, and it’s definitely not a DOT Helmet.
The polystyrene foam is what breaks instead of you in a fall, so it’s important! And the Department of Transportation recognizes this. It’s a simple concept, straightforward (not like learning to speak German): a motorcycle helmet with thicker foam will protect you better in a fall, and DOT has requirements for this.

------Unsafe Helmet ------------------ Safe Helmet ------

(Images from the NHTSA website)

Next, Rivets and Chin Strap:

This one’s basic: a DOT Motorcycle Helmet has met the basic requirements for it’s rivets (those metal things holding it together) and chin strap. In other words: it won’t fall apart when you fall.


Helmet Weight:

This isn’t a requirement so much as a clue. When you pick it up, a DOT Motorcycle Helmet is going to weigh in the neighborhood of three pounds or so. The point isn’t the exact weight, the point is that it doesn’t feel absurdly light (i.e. 1 pound). If a motorcycle helmet weighs a pound, it’s not DOT approved.


Helmet Design and Style:

Protrusions aren’t allowed to exceed two-tenths of an inch on DOT Motorcycle Helmets. This is probably to prevent anything that might snag or catch on the ground and torque your neck in a fall, though I don’t have that on authority. You might run into what’s called a “German Army” style motorcycle helmet. If it’s got a giant spike sticking up out of the top, it’s not a DOT Motorcycle Helmet. However, there are some German style helmets on the market you can find that have been DOT approved, you just have to stop around.

There are different ways to see if a motorcycle helmet is DOT approved. To start with, if it’s a full face motorcycle helmet, it’s probably DOT approved. Most novelty helmets aren’t full face. The other (main) way to check is to look for the DOT sticker. DOT helmets are required to have this sticker on the outside, rear of the helmet. Note, however, that a fake sticker can be placed on a motorcycle helmet. So if you’re not buying from a reputable dealer, you might want to do a bit more research to double check: like looking up the helmet online to see if it’s DOT approved, or checking for the stickers of other organizations such as SNELL or ANSI.

So there ya have it, the basics of a DOT Motorcycle Helmet, what it is and what it means.

Unique Motorcycle Helmets

There are many ways that you can have your own novelty motorcycle helmet. There are many shops that offer you a selection of novelty designs that you might find very attractive indeed. If this fails, you can always have one custom made for you. You can have a certain design for a helmet in your mind and you might want to have one. The best thing for you to get one is by having one custom made. That way, even your choice designs are made to your exact specifications, giving you a helmet that looks and also feels good on you.

Once you have your own novelty motorcycle helmet to use, you should be able to know how to take good care of it. Such motorcycle helmets may be tough and sturdy but they should be handled as a fragile item. In cleaning your helmet, try using only the mildest soap recommended.

Avoid using petroleum-based cleaning fluids and agents on your helmets as they can cause the protective layer of your helmet to decompose. Try not to drop your helmet on hard surfaces. A dent on your helmet would be enough to cause you discomfort when you wear it and its safety and protective properties may be compromised.

Do not store your novelty motorcycle helmet near gasoline, cleaning fluids, or in places with excessive exhaust fumes and heat. Materials that make up your motorcycle helmet may react chemically in such environments and may be invisible to the naked eye.

Read instructions carefully about painting or decorating your helmet. The material composition of your motorcycle helmet can change if painted or applied with decals. Try also to avoid hanging your motorcycle helmet on your side mirrors, turn handles or sissy bar. This can damage the inner liner of your helmet which can make it unusable after a short time.

Try to follow these tips to ensure that your novelty motorcycle helmet continues to provide you with the comfort and protection that it was designed for. Care and awareness is important in prolonging the life of your helmet.

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!