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Damn.  I don’t really like being wrong, but when I am I fess up to it.  Do you remember the big hub-bub between the folks at Snell and the folks at Motorcyclist Magazine (MM) - Blowing the Lid Off.  We had a couple articles on the topic as well here and here.   It appears that the 2010 Snell Helmet Standard will have some big changes coming…like those suggested by Motorcyclist Magazine.

I was fairly hard on the magazine guys for a couple of reasons.  First, I thought it was more about Snell versus Motorcyclist than about helmet standards - create a shit-storm to sell magazines.  In hindsight, who really knows. 

Second, is my general distrust for journalists.  For the most part, these are not technical folks, but they write about technical subjects.  This is not to say they aren’t knowledgable, but the translation from the people in the know to the journalist’s story usually gets the journalists ’slant’ on the subject.  There is no suck thing as an objective, opinion-free journalists.

And finally, I’m just not a conspiracy kind of guy. Much of the discussion around the water cooler was about the cost of the Snell sticker, he-said / she-said, $80 ZR1 helmets that you can get at Pep Boys rule! I survived a nasty concussion with a Snell rated helmet. For me, that was testimony enough.

Bottom line is that they appear to have been right.  Check out Snell’s website and you will see a draft version link on their home page.  It seems very similar to what the folks at MM and and the ECE/DOT standards.  Check it:

The draft M2010 Standard has been posted on the Snell web site. We are proposing some big changes for the impact testing. These include adopting the ECE head form mass specifications, adding a new “C” size head form with a circumference of 52 cm, and changing the impact velocities for the second impacts to reflect the differing demands the new head form mass specifications will place on current helmet materials and technology. Although an SA2010 draft has not yet been posted, we expect the same changes for that standard as well.