When you go to a helmet store, you look around the shelves, try a bunch of helmets. And pick the one you like most and also fits you properly. However, if that’s the case, all motorcycle riders should be on cloud nine, but are they really? Well, I pretty much doubt that.
It’s not rare to see riders buying a little tight fit helmet hoping that the helmet will eventually sit on their head. But it’s not gonna work all the time, it depends on the helmet brand, building materials, and some other facts. Or you might find yourself a helmet as a present that’s too tight that your eyes are gonna pop-out. Someone I know faced the same situation, gosh! he looked hilarious when he put that helmet on.
Anyway, that’s not the point, the point here is how we’re going to make a helmet fit better, to be specific when it’s too tight.
Well, crap happens, even the best motorcycle helmets might feel tight if you mess up the size measurements while purchasing. And sometimes you might just have to change the whole damn helmet. However, depending on the manufacturer and sizing of the helmet, you might just pull this off and fix it.
First of all, if the helmet is new and if it’s an expensive one by any chance, the last thing you want to do is to void the warranty. Most of the helmet manufacturing company out there provides a 5 years warranty with the helmet. And they tell their users to change their helmet every 5 years or after 7 years from the manufacturing date of the specific model.
So, first of all, contact the manufacturer or take it to the helmet store you bought it from if it’s still new. There’s a pretty good chance that they’ll replace or fix the interior and that’ll solve your problem.
And if you don’t find yourself lucky, here are some simple tips for you that might help you, a tiny bit at least. Some of the helmets have one kind of extra paddings inside the helmet, for better fitting that is. So, pull out the interior if you have a helmet with a removable interior, most of the helmets nowadays have that feature.
Look for any extra padding that isn’t a part of the comfort liner. Remove those and put the liner back in with minimal paddings and try it on. Make sure to put enough that your head doesn’t get hurt inside the helmet. Also, look for any peel away feature in the comfort liner or cheek pads, that’ll help if your helmet has any feature like that.
Another thing you can do is replacing the cheek pads, I’ll repeat replace the cheek pads. You shouldn’t consider riding without cheek pads. Because if you happen to be in a crash, your cheek pads will have a huge role in protecting your jaw and chin. So, replace the cheek pads if possible, you’ll find those with the same helmet brand and model in a helmet shop or online. You can even make custom made cheek pads from a helmet expert guy or helmet repair shop. So, replacing cheek pads will hopefully solve the fitting problem.
And if it doesn’t take care of the problem, it’s probably a good idea to let the helmet go and buy a new one. Because we are talking about safety here unlike minor issues such as messing up hair while wearing a helmet.
Another thing you should always pay maximum attention to choosing the right size helmet. I’m afraid an XS size helmet won’t fit you in any possible way if you have an XL head size. If you fit a large size then go for the large category and if you fit the small size you can go for the best low-profile helmets.
So, motorcycle lovers, I hope you get it and find your solution, remember, safety is the number one priority.
Ride often, Ride Safe!!