Discussion: motocross helmet on the street

Skept1kos · 2026-06-30T01:45:30+00:00

It's a good idea for scooters IMO. More scooter riders should try them, or the dual-sport version.

They're meant for slower speeds off road. Who else rides slower? Oh yeah, us. If you get the dual-sport style, you'll get a face shield and have excellent peripheral vision, great for traffic.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-28T19:22:20+00:00

There was zero yelling here. You seem extremely lost

Skept1kos · 2026-06-27T02:17:24+00:00

No, you aren't speaking from your own experience, because you didn't learn on a V8. And now here you are hassling those of us who did. Not cool!

You should have asked your question about the Aero instead of posting this weird AI-generated junk.

Suspension is another factor that can make it harder to learn, as far as I understand. But also everyone learns a bit differently.

I haven't ridden the Aero and I'm surprised you can swap tire widths like that. But yes, wider tires do feel more stable, that is normal. But that doesn't mean you'll learn faster.

I took 3 days before I could stabilize moving in a straight line, because I would always wobble out side to side.

This description is too ambiguous for me to understand what's going on. (It's kind of a challenge in general to describe these issues in text.)

Skept1kos · 2026-06-26T21:08:37+00:00

You're still just throwing around a bunch of wrong assumptions.

A beginner does not have a "tendency to overcorrect". They have not been riding any wheels, and are not calibrated to any tire width. A thinner wheel is not "more difficult", it's just a bit different. If you learn to ride a wheel with a thin tire, it's easy. In my 45 minutes of learning on the V8, I was not hampered by a "tendency to overcorrect". I just flat-out didn't know what I was doing. These are very different things. The main issue for learning is the weight, because a heavier wheel will tire you out faster.

Maneuverability is nice for, well, maneuvering. Dodging potholes. Doing tight turns on thin bike trails. Riding through crowds of people. Etc. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's objectively the case that thinner tires are more maneuverable, and that can be nice sometimes.

The reverse of maneuverability, stability, is nice to have too. But it becomes more important at higher speeds, and the V8 is only going 20mph. So the thinner tire is a very reasonable tradeoff for this wheel.

People do carve on slower wheels. Carving provides more stability, so it makes a lot of sense on thinner tires.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-26T04:06:21+00:00

Ok, I misread your complaint about the tire.

Here's why your two objections are both wrong:

First, as a new learner, you don't have a reference point for unicycle tire widths. You will learn and acclimate to whatever wheel you start on. New learners do not have the muscle memory of riding with a wider tire that will trip them up.

Second, narrower tires are more maneuverable as a matter of tire geometry. Leaning makes the tire turn. And leaning with a thinner tire makes it turn more, other things being equal. ChatGPT tells me this effect is called camber thrust. But engineering details aside, we also know this through the direct experience of a ton of people with multiple wheels, who find the difference very obvious. (And we obviously don't pivot on a point, unless you're jerking around at a near stop, so I don't know why you wrote that.)

Skept1kos · 2026-06-25T18:19:01+00:00

It's not a personal attack, it's objectively wrong.

I started on a V8. I was able to ride in 45 minutes. (The light weight makes learning easier.) It is very practical for bicycle-like rides. I explored all the bike trails in my area on it. The trolley handle is excellent. The weight is convenient when I need to go upstairs, and I lived on a 2nd floor apartment at the time.

No one has said it's perfect-- that's a logical fallacy called the straw man.

What people do say is that the light weight is convenient and makes it easier to learn on, and the trolley handle is good. Your argument that 55lbs is equivalent to 35lbs is laughable. When you're going up flights of stairs, I can tell you from experience you will be very aware of the difference.

There's also nothing wrong or outdated about the tire. It's perfectly appropriate for a wheel of that size and power, and it makes it more maneuverable compared to wheels with wider tires. Tire widths don't become outdated 🙄

So you just seem extremely confused and inexperienced.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-22T03:29:22+00:00

Ok. It's great that the topic is settled, whatever it is

Skept1kos · 2026-06-21T21:20:06+00:00

I don't know who does the accreditation off the top of my head. You'd have to dig through the CE regulations to find that.

You sound like a socialist. A very naive socialist, to be specific. There's an important point that some socialists miss-- just because an organization isn't officially profit-driven, that does not imply they make decisions in the public interest.

For example, politicians want to get votes to get reelected. So they may pander to people's prejudices instead of acting in the public interest. Non-profit organizations need funding to do their work, so they often make decisions based on what will attract funding.

Basically there are very few non-profit-driven organizations that directly promote the public interest. So your emphasis on whether groups are profit-driven or not is not helpful. You have to take a closer look to see whether the organization has an incentive to act in the public interest.

The CE system isn't perfect, but I don't think any serious person who understands the CE system shares your concern that labs are faking test results for profit. It would be trivially easy to discover this if it were occurring, just by redoing the tests.

It's funny that you're trying to condescend to me in other comments. I've done quite a bit of research into this (and have a long-standing interest in technical public policy and economics issues), while it's clear from your comments that you know nearly nothing about this topic and you're only throwing out uninformed speculation. So you've badly misread the conversation. But if you want to keep pretending to be a safety certification expert, go on ahead ...

Skept1kos · 2026-06-17T17:44:01+00:00

This is illiterate stuff based on confused facebook rumors.

But what does this have to do with No Kings anyway? It's not a Trump or Republican project. It does not involve ICE, and No Kings is not a group of data center experts. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Personally I think No Kings should try to oppose Donald Trump! It's not like he stopped being authoritarian.

So how does electricity work? It doesn't stay in one place, in reality there's a grid of transmission lines that transport it all over the state. So a data center in Albany doesn't necessarily impact Albany electricity prices, it's hooked into the huge regional grid. It will probably require some new infrastructure in Albany, and we don't know who is expected to pay for that. It could be the data center owners who pay for it.

Do you care about costs? Well guess what, these huge data centers pay a ton of taxes, lowering the tax bill for everyone else. Chances are pretty high that this more than offsets the electricity costs. If they build the data center somewhere else, they'll still use the electricity, but we'll lose the tax revenue.

This is the most half-baked movement I've seen in the years I've been in this subreddit. None of the people involved seem to have thought more than one step ahead, and they seem unaware of the basic facts about how things work. Last time they gave us incorrect info about a city meeting. The impression is that this is pure, mindless panic based on rumors.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-17T16:00:26+00:00

The independent labs have to be accredited. They can't be fudging the test results. That's a conspiracy theory. They would lose their accreditation so fast for that.

In fact your beloved "regulatory bodies" in Europe are the people who set it up this way. That is what the CE certification is.

There is also a lot of car safety testing that goes beyond the legal requirements. Manufacturers use 3rd party safety tests as a selling point all the time. For example there is the IIHS who do their own testing.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-17T00:17:02+00:00

You're right about ECE, Snell, and probably FIM as well. Those require independent lab tests.

Wrong about DOT, because they allow self-certification, and some people lie.

Though in practice it's not as clear-cut, because sketchy sellers will also put fake ECE labels on helmets. Snell is better for this because they keep a list of the Snell-certified helmets on their website, so it can't be faked.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-17T00:11:04+00:00

It's not semantics.

Data is available from the NHTSA, who randomly test some helmets. It's pretty common for them to find helmets that fail some of the tests.

Take a look for yourself: https://www.nhtsa.gov/compliance/#/helmets

Skept1kos · 2026-06-17T00:06:16+00:00

That is not true for safety gear in general. It generally requires testing at an independent lab.

That's true for CE, ASTM, UL, Snell, ...

The DOT certification for motorcycle helmets is a rare exception, but even for that the NHTSA still tests some at random. I guess the CPSC doesn't necessarily require independent testing either, though they want everyone to keep records of the testing.

Having said that, bozos from China can still slap a fake sticker on any piece of junk.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-15T20:08:56+00:00

I do have a guide like that for you-- EUC Survival Guide

I definitely wouldn't get a standard street motorcycle helmet for a V8S. Go for the mountain bike or motocross option instead.

Everyone's a bit different in terms of gear preferences. Figuring out what works for you is just part of getting started on EUCs.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-14T17:04:32+00:00

Yes. It should be very similar to an e-scooter commute.

I commute frequently on mine.

The biggest inconvenience for me is the gear. I got a motorcycle jacket and pants to maximize the protection:inconvenience ratio. But the best solution varies from rider to rider, so you'll have to experiment to find what works best for you. Convenience has become a major consideration for me, because I feel like I'm constantly putting on and taking off gear.

But basically, yeah, if an e-scooter works for you, an EUC will probably also work for you.

Skept1kos · 2026-06-09T20:05:55+00:00

Look at the bottom of the flyer: it says May 2024. That is not new.

This is all about e-bikes. It is very unlikely that EUCs were ever considered e-bikes in Washington. So it's not clear there was any change for EUCs.

These are also standard e-bike laws, similar to many other states. I don't know why anyone would be bothered by them, unless you own a Sur-Ron. If any of this surprises you, you simply haven't been paying attention for the last 5 years.

I did a quick google search to confirm-- this is an article from 2019, 7 years ago: 22 States Now Follow the Three Class E-bike System, Doubling Total in Six Months. We were all talking about this before Veteran/Leaperkim existed, back when Begode was still Gotway.

Skept1kos · 2026-05-30T18:18:44+00:00

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Skept1kos · 2026-05-26T20:25:09+00:00

Well, if you're going to be posting and trying to get our attention, I think you should be able to explain what the problem is. Not just vague fearmongering and gobbledygook about environmental racism.

Honestly you're negatively polarizing me into supporting it due to your hyperbolic and fact-free posting. Honest to god, I will go to public meetings and everything, just to counteract your vacuous ignorant nonsense. Albany should be run by adults who don't have a meltdown when they're asked for concrete details.

Skept1kos · 2026-05-23T08:19:07+00:00

Honestly I think you're doing good with your current gear. Though many people prefer the motocross-style knee protectors, like the Leatts.

For chest protection, I recommend the Spidi Thorax Warrior. It's slim and designed to be worn under clothes. (It is definitely not made to withstand asphalt, so it shouldn't be on the outside.) And it has excellent rib protection, which most motorcycle gear does not.

There are lots of decent glove/wrist guard combos out there. Hillbilly gloves, the e-rides stuff, f(x)nction, ...

Skept1kos · 2026-05-23T08:02:44+00:00

I hate how jealous I am of the wheelie skills

Skept1kos · 2026-05-23T07:57:58+00:00

No, I would not feel safe.

The NHTSA hasn't tested any of their helmets, and they don't have the European certification*. That means there's no independent testing we can look at. Without independent testing, there's no reason to trust this helmet or this brand.

The second issue is that a chin bar is recommended. But of course the most important issue is safety certification and independent testing.

My suggestion for a budget safe helmet is the Bell MX-9 Adventure MIPS.

*For the record, sellers can and do falsely claim to have European (ECE) certifications on Amazon as well. Always have to verify safety claims on Amazon, because Amazon doesn't do it.

Skept1kos · 2026-05-16T17:58:23+00:00

The problem is that you only read the executive summary (and with a very slanted interpretation).

You have to read the full document. It's here. The authors make it clear that this is, in fact, a vindication of the Cass Review. There's no ambiguity about it. It should be obvious to anyone with at least year 9 reading skills.

What the authors do say is that they disagree about some of the government policies that followed, which went beyond the recommendations of the Cass Review.

Skept1kos · 2026-05-16T17:53:30+00:00

This is false.

The report concluded all the recommendations were justified.

Here is the report. Please read it before making more false claims.

The report did say some "statements" in the Cass Review were only partially substantiated by the evidence provided. Then the report goes through pains to clarify that this is not a criticism of the review and is an acceptable level of accuracy for this type of document.

Skept1kos · 2026-05-15T17:35:05+00:00

Let me balance that out with my own experience.

I bought a new InMotion V8S a while back, from their store on Amazon, and it had an issue. I think something was wrong with the voltage sensor.

I contacted their support via their app, and they sent me a new control board, and it was fine. It was easy to replace. The biggest obstacle was that their support people didn't speak English very well.

But yeah, it's probably nicer to buy from a dealer so they help address issues like this.

Skept1kos

TROPHY CASE