Guy,s i've been pondering . Ever since I first got interested in the racing scene in the early '60's it was quite easy to identify most riders from their helmet design which stayed with them almost universally all there career . It was common even before then .
At what stage did this seem to cease , and WHY ???
I expect there is a explanation of some sort , but it was so much easier to see who was who !!
What do you think ??

When the manufacturers began to produce designs on helmets ? The puddin basin was plain silver from new and Bell helmets were available in a small range of plain colours - the Star in only white or orange? I certainly agree that things were far better in our day.......cos as you say Phil, it was dead easy to ID pretty much everyone (of the quicks at least).

I still have my old Cromwell and it seems to be wearable, well if it were legal; not so the Bell Star which has totally disintergrated on the inside.

I guess you mean the recent trend of elaborate "art" styles Phil? Today there are commercial interests that drive the sale of helmets. The cost of suporting a Moto GP rider is repaid from the sale of replica helmets. In the case of the one I'm most familiar with, they actively encourage the riders to evolve their designs, so they can re-issue a new replica. Think football shirt marketing.

You have a similar situation in NASCAR with the cars themselves. For a random sampling check out all the Texaco/Havoline variations

http://jayski.com/schemes/2005/42cup.htm

And of course you have to buy die-cast models of them all to complete the set...

This subject has been discussed at length in the four-wheeled section. To me the riders in the 1960s often had nice clear easy to identify helmet designs. Phil Read's black and white design, Peter Williams' navy blue and white; Mike Hailwood's gold and white. Wonderful. Nowadays I fail to recognise almost everyone, especially the F1 drivers. All from the pavement pizza design school and looking identical. Damon Hill and Jo Siffert come back, please!

Don't get me started on the size of numbers on F1 cars either :-( I thought there was a regulation style and size?

Jo Siffert of course copied his from Benoit Musy.

Why do they need numbers?

Cos not everyone that rocks up is familiar with the sport, it's cars/bikes and drivers/riders.... Encouraging new attendees is not important ?

Possibly Russell, but that wasn't what I was thinking. Iin the case I'm talking about the livery of the car is so strong, the colour scheme shouts who it is, except in the case of differentiating the two team cars apart. Totally appropriate to have numbers where there are larger numbers of cars or bikes and the bodywork is similar or identical - I'm thinking white fairings.

Russel,
I have an old, circa'70 Bell Star bought as a project, paint and restore the innards.
What I find incredible is the weight and the lack of vision, like looking through a letterbox.
Having an "off" with the Bell would have broken the riders neck.

IIRC, the very early Bell Star was not approved by the ACU because the outline at the back of the helmet was hazardous to the neck in the event of a crash

Yes Renn, I recall something like that. I know there was much discussion about the weight too and the potential whiplash type effect; I think it was the Sweedes who refused to allow them, at least the very early Star.

Yeah, mega heavy and a tiny window. I had a crash soon after using one and can recall laying on the ground when sort of winded with the feeling that the lower bar type thing was pressed against my mouth...... (flip flop, Oran Park, Sydney)

I go along with MFD's explanation that's it's all about marketing and revenue, but the 'when' is a bit more difficult, although it was some time ago.

I bought a Wes Cooley replica Arai in 1986 and that was available with the predominant colour either base red or metallic blue.

Even earlier than that, I'm pretty certain that you could get Kenny Roberts replicas in either yellow or red, the red version coinciding with Marlboro becoming title sponsors of Yamaha, which might start to answer your question; it happened when riders were paid enough money by their sponsors to change their designs to suit the corporate colours.

As the person who first presented a Bell Star helmet to the ACU, this is the true story. The old pudding basin helmets and the would be helmets made in the UK with like ear muff design , all had one thing in common. They had a string harness in them which the inspectors would pull vigorously and if the harness did not come loose, the helmet passed the test. The Bell Star did not have this string webbing, which was thought to be designed to lessen the impact when the helmet hit the tarmac or anything else, so the poor old guys at the ACU had to rethink. As the Snell regulation for helmets had been introduced in the US some years earlier and the impact readings which we were sent from Bell Toptex showed the pudding basin disintegrating at about 10% of the pressures that the Bell Star was passed at, it didn't take too long for the good old ACU to come to the party and put their stickers on the Bell Star and the open face TX 500 and Magnum helmets. After all, the four wheeled guys had been wearing Bell Star helmets for a couple of years.I will admit that there could be a danger of breaking collar bones with a direct impact into an immovable object such as Armco or a wall, as I broke my collarbone when I went head first into the banking at Cadwell in 1969 but I suffered no facial abrasions or other damage. The later helmets had more padding around the collar very soon after this was reported back to Bell Toptex.

Cheers
Brian Kemp

You didn't tell me this when you tried to flog me one......