Spotted: Graham Jarvis keeping his helmet peak secure
Spotted at the 2020 Red Bull Romaniacs, Extreme Enduro legend Graham Jarvis leaves nothing to chance with his race preparation and upgrades the bolts on his Airoh helmet.
We caught this during the 2020 edition of the Red Bull Romaniacs where Jarvis has replaced the standard plastic bolts securing his helmet peak – that are designed to break should it suffer a sizable impact – with what looks to be M6 sized radiator bolts from his Husqvarna.
The bolts Graham has used are the same that fits the radiator shrouds and which have a short thread length and therefore are not longer than the standard plastic part. The thread size obviously needs to be the same, in this case M6, to not compromise the helmet’s construction and it is very important it is not longer than the original bolt for obvious reasons.
You can see from this shot of Billy Bolt how the standard Airoh bolt can break leaving the peak unsecured. The image of Billy is also from Romaniacs which is notorious for the trees jumping out and grabbing riders as they scale the endless up and down hills.
There are positives and negatives to doing this. The peak becomes more secure and there are a number of helmet manufacturers who already use metal bolts to secure a peak. The important thing is the peak can break or detach easily to be sure any significant force hitting it transfers energy through the weak point, not into the helmet and head/neck of the wearer.
For that reason, and although most peaks are in fact very flexible, many helmet manufacturers prefer the plastic-type which snaps quickly under stress. Other recent helmet models on the market also have simple clip systems or attach to the helmet with a magnet.
With a flexible peak and the generally slower speeds of hard enduro, is this really an issue? Safety is always huge consideration of course and it is important to make the point again about a peak being able to detach, bend or break quickly on significant impact so that no rotational force is transferred to the helmet (and helmet wearer). GoPros have been banned on helmets now by the factory Husky (and KTM) teams in the WESS Championship for this reason.
Graham has in fact been doing this for a few years but we figured you might be interested. Have you got something to say about it? Check out our new forum. We think it's the only one dedicated Enduro on the planet and it is all yours.
Photo Credit: Enduro21 | Andrea Belluschi
