Racing

6D Helmet - Advanced Impact Defense

December 5, 2012

A helmet's job is to protect not only your head but also the precious brain inside it. At Dirt Rider we are open to any product that can help prevent injury in the case of a crash. The new 6D helmet comes at the world of head protection differently than the rest and we recently got a first look at how the designers of the helmet are approaching the science of protecting riders grey matter. We'll be riding in this helmet before you know it and are excited to offer a full product test of its performance and function. In the meantime, you can find additional info at www.6dhelmets.com, and read on to learn more about this cool, new technology:

We need a softer, more compliant helmet design, but without compromising high-energy performance. —Bob Weber, Founder / CEO

Two former professional motocrossers, Bob Weber (Founder/CEO and Innovator of the 6D helmet) and Robert Reisinger (Founder and Director of Engineering) have put their 60 combined years in the motocross industry to the challenge of creating what they feel is a safer helmet. It starts with Weber and Reisinger’s ODS system, which is short for Omni-Directional Suspension. Their system is a fully active, in-helmet suspension and kinetic energy management system. The mix of mechanics, engineering and different materials can sound confusing but the idea is rather simple, it’s suspension for your skull.

The 6D’s new technology is designed to lessen the impact to the brain by dispersing the energy through the ODS system. Weber and Reisinger feel, through various studies, most helmets on the market are too stiff and don’t cater to softer impacts and helmet technology isn’t sufficiently active in the low-threshold energy range. The 6D’s dual-liner suspension system is aimed to improve low-threshold energy compliance while it maintains its high-energy protection as well.

The unique ‘hourglass’ shape designed into the elastomeric isolation dampers function with specially designed frusto-conical ramping chambers within the ODS system to produce a rapidly escalating spring rate under compressive load. These same features allow the split liner system to shear omni-directionally within itself to provide improved performance against oblique impacts and angular acceleration demands.