Posts
765
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Asheville, NC
US
Edited Date/Time
7/13/2019 4:40pm
*** this is not meant to be a knock @ fox/any other helmet maker. this could happen with any manufacturer. but i have kids that ride, and i think this is important.
bought a pair of new Fox V3's for my sons this spring. great fitting/looking, kids were excited about them. given they are 6 and 8, of course they wanted to put them on and run around inside with them when they got them.
strapped helmet on my 6yr old's head a few times for him. on about the 3rd time... helmet strap completely falls out...
not like became loose, fell on the ground.
it appears that where the strap goes through the retention loop built into the shell, instead of a double row of stitching, they hit it with 1-5 single stitches, at most. it took about 3 on and offs of the helmet for it to fail, meaning, on first try, it seemed fine. but, it was secure enough that under normal conditions, i would have sent them out on the track with it.
i cannot even begin to describe how poorly this could have gone for them in a crash if not caught
the reason, again, i'm posting this, not to knock fox in any way, because i actually replaced this helmet with another fox helmet. it is to CHECK YOUR GEAR thoroughly before using it, ecsp high risk fail items like a helmet/strap.
dad rant over.
oh, and i'm sure people will ask what i did. helmet was purchased from rocky mountain atv. i called them and sent pics upon the failure. they wanted fox to make the call on what to do (RM was definitely aware that this was not a good situation/wanted to handle it). sent me a return address label, i returned it. i ordered a new helmet. never personally heard a single thing from fox. about a week later a credit on my statement appears for the original purchase price from rocky mountain.
bought a pair of new Fox V3's for my sons this spring. great fitting/looking, kids were excited about them. given they are 6 and 8, of course they wanted to put them on and run around inside with them when they got them.
strapped helmet on my 6yr old's head a few times for him. on about the 3rd time... helmet strap completely falls out...
not like became loose, fell on the ground.
it appears that where the strap goes through the retention loop built into the shell, instead of a double row of stitching, they hit it with 1-5 single stitches, at most. it took about 3 on and offs of the helmet for it to fail, meaning, on first try, it seemed fine. but, it was secure enough that under normal conditions, i would have sent them out on the track with it.
i cannot even begin to describe how poorly this could have gone for them in a crash if not caught
the reason, again, i'm posting this, not to knock fox in any way, because i actually replaced this helmet with another fox helmet. it is to CHECK YOUR GEAR thoroughly before using it, ecsp high risk fail items like a helmet/strap.
dad rant over.
oh, and i'm sure people will ask what i did. helmet was purchased from rocky mountain atv. i called them and sent pics upon the failure. they wanted fox to make the call on what to do (RM was definitely aware that this was not a good situation/wanted to handle it). sent me a return address label, i returned it. i ordered a new helmet. never personally heard a single thing from fox. about a week later a credit on my statement appears for the original purchase price from rocky mountain.
Shoei, 6D, and Arai manufacture helmets.
That is all they do..... Specialists are my jam, be it a doctor or a mechanic. Same for gear.
Old Dad rant over.
The Shop
not to say they are all like that, but man alive, that was a bad first taste.
the problem ive run into, is the main helmet guys dont offer small/mini class size helmets. adult XS is normally as small as you see. thats a problem to me.
But stick with people who specialize in things. Fox makes riding gear. Thats their strongpoint. Go with astars or garnae for boots and bell or shoei for helmets.
For a manufacturer with big names such as Fox and Bell under its belt, it kind of makes you wonder about the overall quality of their products a little bit...
Any opinions on Lazer helmets? Are they made in China too?
Pit Row
I would think (maybe wrong) that each brand having the helmets built by Topkey is responsible, or at least specifies, the quality control?
Bell is one the leading designers for Topkey. They license their designs to other brands if they dont make the final cut for Bell production. A lot of helmets you see on the market were Bell designs that they opted to not produce.
I was a part of AXO back in 09-10 when this happened, had a long email conversation with the president of AXO over what to do, ultimately AXO opted to liquidate helmet inventory and not have a helmet line rather than put up $25mil to be able to continue producing helmets.
Now onto their helmets... they're terrible honestly, where is their Q.C ..... Their sizing is waaay off, I've had this problem with a helmet I bought for myself and my daughter. No matter what I did they never fit right. I've purchased different cheek pads etc. Finally just gave them away for free and went back to Bell and have never looked back.
They are obviously putting their profits above anything else. I mean come on, how long have they been in the moto industry...? Why is it that others in the industry can put out far better quality gear at the around the same price, or substantially s little more. Just don't get it honestly. Only thing I can fathom is, they're are like most companies got so big, they started seeing huge profits, then thought how can me make more, hmm let's scale/cut back on quality by outsourcing.
Another company that is slowly forgetting where they came from, how they got to where they are. At one time in the 90's they had descent gear, now it's just crap!!!
Both my boys are 6 and 8 also. One shell size, two ESP sizes so in theory you could buy a xs and keep moving up in size from same helmet. Helmet can be sent in and looked at after wrecks and either rebuilt or new one purchased at a discount.
It’s all my kids will wear untell someone comes out with what think is a safer helmet for them.
No clue where it’s made but I’m sure it’s china.
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