Back in 2005, Dexter Ford wrote an article about motorcycle helmet safety in Motorcyclist. The article, which found that Snell-rated helmets were actually less safe than less-expensive DOT-approved ones, was very helpful back when I was first looking for a brain bucket, and prompted Snell to revise their helmet testing regimen in 2009.
However, after Ford wrote an article for the NYT pointing out that helmets tested under the old rating system were still carrying Snell approval stickers (and ultimately recommending DOT-approved helmets), Shoei and Arai (two big-name helmet makers) started pulling ads from the magazine1, and Ford was ultimately fired. The company has since attempted to circle the wagons, but it’s pretty obvious they were bowing to pressure. There’s a whole lot of documentation, none of which looks good for Motorcyclist.
Of course, this bottom-line-driven behavior isn’t limited to motorcycle rags, and is symptomatic of the general decline of large, for-profit media companies.
- For what it’s worth, Snell doesn’t seem to have been involved. ↩
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