Human Subject Study of Full-face Motorcycle Helmet Comfort

Full-face motorcycle helmets offer the most protection to the head and face of the wearer of all motorcycle helmets in an accident. At the same time, they are more restrictive of air flow, and have been shown to deliver variable heat transfer to the wearer in thermal manikin studies (Bogerd & Bruhwiler 2007). We hypothesize that these variations correspond to noticeable effects for the wearer. Human subjects were queried for (changes in) their comfort perceptions at different wind speeds and air temperatures in the same wind tunnel/climate chamber set-up as used for the thermal manikin studies, wearing helmets chosen for extremes in the heat transfer. The results will be compared to those of the manikin measurements, and the implications for comfort of such helmets in different climates will be discussed.