I was looking around to get more info on the Z1R and came across this at a BMW sport touring site forum.....I think you can figure out the thread for this...
"Since I got this going , I guess I will need to stop at some point...but not quite yet. I went back over the Motorcyclist article to see if I might be missing something. It was clear to me that they were bashing the Snell test methods and actually said that the Snell endorsement was nothing short of a sales/marketing gimmick. I don't know the standards from atom and couldn't tell you which is better. But I can smell a skunk a mile away. So I looked up the 3 total people quoted in the article , Ed Becker from Snell, Dr Jim Newman, rocket scientist and the famed Dr Harry Hurt of the Hurt report fame. A google of Dr Jim Newman turned up a Dr who is also anstronaut but no reference to him ever being on the Snell board and no degree in head research...most noted for Applying GPS technology in NASA. Same guy....maybe. But in looking up Dr hurt, who somewhat bashed the Snell testing, reveals that he left the USC facilities he had for years and opened up and independent guess what.........that's right, an independent helmet research company that test helmets and works on improving all types of helmets. Could he be considered a unbiased source to be quoted in this article ? I guess he could be if his independent company wasn't in the helmet testing industry, which appears to be quite lucrative, and probably a direct competitor to the Snell Foundation. His company, Helmet Research Protection Labs, is described on their web site as being made up of the former dedicated employees who brought us the Hurt Report, but a continued Google search brought up an ad placed by Dr Hurt in the May 7,2002 AMA looking for researchers and accident reconstuction people . BFD you say, so what has this proved ? Well, nothing actually, but there is still one more little thing. As you will remember from the Motorcyclst article, there was no bashing, questioning, or any derrogative comments made against any other helmet standard, just Snell. A look at the Board of Directors of Dr. Hurts company reveals a name well known to readers of Motorcyclist magazine, a one Art Friedman. Mr Friedman is, as some of you may know, Senor Editor of Motorcyclist magazine. Maybe it's just me, but Motorcyclist writes an article bashing Snell testing procedures, qoutes the revered Dr Hurt but fails to mention that Dr Hurt has a helmet testing company and then fails to mention that the Senor Editor of Motorcyclist is on the Board of Mr Hurts company. One might get the impression that Mr Hurts company might benefit if the Snell reputation was impuned. At the very least, they should have acknowledged Mr Hurts new company and Mr Freidman's association with it and then let readers decide just what the purpose of their article was. Talk about blowing the lid off. All the above information was gathered off the web earlier this evening...the site address of Helmet Protection Research Labs is as follows HPRL.org. At this point, I would have to question whether Mr Ford has any association to HPRL, since twice in 14 years he has questioned the Snell standards."
The thread is at:
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