The difference between surviving a motorcycle accident or not depends on knowing how to select certified protective equipment (airbags, helmets, protectors, and apparel).
It's common to hear that speed kills, yet we see MotoGP professionals crash at over 150 km/h and emerge unharmed. This is due to the use of certified protective equipment. The use of these protective elements can reduce the severity of injuries in accidents by over 90%. However, the market is saturated with low-quality counterfeits masquerading as certified protective items. In this document, we will show a simple three-step procedure to verify the quality of a protective item and avoid being scammed by counterfeits that could cost you your life.
Undoubtedly, the most counterfeited marking in the world is the European Conformity (CE) mark, which refers to compliance with EU legislation on health, safety, and sustainability. This high rate of counterfeiting is due to Chinese manufacturers creating the "China Export" mark, which mimics the official European Conformity (CE) logo to confuse consumers with low-quality products. The only difference between the two logos is the spacing between the letters, but this difference is imperceptible. If a seller of protective equipment only refers to the CE marking, you should be alert, as it is very likely that you are dealing with a counterfeit.
Types of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Protective equipment for motorcyclists is divided into two categories: The most important are those that save lives, meaning those that protect vital organs from severe or fatal injuries. In this category, we find motorcycle airbags that protect the vital organs of the neck, chest, and abdomen, and helmets that protect the brain.
At the second level, we find those that reduce injuries but do not protect any vital organs, and therefore do not save lives, such as clothing, and upper limb protectors (shoulders, elbows, and gloves) and lower limb protectors (knee pads and boots).
Incorrect selection of vital organ protectors such as airbags or helmets can cost you your life, hence the importance of not being fooled. Therefore, we describe a simple three-step process below to trace the certification process of the equipment: the three things that must be verified are: the standard, the laboratory that issues the certification, and the document.
1. The certification standard:
Due to their importance, we will focus on the standards for life-saving protective equipment: airbags and helmets.
For motorcycle airbags, it's very easy to trace their certifications. There is only one standard created by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) to certify motorcycle airbags, and that is EN-1621-4. The EN-1621 standard has 4 chapters; chapter 4 is for testing mechanically activated airbag systems, and work is underway on the EN-1621-5 standard for electronically activated airbags, but this standard does not yet exist. Therefore, no electronically activated airbag currently has European Community certification due to reliability failures in electronics (a high number of unwanted activations or non-activations in accidents). The National Association of Two-Wheel Companies in Spain conducted a study of motorcycle airbags available in the global market, which is available at this link https://airbag.anesdor.com/catalogo/. If you carefully examine the catalog, you will find that only three brands in the world claim to possess EN-1621-4 certification: AIROBAG, MOTOAIRBAG, and HIT-AIR, which are the three brands with over 20 years in the motorcycle airbag market. The rest of the brands claim to comply with a standard called CRITT-AMC-012 or CRITT-AMC-013, which are standards that have an impact energy absorption requirement one thousand percent (1,000%) lower than the EN-1621-4 standard. Due to their low impact absorption requirements, the CRITT standards are not comparable to EN-1621-4 and are therefore not reliable.
This catalog includes some airbags known as ALIBABA, which are Chinese imitations priced at eighty dollars (USD 80) and are generally re-branded and resold in various Ibero-American countries at 4 or 5 times their original price. These ALIBABA airbags claim to comply with the less demanding CRITT impact test protocol. If you are offered an airbag that claims to have CE marking or CRITT certification or any other certification different from EN-1621-4, it is possible that you are being offered an ALIBABA airbag.
Motorcycle helmets are the most counterfeited protective items in the industrial safety world, however, there is only one reliable certification standard for motorcycle helmets, and that is the mandatory technical regulation for helmets ECE-2206. Any other reference to helmet standards such as DOT (FMVSS218), or national technical standards from Japan, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, or any other country ARE NOT RELIABLE.
The entire global helmet market is governed by the ECE-2206 standard; other standards are generally created for corrupt purposes in different countries to allow public purchases of low-quality products. The most perverse aspect in the world of helmets is the DOT (FMVSS218) certification, because it is a self-certification system where no laboratory evaluates the quality of the products. That is, any unscrupulous merchant can put a DOT (FMVSS218) marking on any helmet in any territory outside the United States and no one verifies its quality.
In summary, for life-saving protective equipment (helmets and airbags), there are only two reliable standards: ECE-2206 and EN-1621-4. The rest are deceptive mechanisms to sell low-quality products.
2. The laboratory:
As we saw in the previous point, only the European Community worldwide has structured and reliable standards for testing protective equipment. To ensure that these standards are applied properly, the European Community created a network of independent entities to evaluate the conformity of products before marketing them. These entities are known as Notified Bodies (NB) and act as evaluating laboratories in critical sectors such as protective equipment. This network of laboratories is known as the NANDO network of notified bodies recognized by the European Community.
Not all notified bodies are authorized to evaluate personal protective equipment for motorcyclists, which is why it is important to identify which entity assesses the conformity, suitability, and quality of the system you have chosen to protect your life. Brands with the longest tradition of research and development and the highest quality choose the best laboratories to evaluate their products under the most reliable standards. These laboratories have verification systems for the originality of the certifications issued. Laboratories different from those authorized by the NANDO network to issue certifications, or that certify an airbag or helmet under standards other than EN-1621-4 or ECE-2206, are not reliable.
In summary, a reliable manufacturer always boasts about their certification laboratory and product homologation. On the other hand, anyone who tries to hide the certification process, the standards under which it is certified, or the homologation laboratory is likely hiding some quality or reliability flaw in what they sell. If you are buying from a distributor, always visit the manufacturer's website to download the certifications for the product you selected.
3. The certification document:
It is mandatory to have a certificate of conformity for all individual protective equipment. According to European regulations, every manufacturer of protective equipment is obliged to visibly display the certifications and conformity approvals of their products on their website.
The manufacturer of the product you want to buy, or the reseller, must provide the product certifications or allow them to be downloaded directly from the website. These certifications have electronic signature verification mechanisms to validate their originality.
This simple three-step procedure: standard + laboratory + document is the basis for effectively tracing protective equipment and not being scammed with low-quality products.
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