ECE 22-05

Well, not much has progressed on the bike, but I have been trying to ensure my new purchase is in fact valid to use for racing. The French motorcycle federation have some (obviously) fairly strict rules about safety, although no-where do they seem to be completely explained.... If you look at their web site and dig around you do come up with phrases like "suitable crash helmet, full face, less than 5 years old, etc.. however no-where does it mention the ECE standard, for this they delegate responsibility to the FIM, and if you dig around in the Grand Prix rules, you come up with the fact that Crash helmets must be ECE 22-05. So what does that mean?

Well, in my new helmet you can find the following information on the throat strap:-
A big E3 followed by 052346/P and then 008558, from what I can gather, (and I now have the ECE standard downloaded onto my PC), the E3 - the 3 means the helmet was approved in Italy (there is a different number for each of the member countries), the 05 (first 2 numbers) relate to the amendment of the current standard i.e. this is amendment number 5 (this is the 05 bit of 22-05), the following 4 figures represent the approval number, now I am not sure if this is dependant on the manufacturer plus the specific approval number or if this relates somehow to something else - still a mystery! the /P means that the helmet was tested with chin protection (i.e. full face). The following series of numbers are the manufacturers fabrication series, which should allow them to track any problems etc...

So I think I can now prove that my helmet IS eligible to be used in French competition, although I am still not sure of the date of manufacture of my helmet (Suomy don't reply to email...)