Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

Short Helmet Standards Comparison

Summary: This chart comes from our Short Standards comparison. We also have a longer and much more detailed point by point helmet standards comparison.

2006

Requirement	CPSC	ASTM F1447	Snell B90A	Snell B95
Drop height on flat anvil	2.0m	2.0m	2.2m	2.0m*
Drop height on hemi anvil	1.2m	1.2m	1.3m	1.3m*
Drop height on curbstone anvil	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.3
Drop rig mass for impact tests	5kg	3.1 to 6.1kg	5kg	5kg
Total energy**	98 J	90 J	100 J	100 J
Failure threshold	300	300	300	300
Coverage vs. CPSC	Same	Less	Same	More
Strap yank (Joules)	24 J	24 J	24 J	24 J***
Rolloff test	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

*Snell B-95 uses a more severe impact for initial certification than for follow-up performance testing,
2.2 for flat anvil and 1.5m for hemi and curbstone.

**adult test on medium headform, flat anvil. Certification
for Snell B95 is 110 J.

***Snell considers the B-95 strap jerk test to be roughly equivalent to the B-90A test, although parameters have changed.