People are buying helmets on the Internet, and a lot of times it begs the question of, “How do I measure my head to compare it with the size chart online?”  

You can do it in inches or centimeters – most of our size charts convert. The first thing you want to do is take a soft tape – a tailor’s tape – or a piece of string, and measure your head.  

When you’re measuring for a motorcycle helmet, you really want to concentrate on the fit around the crown of your head. The line of the tape measure around your head is the crown. Don’t worry about cheek pads – you can always adjust the padding according to the manufacturer. Once I’ve made the measurement, I would go back to my size chart and see where that puts me. Sometimes helmets fit a bit snuggly, sometimes they fit a bit large – if we have a video of the helmet, you should watch that video, because it’s going to give you the nuances of that fit.

The next thing, once you get the size, is you really home in on the shape of your head.

Now, I’m an intermediate oval. Most people aren’t an intermediate oval. It’s going to be slightly thinner on the sides, and slightly longer front-to-back. Most helmets we would consider an intermediate oval – they’re longer and thinner front-to-back. There are round helmets on the market – there are some neutral helmets that fall somewhere in the middle—but a lot of times we see HJC helmets come in round shapes.

At RevZilla.com we try to carry a good variety. The R-XQ from Arai helmets is a great example of a neutral helmet where it will still be an intermediate oval but you’ll still have a little bit of room around the temples. There are a few types of head shape going into helmets; some are long and thin, some are going to be intermediate, and some are round.

And really, when you’re watching the helmet, sizing the video associated with each individual product, you can home in on what those fit characteristics are. Nothing’s going to be more telling than when you get it out of the box for the first time and put it on; it should fit snug, press against your face, you shouldn’t feel any pressure points, you should feel that snug fit all the way around the crown of the head, and from there if you want to tune those cheek pads – bigger cheek pads or smaller cheek pads depending on your cheek bones – that’s really up to you.  But the helmet should not go on easily the first day you have it. It should fit slightly snug and then ease-in over time. That’s it.

If you have any questions about helmet fitment, how to take your measurements, or if anything is unclear, shoot our gear geeks a line – everyone here under our roof rides, and we’re all here to pick up the phone.

Anthony Bucci is a co-founder of www.revzilla.com—a large online motorcycle gear marketplace and learning resource. He manages marketing and business development, with a focus on company culture and honest, transparent relationships with customers.