My goal in this Triple Eight Brainsaver helmet review is to lay every salient feature of this skateboarding and biking helmet on the table for your scrutiny. If you’d like to take a look at other Triple Eight helmets, I’ve reviewed all Triple Eight helmets here.
The Triple Eight dual-certified Classic style helmet offers two critical safety certifications. These certifications include the U.S. CPSC bike helmet safety standard for persons aged 5 years or older and the ASTMF1492 skateboarding safety standard. That means you’ll always have tons of certified head protection around your head.
Also, Triple 8 offers this product at an attractive price point —no rider ever feels excluded.
Stay with me and I’ll help you examine this offer comprehensively so you can buy it or reject it on the basis of accurate and sufficient product knowledge.
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Design and Construction of the Dual Certified Brainsaver Helmet
The Triple Eight dual certified comes in a low-profile half-shell helmet design, which tells it’s a great bet for skateboarding.
It is round in shape, which means it fits round noggins a little better than it does more oval heads. It’s an open-face helmet with no visor. And that means hitting the pavement face-first could end up disfiguring your nice-looking face quite a bit.
But the design of this helmet has the forehead getting a little more coverage than you’d get with other competing options out there. It’s a low-profile helmet, too, which means it protects your melon without restriction head movement.
What’s more, his helmet looks nice especially the black option with a rubber finish. The helmet’s adjustable chinstraps feature a side-release buckle, and this closure system feels like great quality. You won’t have to endure the annoying and uncomfortable feeling of these chinstraps chafing your cheeks during what should be happy rides.
Overall, the helmet looks well-engineered. No loose parts or cheap-looking components. The outer shell looks and feels sturdy, too, and the padding inside makes for lots of comfort.
How Does this Helmet Protect Heads?
As already mentioned above, the Triple Eight Dual-Certified classic skate helmet offers great noggin protection. But which specific part(s) of this helmet protect your skull from possible cracks emanating from sudden crashes?
Two parts work together to protect your melon. These parts are the smooth outer shell made out of hard plastic. Triple 8, a well-known and popular skate brand, uses high-quality ABS plastic to formulate this exterior protective shell.
What Role Does the Hard ABS Outer Shell Play in a Crash?
But you know what? The ABS hard shell on the outside of this or any helmet isn’t its most protective part. It may seem like the outer shell is built to offer the most of the protection a helmet provides. But that’s not the case. The outer shell’s main job is to help you smoothly skid on the surface or ground without jerking your precious neck. And it helps a little that this hard outer shell comes in a round shape.
It appears like a round-shaped shell should slide better than other shapes. But I’ve not seen any definitive scientific findings that conclude a round-shaped helmet slides better than an oval one or any other helmet shape.
The Highly Protective Inner EPS Foam Liner
Most of the protection your head gets from a helmet comes from its Styrofoam-like protective liner. This liner is typically produced from expanded polystyrene, and it’s a crushable kind of foam. What that practically means is that this liner crushes inwards into itself when you dive head-first into some hard, stationary obstacle.
In the case of the helmet I’m reviewing, the EPS liner seems thick enough. This EPS liner is designed to efficiently dissipate crash energies, dramatically reducing the impacts that reach your priceless skull.
You’re skating around your city and suddenly find yourself flying over a car’s hood heading for extremely hard concrete. In such a scenario, you want to have this helmet secured snugly on your head.
But how can you be sure the Triple 8 dual certified helmet will protect your head? The skate helmet market groans under tons of uncertified helmets that still promise dual protection. Did you know that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission compelled Triple 8 to recall lots of helmets it found weren’t as protective as the company claimed?
The CPSC said that their product testing processes discovered that over 30, 000 kids helmets didn’t fully comply with the entity’s impact resistance standards. But to be fair, not a single little tike had broken something or died from using the defective products.
The affected helmets included 3 kids’ options belonging to the Little Tricky helmet line from Triple Eight. But that was way back in 2012, and the product recall didn’t affect other helmets outside of that specific children’s category.
ASTM-F1492 and CPSC Safety Standards Compliance
Speaking of safety certifications, how does the Triple 8 dual-certified classic skate helmet stack up? This product satisfies every safety standard a helmet MUST meet before the CPSC nods its approval.
When the CPSC awards their safety certification for a given helmet model, what does that mean? It means that children aged 5 years and above and adults can ride their bike safely in that helmet.
The other safety certification this product offers skaters and cyclists is the ASTMF1492. If a helmet has earned this safety certification, you as a skateboarder can have the assurance that that brain bucket offers sufficient protection in those riding situations.
If you’re into both cycling and pulling off all kinds of known and unknown skateboarding tricks, this is a great bet.
Lest I forget, the dual-certified Brainsaver is multi-impact rated. That means if you survive a hard fall, and you most likely will, you can still use it for riding whatever it is you ride in the future. Yes, the helmet looks a little thin, but don’t let that deceive you. The Brainsaver is a real noggin protection pro.
Recently, a friend planted their handsome face right into some pavement in their hometown in this helmet. It was a bad spill, and the Brainsaver saved their brain, quite literally. If it’d been a less protective skateboarding helmet, they likely would have lost a few teeth and ended up with huge bumps on the head.
Well, my bud got away unharmed, but they still suffered a few scrapes to their nose, cheeks, and lips. But if you’re an aggressive downhill rider, I wouldn’t recommend the Dual Certified Brainsaver. That’s because while the helmet covers almost half the forehead, the lower half of your face still stays exposed and quite vulnerable.
For any kind of downhill skateboarding or mountain biking, I highly recommend the TSG pass or Triple Eight’s very own full-face helmet, the T8 Tracer. Here’s a TSG Pass Review, and here’s a detailed Triple Eight Full-face Downhill Racer Review.
The Comfort Liner and Ventilation
The helmet offers enough comfort — the sweat liner of the Brainsaver isn’t too thick or too thin. The packet you get includes two sets of moisture-wicking Sweatsaver pads. And these pads also help you to customize the fit.
Admittedly, the Dual-certified Brainsaver isn’t the best-aerated helmet ever made. Two holes on the front let in fresh air from outside, and air that’s not so fresh exits via the holes on the top. While the Brainsaver isn’t the worst-ventilated Triple 8 helmet, it doesn’t offer exceedingly more than passive ventilation.
Yes, you can feel the breeze as it enters the bucket to cool things inside. But don’t expect as much airflow as you’d get from a more ventilated helmet such as the Triple Eight Compass. Here’s a Triple Eight Compass review in case you’d like to take a closer look.
The comfort and fit adjustment liners happen to be removable and washable. You can toss these sweat-wicking pads in the washing machine, but I’ve learned that’s rarely the best way to clean a helmet. If your helmet gets smelly after a few skate sessions, it’s better to clean the liner and helmet by hand. Cleaning the removable liner by hand tends to be safer, that is, it won’t damage the liner.
Riding in this helmet when facing the sun reminds of why visors matter because the helmet lacks a visor to protect your eyes against direct sunlight. You’ll also have to endure dust and wind assaulting your eyes.
Fit and Available Sizes of the Dual-certified Brainsaver
The Dual-certified Brainsaver provides a true-to-size fit. Measure your head circumference before ordering and read the size chart for correct size suggestions. The size chart for this helmet model is pretty accurate. So, order this product in the same size the chart recommends.
Triple knows that this helmet may not all kinds of face shapes the exact same way. Some people have kind of narrow faces while others have fuller heads. Wanting to give everyone a chance of enjoying their certified protection, Triple 8 offers two sets of fit pads. One of the sets is thinner than the other.
Use the thinner pads if the fit you get feels a tad too tight. And if it feels like the helmet is a little too roomy, use the thicker pad inserts and see if that helps. These fit pads work great for most riders and cyclists, but I can’t guarantee they’ll solve your fit issues.
As far as available sizes, this helmet comes in three different sizes. These sizes include X-Small/Small, Small/Medium, and Large/Extra-Large. That said, the size of the helmet in the picture above is L/XL and is meant for heads measuring 23.25″ to 24.0.”
Size X-Small/Small fits heads with a circumference of 18.90″ to 23.25″ while size Small/Medium works best for heads in the 21.50″-22.75″ range.
This helmet features durable synthetic chinstraps with a side-release buckle. Unlike some chinstraps that slide the whole time during use and need constant adjustment, this helmet’s chinstraps stay where you want them.
If you ever fall, and you will, you’ll be glad you chose a helmet with such sturdy and secure chinstraps. These chinstraps should keep your helmet snug enough on your head even when you hit something and start sliding on the ground ….fast.
Dual-certified Brainsaver Color Options
The dual-certified Brainsaver helmet comes is sold in at least 7 color options. These color options include black, black matte, black glossy, gun matte, blue matte, Kelly green matte, and white matte. I really like the black matte, but if you prefer a color that really increases visibility, go for the white matte or Kelly green matte option.
Triple 8 Dual-certified Brainsaver Helmet Review: Verdict?
Tired of wearing expensive, dorky cycling helmets? Do you now crave something affordable that also looks great while offering tons of dual-certified protection? Consider the classic skate style dual-certified Brainsaver helmet from Triple 8.
It’s well designed and made, looks amazing, comfortable, and comes in at a reasonable price point. And the best part? This helmet provides skateboard-riders and bikers of all skill levels with certified dual protection. Plus it’s available in a variety of great colors and finishes, so you’ll be spoilt for choice.
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