Bell Recalls Half-Helmets For Not Even Meeting The World's Worst Safety Standards

If you buy a half helmet for motorcycling, you're probably not expecting much in the way of safety. Really, you're probably just trying to get away with the absolute minimum protective gear to not get pulled over without ruining your Jax Teller cosplay, but you might be hoping that Department of Transportation sticker on the back grants your brain bucket some level of protection. Well, if you bought a Bell Pit Boss in the last year or so, your hope might be misplaced: Bell just recalled over a year's worth of helmets for not even meeting the ultra-lax DOT standard. 

The Bell Pit Boss is a classic in the cruiser half-helmet genre — the photo above is from a 14-year-old promotional YouTube video — but it's had a few revisions in its time on the market. One of those revisions seems to have harmed its ability to actually protect the small bit of your head it covers, according to a recall spotted by RideApart, as helmets manufactured from January 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026 have been recalled for improper "impact attenuation." 

It's unclear whether the issue with the Pit Boss comes from its shell (which disperses impact across a wider area) or its expanded polystyrene foam liner (which crushes to absorb impact), but either way it's not an issue that Bell has deemed repairable — owners of Pit Bosses have been instructed to either return the helmets for a replacement, or destroy them entirely. It's amazing that the DOT standard for helmets — a standard that hasn't been meaningfully updated since 1973, and a standard that the government largely relies on manufacturers to self-test compliance with — is even possible to fail, but Bell (or one of its factories) somehow managed. 

If you're in the market for a helmet, get something better than a brain bucket. We have better protective technology now, from full-face lids to modulars to the oh-so-popular adventure helmet — you can really do better than only protecting the part of your head that actively holds your brain. If you insist on getting a half helmet, though, maybe check the production date on that Pit Boss your local dealer is offering.