Here in the USA we have very lax safety standards on motorcycles, and this new standard does NOT change anything for Americans who only ride in the USA.
However over 50 nations use the ECE standard. Canada uses a hybrid system, some areas accept the DOT + ECE standards, other areas only allow the ECE standard.
The DOT standard is known to be highly flawed, generally considered to be a joke, and manufacturers self certify their helmets as DOT. Helmets do not have to actually get tested to get the DOT sticker of approval and there are hundreds of fly-by-night marketers slapping DOT stickers on helmets that would never meet any safety standard. An ignorant consumer falls victim to scam helmets that have real DOT stickers.
But not so with the ECE, which actually requires testing and certifies to the helmet to their standard.
ECE 22-05 is the current standard, in 2023 the new standard will be ECE 22-06
SNELL is a voluntary standard that is considered to be better than DOT or ECE 22-05. Any helmet with a SNELL certification also has to meet DOT or ECE 22-05, but not visa-versa. SNELL will also be available as an add on certification for ECE 22-06 helmets. There are a couple other minor standards, the SHARP and FIM.
This video does a good job of talking about the new ECE 22-06 standard:
However over 50 nations use the ECE standard. Canada uses a hybrid system, some areas accept the DOT + ECE standards, other areas only allow the ECE standard.
The DOT standard is known to be highly flawed, generally considered to be a joke, and manufacturers self certify their helmets as DOT. Helmets do not have to actually get tested to get the DOT sticker of approval and there are hundreds of fly-by-night marketers slapping DOT stickers on helmets that would never meet any safety standard. An ignorant consumer falls victim to scam helmets that have real DOT stickers.
But not so with the ECE, which actually requires testing and certifies to the helmet to their standard.
ECE 22-05 is the current standard, in 2023 the new standard will be ECE 22-06
SNELL is a voluntary standard that is considered to be better than DOT or ECE 22-05. Any helmet with a SNELL certification also has to meet DOT or ECE 22-05, but not visa-versa. SNELL will also be available as an add on certification for ECE 22-06 helmets. There are a couple other minor standards, the SHARP and FIM.
This video does a good job of talking about the new ECE 22-06 standard: