Tack. I may stand corrected but SA colleagues had to get helmets tested or inspected after fitting com-sets, and a local who does awesome full helmet paint jobs says that painting renders the helmet unlawful, perhaps because it covers the compliance stickers. I've also heard that any external fitting that interferes with the ability of the helmet to slide cleanly on the tarmac and not catch, makes it non-compliant. I'm quite curious to hear what your enquiries reveal.
Pete you may have some specific legislation in SA that I am not aware of, however we don't have ours tested here in Queensland when fitting radios, bluetooth or anything similar. In fact one of our officers who was killed during a wide load had a bluetooth fitted and it was mentioned in the Coroner's Case and nothing was said about it, other than he may not have been concentrating fully on what he was doing whilst talking to his wife at the time he was killed. These, as you know, are mostly external fittings, and if it was illegal they would have issued a statewide directive immediately, and I haven't seen one. I am also not aware of any offences I can charge somebody with for wearing one, or using one here in Queensland.
Some helmet systems do require you to drill through the outer shell and these definitely do render the helmet illegal, so unless they may be using a similar system and they are tested after the modification this may be the case.
As for the painting yes is does render it illegal, because the paint potentially changes the integrity of the outer shell and weaken the structure, which then doesn't comply with testing requirements. As for external fittings, I can only assume anybody that said this would be referring to the actual operation of the helmet, eg not letting a chin bar click back into a locking position, but other than that I don't see an issue, unless there was something specific again that I wasn't aware of. I have a camera hanging off one side of my helmet that has been mounted using dual lock, and a bluetooth unit (SMH5) on the other side, so this goes against what you have been told in just about every aspect.
Again unless there is anything specific in legislation in South Oz that I'm not aware of, but there is nothing that I am aware of that would explain what you have been told other than what I have outlined above.
