Motor Mouth: 'Tough Turban' makes riding safer for Sikh motorcyclists

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To be completely frank, I didn’t want to write this column. Truly, my first reaction was to block my emails, turn off the phone for a few days and run for the hills. The intersection between religious freedoms and safety concerns — as we found out yet again during these last 18 months of the pandemic — is fraught with the most polemic of politics. It is, quite literally, the most contentious subject I have covered in my 37 years of automobile/motorcycle journalism, requiring a delicacy of tone that, as frequent readers will no doubt note, I’ve not always been good at. Or, more accurately, never could be bothered to learn. Choose a side in any beliefs-versus-rules battle and one is immediately branded with whatever the latest “-ist” du jour is. But even worse is trying to provide a nuanced, balanced discussion; all that happens then is that both sides label you a traitor to their cause.  

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Yet, into this abyss I will jump. To wit: No subject in the world of motorcycling is more fraught with tension than the exceptionalism offered the Sikh biker allowing them to wear turbans when riding their motorcycles. British Columbia and Manitoba first granted Sikhs a helmet exemption in 1999, and Ontario and Alberta recently followed suit in 2018. In each case, the news has been greeted with the rancour usually reserved for revelations that Donald Trump sleeps with porn stars or that Billie Eilish may — or may not be — “queerbaiting ” (anyone over, well, 12 will have to look that one up, but take my word for it, it’s a s%!t storm ).

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Yet, the contentiousness of the subject remains. On one hand, there is a community’s right to freedom of expression. It would be very difficult for me, a writer whose very livelihood depends on the freedom of speech, to then deny someone else’s freedom to express their beliefs simply because it takes a different form than my own. Demanding freedom for one’s own method of expression while denying another’s is exactly the kind of hypocrisy that is far too rampant these days. Nor is this demand for religious freedom taken lightly or without a full understanding that with freedom comes risks. As Jagdeep Singh, a spokesperson for the Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario, points out, the 83,005 Sikhs who died fighting in the two World Wars also did so while wearing turbans instead of helmets.  

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On the other hand, there’s a reason we have rules. Helmets save lives. They are, in fact, the most important of protective devices a motorcyclist can wear. Anyone contending otherwise has the same credibility as the anti-vaxxers promoting whatever is the conspiracy theory of the day. Helmets were mandated for the same reason we all must wear seatbelts and get driving instruction before we are allowed to drive. And the questions asked of any such exemption are legitimate. Should a helmet exemption be allowed when they so obviously save lives? Should someone who is allowed a helmet exemption pay more for insurance just as they would if they were assuming other risk-enhancing activities like speeding?  

Into this quagmire marches Pfaff Harley-Davidson, strategists Zulu Alpha Kilo, and Spark Innovations, an industrial design house with some experience in developing unique protective headgear. (According to Spark’s design director, Chris Pearen, the company has even engineered a protective insert worn under baseball caps). Its proposed solution is called “Tough Turban,” and no, it is not, as I first thought, a traditional motorcycle helmet with a decorative turban affixed to it. Rather, it is an actual turban, only constructed with the most advanced safety materials available to the motorcycle industry.

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The body of the Tough Turban sees traditional cotton replaced with something called Dyneema . A high-strength, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene textile with the same yield strength as steel, Dyneema is used extensively in high-end motorcycle jeans and jackets for its combination of light weight, breathability and excellent abrasion resistance. Interwoven into the fabric are pockets of armour made of a non-Newtonian fluid — experienced bikers should think of D30 here — which is almost magical in its ability to be soft and malleable when subjected to body heat yet become rigid and protective when impacted. And the glue that holds this all together is a 3D-printed matrix of polycarbonate that was, according to the designers, inspired by the chainmail s ome early Sikh warriors used to affix to their turbans. In other words, its design may be traditional; its construction is not.  

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Of course, this doesn’t mean the Tough Turban offers the same kind of protections as a traditional full-face motorcycle helmet. Neither its Dyneema outer layer nor its D30-like shock absorbers will have nearly the impact resistance offered by an AGV Pista GP R’s combination of carbon fibre and high-strength EPS. But the “shorty” and “pudding bowl” helmets favoured by many touring riders are also woefully short of real protection yet are perfectly legal.

And safety is the bottom line. In fact, were I writing this same column 22 years ago, I’d likely be more critical of these legislations, mainly because of the very real possibility exemptions might spread, compromising the safety of the mainstream motorcycle-riding community. But that slippery slope never materialized. Nor has this exceptionalism resulted in a rash of deaths attributed to turban-wearing. In fact, according to Singh, there have been no fatalities amongst Sikh motorcyclists anywhere in Canada since the exemption was first enacted in 1999.

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In other words, for those still critical of these exemptions, get over yourselves. And to the folks at Pfaff Harley-Davidson, Zulu Alpha Kilo, and Spark Innovations, congratulations: Anything that saves lives and/or prevents injuries to my fellow motorcyclists is good news for the entire biking community.

For those who might be wondering when and where they might buy a Tough Turban, understand that Spark Innovations and its partners have so far not committed to production, instead posting complete “open source” documentation of their design on their website in the hope some traditional motorcycle apparel manufacturer might see the worth in producing a new kind of protective gear. On the other hand, if you would like to emphasize the need for such new technologies, feel free to text, email, or phone Pfaff Harley-Davidson.