New helmet rules confusing – we sort it out
Background: During 2024 information about new helmet rules coming, was released by some federations including SVEMO in Sweden. Back than it said from January 1 2026, ECE 22-06 approved helmets where required on all races within the FIM rulebook and in the FIM Championships an even higher standard FRHPhe-02 was required from the same date.
However somewhere and for some reason this has been changing from the first info that we got, but no new info has been released about it until now. Since we like to keep you guys updated we went straight to the Swedish federation and got valuable help sorting the rule change out and this is how its going to be and what kind of approval your helmet needs to have from January 2026.
For national races which means only affecting participants from the organizing country ECE 22-05 as well as ECE 22-06 will still be ok to use. But European riders with an international license or national license in one of the nordic countrys has to check that ECE 22-05 and/or ECE 22-06 is what their own country approves within their own license system.
This has been very confusing since not only organizers in Sweden grabbed the first information about only ECE 22-06 approval for racing in Europe as the new mandatory requirements when racing natonal as well as international non FIM championships.
We suspect that the originally FIM requirements got in trouble when presented to the helmet manufactures who made a big deal out of it. The ECE 22-05 approved helmet was from the start forbidden to be sold from January 1 2026, but thats no longer a fact, since the approval process takes years and reality hit the market the new rule were postponed without any new date for the transition. But thats all about helmets over all and laws that effects the road legal part of motorcycling.
For us flat track racing Europeans who race within FIM- associated federations the fact is that as long its not a FIM Championship its the national rules in the country you race in that applies no matter if you have a national or international license. In some countrys you can sign up for a race specific license and as it is unsure at the moment you must check their national requrements to make sure to be able to race.
The highest approval, FRHPhe-02 will what we belive most likely be required from 2027 on all levels of racing within FIM-associated federations, so if you are about to buy a helmet in the close future we recommend to have a look of whats offered in this section, since you most likely will need to get the highest level of approval on your race helmet in a close future..
On October 21 FIM presented a list of so far approved FRHPhe-02 helmets and you find them here:
Circuit racing Helmets
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