Drilling vent holes in your helmet?

Any suggestions for drilling vent holes in your helmet?
I have a Street and Steel half helmet but here in Fl when it's 95° my brain is boiling. There are no vent holes in the top. This is my idea:
I'm thinking of drilling one 1/4" hole in the center just below the visor.
using clear or black 1/4" vacuum hose and one T connector take enough hose to make a circle that fits on top of your head just above your hairline. Connect with the T.
Now carefully notch out 8-10 small holes on the hose 1-2" apart but  make sure they all line up on one side of the hose. Use scissors and cut a tiny ∆ then remove the little piece of hose. You'll have a tiny diamond shaped hole. These will be little air vents around the top of your head.
Now cut a small piece of hose long enough to go through the vent hole and attach it to the T. Now you'll have a forced air vent that circulates air all around the top of your head with only 1 small hole in your helmet minimizing structural integrity.
You'll have to do some customizing to get everything to fit comfortably. I even thought about putting tiny slits in the mesh padding and weaving it in between the mesh and pad to hold the hose in place. I still have to finger that one out.
Now this is just brainstorming. I haven't done it yet, but when I do I'll make a video or post pics.
Any other suggestions or ideas are always welcome.
Thanks for your time.

It does sound interesting but I wonder about the structural integrity of even just one hole. The bad part is the only way you'll know if the structural integrity is compromised would be when you need it most. Living in Florida also I do understand the need for more ventilation. That's why I use a half helmet knowing fully that it's not the safest in an accident but it does help avoid heatstroke.
Please keep us informed what you come up with.

That might whistle. A lot.

What color is your helmet?

It will be interesting to see the reply's on this topic. Putting aside the structural integrity it would be interesting to see how much air you could move through a 1/4 hose at a given speed.If you want to try something, purchase a skull cap designed to ware under your helmet run it under cold water wring it out and it will keep your head
cool for up to a 1/2 hour providing your helmet has some air
circulation.

Sounds like an ambitious project. You could put a plastic shower head in the helmet and run a hose from a 1/2" inlet hole to the shower head. Or louvers...yeah, that's it, louvers. They'd let the heat escape from the rear.

Yeah I was considering using 2 vent holes w/2 T's connecting them to the vent hose circle. Get more air intake. Also some sort of rear exhaust vent. I'll have to mcgyver something. I'll keep some little rubber plugs in my glovebox to plug the vents in the rain. We'll see how it plays out. I'm going to also look into some vent replacement parts for other helmets and possibly be able to modify my helmet to use those vents? Still brainstorming before I drill any holes in my helmet. Measure twice cut once theory.
Thanks for your thoughts on this.

What about the helmet comfort liner and inner shell of your helmet. A vented helmet is designed with channels to allow cool air to flow through from the top intake vent(s) through the channels in the liner taking away heat from your head through the exhaust vent(s) and out at the rear of the helmet keeping your heat cool.

If your helmet hasn't got vents, it's unlikely to have these features in the liner.

Avmott, here's the deal. In southern Arizona on a summer day a person could drill 11, two inch holes on 1 1/2  inch centers and your head will still boil. Better I would recommend a 5/8 helmet with no fabric ear and neck protector. This  allows  for  good  ventilation. Strap webbing left in place of course.

(Now I get 110 F ventilation. Its been a while since I've open my front door to enjoy that refreshing blast of summer 110 air. )

I don't think a helmet surface should be compromised with any hole even a tidy little one ( or two). These helmets have almost no material in them an egshell of hard and 1/4 inch of foam. They are designed for one drop only then discard. A hole just doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Cheers from Arizona.

The color of a helmet is critical. As someone, who has lived for over 25 years in the middle of Central Australia with temperatures easily over 110 F ( 50 degrees Celsius) in the sun, I can assure you that a white helmet will be significantly cooler than for example a black or dark grey one. I only ever bought white cars for that reason.

I hear ya man. I lived in Phoenix for a few years. Not a whole lot you can do with that heat.
I'm just looking to get a little air flow on my head. I removed the ear pads and neck cover. That definitely helps. The wind noise in my ears kind of sucks though. I thought about removing the pads and slicing out some 1/2" grooves in the foam following the contour all the way from front to back. Then replace the pads. Hoping that it will vent out the humidity and heat while I'm riding. Help dry the sweat from sitting in rush hour traffic. Maybe? That may help without having to drill any holes or use vented hose. I'll have to check it out and see if that's even an option. I don't want to pay for an expensive vented helmet if I can vent my own.

Hey Gremlin, my helmet is grey and black.. I thought about a white helmet but just isn't me.
That's cool you're in Australia. I have an Australian Shepherd and a Barmah hat.

I does not have to be a white one, glossy silver is the next best thing. Most contractors who work out in the desert paint the roof of their containers, caravans, sheds in those colors.

I was actually going to get a silver helmet because my 04' SWing is Titanium Silver but they didn't have any silver half helmets or any silver helmets that fit. All out of XL..
I bought a Street&Steel Anarchy half helmet. That or the Bell Pit Boss but the other was on sale and fits perfectly. I'm thinking about getting a full face modular helmet( where the front face flips up) for cooler weather and road trips. Anyways. If I figure out an innovative way to ventilate my current helmet I'll post the results.

I've worn 3/4 helmets for years but recently bought a HJC modular. I'm amazed that this helmet is comfortable even in 100F and above. There are two closeable vents, a two hole one in the top of the helmet and a two hole one in the chin bar. On my GT I ride in hot weather with the vents open, the visor cracked and the windshield at it's lowest position. That works great, the wind hits my helmet but there's no buffeting, just a smooth flow. No backwards or forwards pressure on my head either, probably due to the slotted windshield design. Too bad I didn't have this helmet when I had the SW with the Givi Adjustable windshield. I would have liked to see how that screen would have worked with this helmet.

Meldew is right about the liner. If you have to groove that plastic foam or whatever shock absorbing material that keeps the G load of impacts survivable, you might be in a hurt in an accident. The simplest thing is to get a vented helmet, the more sun kept off your head along with good vents means a modular or full helmet could be cooler.

I bought my so called 5/8 helmet at the HD store made by HJC for harley. It is comfortable. When I changed wind shields to a givi air flow the wind noise did drop.

I say 5/8 becasue it is not an ear covering 3/4 nor a Mike Hailwood soup bowl (1/2).

Yeah I don't think I'm going to mess with it. It's brand new. I tried on a couple different modular helmets including the HJC. I liked them, but I figured I'd try a half helmet because of the heat.
I think I'll get a silver modular for road trips and cold weather. Probably end up wearing it daily if it's comfortable on hot days.

I have a silver Fulmer modular which while heavy, works well... In cool or cold weather but ventilation is abysmal in the heat.
Purchased a brand new GMAX G64S (hi-vis) and it is much better. More and better vents you can feel the difference. Why GMAX? It is my third one and they fit me very well. I have tried many brands w/o success. Shoei no go, HJC actually hurt my head and even purchased a Nolan and while a great helmet it did not fit right either.

I do have a 3/4 GMAX that I really like also.

And yes I agree with the above comments DO NOT drill holes in a helmet!!! If that bad get a new helmet or just use this one in cooler weather. Good luck.

From Safety standpoint----get another helmet that works. Punching holes in helmet may interfere with design of helmet=not good if you fall on head. 3/4 work for me, Fulmer fit.


Riding a lot require 2 new helmets a year----just threw away Fulmer 3/4 open face. Wearing Fulmer 3/4 755? with built in face shield=works, plenty of airflow.

Although I did not drill vent holes in my helmet ,I did enlarge the vent holes in the faceplate of my CABERG flip up helmet. I also took out the inner face-plate,that was some kind if plastic and enlarged the vent holes, this prevented my glasses steaming up in rain, or cold weather.

It's only a temporary solution, but I have set my FF helmet over an A/C vent to cool my helmet before going out.

They make cooling vests for the upper body. Don't see why the same couldn't be also done for a helmet.
Maybe even forced air venting when passive ram air is not practical or desired. Then air could be pre-chilled before being sent to the helmet. (shades of quick-release hoses a' la predator helmet...COOL Yeah!!)

Amazon sells evaporative cooling skull caps that fit under a helmet. Check it out.

Bandito, I like it! When  we  get our dream scooter, you know, 3  cylinder, blown, injected and intercooled with refrigerated air, we will simply re route some of the 40F refrigerated air up through the helmet.  

No I didn't forget the Coffman starter! Won't the girls at the drug store love  that!!

I will not recommend drilling holes in a helmet, but I will relate this
when my Shoei reached the end of it's service life, I performed an experiment
I took after it with a 10 lb sledge
only things that broke were the visor and the gingerbread around the vents, the shell didn't even crack (the paint did chip of course)
the reason a helmet is a one use item is because most of the impact force is absorbed by the EPS (expanded polystyrene)
It absorbs force by being crushed, and is then compressed, so it can't absorb force as well the next time
the shell is harder, in order to spread the load of impact force over a larger area
It is possible for the shell to be damaged on impact, but almost never visibly
I really wouldn't be all that scared to drill a small hole in a helmet, but I'm sure not going to advise anyone else to do so, and as others noted, for it to do much good, you'd have to make holes in the EPS as well, and that would make the helmet less crashworthy, even if just by a little bit
I live in central Tx, where the highs can hit 113 in the summer, and I wear a FF helmet (actually it's a modular, a Fulmer with flip down sunshield)
I'll relate this as well, though most won't believe it
once the outside temp reaches above body temp, wind chill works in reverse, and leaving a lot of skin exposed when it's up in the high 90s and 100s is actually hotter than covering up, on the highway and at speed
of course in town at low speed the opposite is true, go figure