xtc14

Which Giro helmet did you buy?

timtak

Helmets are useful for holding up visors which, act as sunglasses, and keep cold wind and insects out of ones face, and prescription lenses in front of ones eyes, and for mounting a light that points where one is looking, as well as an easily accessible one pointing o the rear (I turn the latter on as I enter tunnels, which is a bit tricky with my seat post mounted light, at speed).

I also cover mine in 3m reflectors. It is dual layered so I worry less about the resultant reduction in strength.

On going thanks to wphamilto for the visor suggestion.

If it transpired that car bodies do not promote safety, due to do their being just as likely to trap as to protect, then we would not stop using them because they have other uses.

curbtender

You wouldnt want helmet head...
Bike helmets: an emergency doctor's perspective
The question now is which way the rotational forces flow in Australia?

Stadjer

That he's right of course. Whether you explain him that there are more important things than cool or that it's the skill level that allows for helmetless cycling is a different matter. But claiming a helmet is cool just won't work because it isn't true.

timtak

I think my helmet is cool.

Helmet with visor by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr
but not always

EarRollz by Timothy Takemoto, on Flickr

Miele Man

I just found the info on my Giro helmet. It's a GH158 and weighs 266g and fits 54-61cm.

Cheers

M1T

Always wear a helmet.

bikerguyin

Is there a place for newbies to find out where to get the safest helmet? Aside from all of the crap you see on the internet

bikerguyin

Haha This is funny

Pacobee

Any thoughts on the alert helmet versus an Apple watch


like the idea of an alert

wphamilton

Looking sharp!

RiceAWay

To start let me give you my credentials: I worked as an Electronics Engineer on electro-mechanical devices and programmed them for motions etc for the better part of 50 years. So I am quite familiar with mechanical engineering of this sort. In the early part of my life I raced semi-pro for Kawasaki with the American Federation of Motorcyclists and was a mechanic for the American Motorcycle Association flat trackers. One night as I was sitting with my good friend who owned a Yamaha Shop in Oakland (Bob's Cycle Stop) he had a heart attack and dropped dead because I didn't know anything about heart massage. After that racing lost it's luster. Slowly I stopped racing but since I was so involved in the AFM, they asked me to be their safety director. Being an engineer I have always taken any job seriously and did that as well. I traveled down to Bell helmets and questioned their engineers and looked at what they were doing. What I learned there was not encouraging.

The Styrofoam used inside of helmets is the same for all helmets on the market but Bontrager and we'll get to that later. Helmets are designed for RACING and not riding on the street which offers an entirely different type of danger profile. In motorcycle racing the normal crash is a slide out. The Styrofoam essentially has no effect but your head is protected by the hard shell from being rubbed against pavement. In race cars, the hard shell protects the head from excessive forces by being slammed against any protuberances. This is not the case in bicycle helmets. They do not have a hard-shell and it wouldn't matter anyway. In racing you have the same problem and that is slide outs as a rule. Since the speed profiles are normally a lot slower, bicycle helmets are generally adequate. The human reaction is to protect his head and that with the VERY minimal protection of a helmet is normally enough.

The helmet are designed ONLY to protect the skull against skull fracture and the manner in which it is done is extremely unrealistic. For instance; the standard for testing implies that the only force acting upon the helmet and head is the weight of the head itself. Probably 75% or more of the time you have your body weight adding at least some additional force in a fall. And the maximum force only represents the bare weight of your head moving 15 mph. Virtually all vehicular collisions are with a combined speed well over this speed. This means that unless something other than a less than direct collision occurs, such as you being thrown over the top of the car, you can expect them to be fatal.

But 99% of bicycle accidents are not in a race and are at speeds well under the design parameters of a bicycle helmet. But, unfortunately, this doesn't mean that bicycle helmets work. I did some combined research on helmet safety which you can find at Trends in US Cyclist Deaths - research, statistics, data. Now a great deal of this research was based on Dutch commuter research and that was criticized since most commuters ride at average speeds around 5 mph. So recently I looked into the numbers and using just American deaths for pedestrians and bicyclists it appears to be the same though it appears that as more cyclists appear on the roads, drivers are more aware of them and are not surprised and hit them accidentally. This can be determined by the fact that there is no change between the percentage of bicyclists being injured and those being killed. This ratio appears to remain the same indicating that there are simply fewer collisions and not that helmets are more effective as their use grows.

So we can say this: Most fatalities are caused by collisions with an automobile or truck. There is a remainder that are caused by serious high speed single vehicle accidents (the bicycle crash) but these are minimal. Most single vehicle accidents are not fatal. So what is the effect of a bicycle helmet in these cases?

In single vehicle head injuries skull fracture is not a danger - concussion is. Concussions occur in three forms. 80% of concussions are mild - headaches and loss of the memory of the crash and circumstances around it are common. This lasts only for maybe a day. Moderate concussions are slightly more serious. They can have memory functions or other things temporarily or permanently impaired. The worst of these are the permanent IQ drop of football players or boxers who have repeated moderate concussions from generally the same directions.

But the 10% of serious concussions are a danger to your life. With an MRI they can plainly see brain damage as the brain was torn loose from it's moorings in the skull and slammed against the surface of the skull in the direction of the collision. Knowing that there is damage and even where it is doesn't make a whole lot of difference. The precise functions of the brain are only generally known and the brain has the capacity to move missing functions to other areas of the brain in many cases. So if you have this sort of concussion you may still recover completely or almost completely.

The upshot of this is that Styrofoam is not a practical material for the collision mediating material in a helmet. It is much too hard and forces deceleration of the head much too rapidly. And the very nature of the material doesn't make it amiable for modification to make much improvement such as generating larger bubbles to help a slower deceleration. There is simply too much material there and it packs up and makes a solid layer far too rapidly.

This means that anyone that tells you that his helmet saved his life doesn't actually know what he is talking about. It is human nature to assign miraculous abilities to inanimate objects because you are not a mathematician and cannot understand statistical probability.

A Swedish company has invented an "upgrade" that they believe improves a helmet. It is called MIPS. This probably is initials for Swedish words so I don't attempt to interpret that. But the operation is pretty easy to understand. It was his belief that people were being killed or seriously injured because when you landed on your head that the helmet would stick to the ground and hold your head still thus allowing your neck to be twisted and either your neck or your head to be twisted and injured. Many companies are now offering this MIPS system which allow the helmet to rotate on your head between the helmet and the strap cage that holds the helmet on the head. But these sorts of injuries do not appear to be caused by the absence of rotation but simply by the angular impact of the collision. So the rather high cost of helmet that have added the MIPS systems doesn't seem worthwhile.

But there is a new sheriff in town. Trek has actually bought up and developed a technology in which rather than using Styrofoam they 3D printed plastic hexagonal cells which they label Q-cells. That plastic material itself if much harder than Styrofoam plastic but they are very large cells and have been designed to collapse in a controlled manner. This is marketed by Trek through its name-brand Bontrager. The testing by Trek shows that these helmets are capable of reducing the dangers of severe concussions by 48 times over Styrofoam helmets. They also market a MIPS system helmet with Q-cell but their testing shows no increase in protection (and a rather large increase in price).

This is not an ad and I'm not connected in any way to Trek or any subsidiary. I am a person that has suffered from a severe concussion and lost 5 years out of my life because of it. The majority of people would have died from what I went through. And I have lost complete memories such as the deaths of my father and mother. I have to take expensive medication with some nasty side effects for the remainder of my life. And I do not want to see this happen to anyone else and most especially bicyclists since I have ridden for perhaps 40 years. If this can be achieved by using a helmet that appears a little funny looking at first glance you should learn to get used to that. People used to think Styrofoam helmets looked funny.

Bah Humbug

In.

Amt0571

I don't have the knowledge to dispute your opinion. However I'd like to share my personal experience.

In 2014 I was riding around 25km/h and didn't see a chain crossing the path. I went over the bars and fell head first, literally upside down. Didn't had time neither to brake before the crash nor to stop or minimise the impact with my hands or arms. I fell on my head with my full body weight, flipped over, and fell on my back, my bike landed on my legs, I still had a foot clipped in and was holding the handlebars with right hand.

I was wearing a Bell helmet without MIPS (don't remember the model, but it was quite cheap, around 30€), and I weighted 69kg at the time.

After the crash the styrofoam was crushed to half its original thickness and cracked (it was only held together by the plastic outer shell). I didn't loose consciousness. I didn't feel any pain on my head during or after the crash. I kept perfect memory of what happened during the crash (I really saw it in slow motion).

I had cervical problems for approximately 6 months, and I was unable to turn my head to the left. I recovered fully without medical care. After the crash I was able to cycle home, 20km away, although it was somewhat painful on my cervicals, but mostly on my right hand, that held to the handlebar during the crash. Also had blood on a leg because the chainring had met my flesh, but nothing really painful.

I'm sure if I had not worn the helmet, I'd be dead. No way I could survive that impact without helmet.

That's my experience. It was a cheap helmet and it saved my life. I'm not riding anywhere without a helmet.

RiceAWay

Because of my racing experiences I have always worn safety gear including a helmet. I have crashed more times than I can count and because of the manner in which I fell I have never had a concussion before that one time and it was far more than enough. There is a small possibility that a helmet could save your life, but if so, it's so small you cannot detect it in the statistics. Which is to say, if a helmet saved your life it is as close to a miracle as you're ever likely to see. I still suggest you change over to the Bontrager Q-Cell.

WhyFi

Wait - what was the question?

Amt0571

I'm interested in the WaveCel tech, but have to try how it fits first. So far have not seen one to try in any shop around me.

Anyway, I'm going to ride with a helmet even if what happened was a miracle. It saved my life, and that's what counts. Without a helmet I feel naked as I do when sitting on a car without a seat belt on.

RiceAWay

Surprising as it may be there was only a 45% decrease in death rates after seat belts were made mandatory. And hidden in there is the lives saved by air bags, Now that gas mileage is prominent cars are being made more and more lightweight, the fatality rates in auto accidents are again on the way up. Big engines and light cars is not the formula for safe driving.

canklecat

MIPS is an acronym for Multi-directional Impact Protection System. It was developed in part by Swedish researchers. It's been around for awhile, not really "new" by bicycle industry standards.

POC, also a Swedish outfit that began with snow sports, apparently declined to license MIPS and developed their own variation, SPIN -- Shearing Pad INside, further straining the world's capacity for silly acronyms. Then they upped the ante with AVID and one or two other equally strained acronyms.

I have a Bell helmet with MIPS and a POC with SPIN. Both are good. The Bell is better finished and a better value, although the POC Omne Air SPIN has recently dropped in price to about half the original retail. The POC is more comfortable and better ventilated.

The POC is probably safer in a collision: thicker EPS, sits lower on the head covering more of the occipital and temporal regions, more comfortable harness that fits my skull more securely, including placing the adjustment dial in the hollow between the base of the skull and top of the neck.

Both are far better than the non-MIPS type helmets I've worn before. Although in 2018 when I was hit by a car, one of those non-MIPS helmets probably saved me from a nasty scalp gash, possibly from a skull fracture. I was struck from the side and my head smacked sideways onto the pavement. Anyone who thinks they can roll with it and keep their gigantic heavy melons from smacking the ground is fooling himself. Look at some videos of bike crashes. There are many in racing videos, and not all occur at particularly high speeds. Those are peak fitness human bodies. Their reflexes and situational awareness are primed for danger. And many of them can't prevent their heads from smacking the pavement.

On a recent casual group ride a friend fell after nicking a badly designed speed hump in a parking lot -- one of those rubbery plasticky things they bolt into the pavement. It has sharp ledges about an inch or so high, rather than the smooth transitions of most asphalt or concrete speed humps. She was probably going about 5 mph. Fell sideways, smacked her head on the pavement. She's young and fit with normal strength and reflexes. She couldn't react in time to prevent her head striking the ground. That's real world stuff. She had some bruises on her face but no apparent concussion. The POC helmet was barely scuffed (although I think she retired it anyway).

Last year while I was sweep on a casual group ride, the group split when a railroad crossing signal sounded. Invariably with n00bs some guy young and full of beans sounds the charge and urges everyone else to beat the traffic light or railroad signal. Not me. I stopped about 10 feet from the tracks and signaled other folks to do the same. I took a quick look around to check the riders and traffic behind me, and looked both ways down the track to check the train distance and speed. Turns out the train was hundreds of yards away and barely creeping forward.

In the few moments I did that visual check -- it was only a couple of seconds -- the rail crossing arm came down and bashed my noggin. The Bell MIPS helmet did exactly what MIPS is designed to do: it tilted while the harness remained secure on my skull, and deflected the blow. There wasn't even any damage to the helmet. I know I have a hard head (I was an amateur boxer and never knocked out or really even stunned by some heavy punchers in my area, some of whom went on to become pro world champs). But if that crossing arm had struck my bare head it would have hurt something awful.

Pretty atypical cycling scenario, but precisely the reason why I wore a hard hat on the job as an OSHA safety inspector years ago.

None of us in these rag chew sessions will ever reach consensus on a technical subject we're ill equipped to debate rationally. I'll trust the engineers who actually do the work.

The main reason I'll prefer MIPS or POC SPIN helmets is because they're more comfortable due to superior harness design, and I'm more likely to wear a comfortable helmet. And they don't cost much more. With the money I might save buying a non-MIPS helmet, I could buy a month's supply of my favorite coffee. Or buy both and hopefully survive to enjoy that coffee.

WalksOn2Wheels

Essentially we're talking about ways to avoid head/neck rotation on impact and the effectiveness of a material/design to dissipate (dissipation in more important than absorption) the force of an impact. Both of these things are not new in the motorcycle world. By default, a well ventilated bicycle helmet actually does a better job at dissipating impact forces than a solid eps shell in the same way that Shark motorcycle helmets used very similar eps profiles in implementing the concept of a crumple zone in their motorcycle helmets.

I will certainly agree that current helmet testing is a joke. The EU has the SHARP test for motorcycle helmets which actually uses different directions/locations for impacts and grades helmets on a 5 star rating similar to car crash safety ratings. It would be nice to see that for bicycle helmets.

I am a huge Trek fanboy and would have to disagree with your implication that Bontrager helmets are offering the only valid/safe bicycle helmet technology.

Bah Humbug

Vehicle miles travelled has gone up yearly since 2011; traffic fatalities as a function of that have remained steady apart from minor yearly fluctuations. Surely you don't think an old car is safer than a new one?

And that steady rate of fatalities by mile is against the meteoric rise of drivers distracted by smartphones. By your logic, that hasn't resulted in increased fatalities, so it's perfectly safe. Correct?

RiceAWay

About two or three years ago I was descending a rather steep hill composed mostly of heavy powder dust. There was a long string of MTB'ers coming up and they didn't appear to be the most experienced so I got off the beaten track and into the dust. I was moving pretty fast on my CX bike since I was overconfident from disk brakes. My front wheel dropped into a deep depression hidden by the dust and I jerked forward and grabbed the bars and unfortunately the brake levers to keep myself of the bike., The wheels locked tight and I was launched almost straight up as the bike rotated over it's front wheel. That along with the steep downhill put me 6 or 7 feet in the air.

But that gave me time to rotate my body around and land completely on my back making the landing fairly easy in he powder. But then the bike came crashing down on top of me. There I lay trying to make heads or tails of what happened as one of the passing MTB kids called "Are you OK?" I responded with, "AM I OK???" which echoed off of the surrounding hills quite a few times. I hope I didn't scare that kid out of riding. I kicked my bike off of the top of me and stood up and told him I was OK and carried on down the hill more carefully. The only real injuries were some cuts on my right hand fingers because of the short fingered road gloves I was wearing. Never wear short fingered gloves off-road.

Sy Reene

"most commuters ride at average speeds of about 5mph" Really?

What's your take on Virginia Tech's methodology for helmet testing?
https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstr...=1&isAllowed=y

tomato coupe

No, they're not.

RiceAWay

Vehicle miles have gone up yearly since the 1920's. Since around 1975 the death rates per mile has fallen. Most of this is from federally mandated safety features. The latest safety feature is anti-collision detectors. This may cause more accidents than it prevents since it allows for more confidence, speed and distracted driving.

I have absolutely no idea what you your second paragraph is supposed to mean. Lowering fatality rates are basically caused by an increase in average driver ability but the extremes are growing further and further apart. This signals an end to lowering accident rates.