mr_bill

And it has indeed turned out HUGE!

p.s. In the EU, your *CAR* will soon enforce the speed limits.

-mr. bill

livedarklions

You guys who actually know stuff, can you explain why they can't seem to agree on a neck analog?

I have no engineering knowledge, but I am fascinated by this stuff.

I'm under the impression that there really isn't much good data on real-world cycle crashes, which makes it difficult to figure out what should be emphasized in design. Is that wrong? It's not like football helmets where there are literally many thousands of impacts on video produced every year.If that's the case, dummy testing would seem like a pretty good place to go beyond anvils.

Rollfast

Force shields and laser cannons, or forget it. Han Solo was right, that and secret compartments to hide Kessel spices.

CrankyOne

Consider that the country with likely the least rate of helmet use, The Netherlands, has the lowest rate of bicycle fatalities (7.3 / Billion km) and is the only country in the world where it is safer to ride 1 km on a bicycle than 1 km in a car.

Two countries with the highest helmet use in the world, U.S. and Australia, also have the highest rates of bicycle fatalities (76 / billion km and 52 / billion km respectively)

Why is that?

banerjek

Obviously, the helmets are the problem.

Though we could also improve things by keeping cyclists off the roads and relegating them to low speed tracks where they ride only short distances on flat ground.

CrankyOne

I'm not so sure about the short distances. The average Dutch rides about 1100 miles per year, the average American 30. That's 33 times farther. For individual trips I know folks who ride 30-40 miles each way to work on those low speed tracks.

The majority of Dutch (and many Dane, Swede, ...) school children ride bicycles to school every day. How about American children? It's not unusual for school children to ride 10 miles or more each way. Americans?

As to low speed, the Dutch produce, per capita, about 13 times as many professional bicycle racers as the U.S. And likely multiples of that for amateur along with their amateur racers being very successful across Europe. How is that with all of those low speed tracks? I've done training rides in The Netherlands and they are certainly not slower than rides in the U.S.

All of this and U.S. bicycle riders are about 11 times as likely to be killed as Dutch.

Yep, I'll take those low speed tracks and short distances over whatever we call our mess in the U.S.

Rollfast

You're going to die anyway. Just be alert and stop obsessing.

Stadjer

To be fair, the Dutch produce per capita about 13 times as many professionals in about any sport, except American Football and a few other typical American sports. This has at least something to do with cycling, because the average kid can choose from about ten different sports without beeing dependent on the parents bringing them. It also keeps kids relatively fit when they don't have a sport for a while. Where I grew up the cycling track (open air) was just a few hundred meters further than both football clubs. Erik Dekker is probably the biggest name from that club.

There are troubles with road cyclists, both on the roads and on the cycling lanes. But that's mainly 40+ fat blokes in lycra with very fancy bikes who fail to pick their routes, times and cool down when they hit a town or commuting or normal recreational traffic. Also mentally they are heated, in a sports state of mind, it's quite easy to get in an unfriendly confrontation with them. The riders from clubs tend to pick their time and place better, and have more (self) discipline. There ar plenty of good roads for road cycling, but you have to get there first and the aged amateurs often lack the stamina, patience and consideration.

CliffordK

The problem with bicycle helmets is something that has been known for quite some time.

Cyclists work hard and sweat. And, need minimalist gear. A motorcycle helmet is just to heavy and sweaty to be effective. They're better for someone simply sitting on a motorycycle without pedaling. And, still, they may protect the noggin, but not necessarily give enough neck protection.

The current generation of bike helmets are made for about 10 or 20 MPH impacts. So they give reasonable protection for normal crashes, falls, running into cars that pull out in front of oneself, etc. But, no protection for getting run over by 50 ton truck tires, or high speed crashes.

If I was to get hit by a car with a 50 to 70 MPH speed differential, I'd rather have a helmet on to hopefully minimize damage, but I'd also know the limitations of the helmet.

One other part of the equation is that one usually brakes before impact (both cyclists and drivers), so one my have a high cruising speed, but low impact speed.

Of course, there are those instances without adequate braking.

CliffordK

My guess is that within a decade or so, we'll start seeing motorcycle airbags becoming common accessories.



Hard to say how that will impact the bicycle industry.

The Hövding is coming. When will Gen 2 be out?

That may well improve neck support if done right.

The test in that video was just direct rear impact. Perhaps one of the most scary types of impact for us, but there are many other scenarios including front impact, side impact, and solo rider impacts.

CrankyOne

Another perspective. If a helmet were designed that was 100% completely effective in preventing every fatal head injury... We'd still have a bicycle fatality rate over 7 times greater than The Netherlands.

And 5 times greater than Denmark or Sweden and 4 times greater than Norway, Finland or Switzerland.