Is there a necessity for a bicycle helmet which provides a better range and quality of protection ?

Do you feel that there is a necessity for this project and the development of a new helmet?

  • Yes

    Votes: 3 8.8%
  • No

    Votes: 31 91.2%

  • Total voters
    34
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Heltor Chasca

Out-riding the Black Dog

rogerzilla

Legendary Member
Just start using the Snell B.90 standard again. All modern helmets are made to the crappy EN1078 standard, and you might as well wear a beanie.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
SNELL isn't all that either. B90 is nearly 3 decades old and one would like to think materials science and impact research had moved forward a bit since then. After all, how many cyclists fall off and conveniently head butt anvils while falling through an exactly straight path in 3D space with no ballistic arc of movement, no rotation, and no skidding? Not at all relevant to the actual cycling environment. Even B90A is, if memory serves, over 2 decades old.
 

Tom B

Guru
Location
Lancashire
I'm sure that happened to Coyote. He seemed to bounce back though.
Obviously he was wearing a SNELL rated lid!

I sit on the fence with this one. I didn't wear a skidlid but two of my most serious injuries from cycling may have been mitigated. First was falling off and striking my head on a stone leading to me cutting my forehead (5 stitches) and knocking myself out for long enough for two girls to find me and run off to fetch help before i woke up and rode off. And secondly when I gave planted the floor at speed smashing teeth out. Certainly the cut wouldnt have happened as I'm both cases the brim of the hat would have struck first.

Only last week I toppled off the MTB and struck my lid on a rock that would have otherwise a) hurt and b) probably cut my scalp.

Equally I can't see the point of a lump of polystyrene in a crash with a car or indeed how effective MIPS is. I'm very much against mounting stuff on my hat.

That said it's sort of irrelevant the op is doing a project, it's not really that important what is created as long as he can show the research and development path.

When I was around that age doing science a levels I did the steam extraction of clove oil from cloves. Hardly rocket science. Incidentally rhe collage made us all do a business studies course on the side (it was all the rage at the time) and I again used the clove oil in the course work for that too crossing over some of the work. Much to the amusement of the oldskool science tutor who thought the businesses studies on the side was a waste of time.

The OP might want to consider if motorvehicles could be altered to be more crash friendly to cyclists. Or perhaps look at neck injury could something like the hans device help neck injuries? Collar bone protection? Road rash protection. Fully waterproof shoes including around where skinny blokes ankles go in! (I'm imagining bibtightwaders.

It's an academic project doesn't have to be entirely real world.
 
Last edited:

simongt

Guru
Location
Norwich
other associated organs.
Perhaps I should have qualified by saying 'body parts' instead, thus bringing in skull, ears, jaw, teeth, hair, scalp - ! :okay:
 

12boy

Guru
Location
Casper WY USA
I once had a crash that shattered the helmet but left no mark on my head. Inside my head was another matter as I was severely concussed and couldn't remember the name of the hotel I was staying at although I could find my way back. I am sure the training received that day was very important but couldn't remember any of it. Fortunately the 300 mile drive back home wasn't till the day after that. Perhaps it would have worse had there been no helmet, but I am not sure they do much preventing the brain bouncing around in the skull.
As far as mods go, a light helmet with a replaceable face screen would be nice in riding in extreme cold to reduce the wind chill on the face and bugs and other debris in warmer months. Since the face screen would surely get scratched over time, an inexpensive replaceable one would be nice.
 
Current helmets are lumps of polystyrene covered in plastic - they do very little. If one could be developed giving greater protection (with no downside) than that would be of interest to me
 
Anything that can add weight to the proof some people seem to need, that cycle helmets save lives, is always welcome. Darwinism takes too long.
 
I once had a crash that shattered the helmet but left no mark on my head. Inside my head was another matter as I was severely concussed and couldn't remember the name of the hotel I was staying at although I could find my way back. I am sure the training received that day was very important but couldn't remember any of it. Fortunately the 300 mile drive back home wasn't till the day after that. Perhaps it would have worse had there been no helmet, but I am not sure they do much preventing the brain bouncing around in the skull.
As far as mods go, a light helmet with a replaceable face screen would be nice in riding in extreme cold to reduce the wind chill on the face and bugs and other debris in warmer months. Since the face screen would surely get scratched over time, an inexpensive replaceable one would be nice.
If the helmet “shattered” it failed to do anything to mitigate the accident. It’s a bit like when your wheels lock up under braking. You’ve gone past the limit where the brakes are actually slowing you, and they are no longer contributing anything. If the helmet shatters, from the point it does so, it’s not doing anything, anymore. Helmets are only effective, in a crash, if they deform, but don’t disintegrate. That’s a point which is often not understood by people. So developing lids that can take increasing battering, without failure, would be a worthwhile exercise.
 
Current helmets are lumps of polystyrene covered in plastic - they do very little. If one could be developed giving greater protection (with no downside) than that would be of interest to me
My lids are constructed from Carbon Fiber and Kevlar, over a carcass of high density polyurethane foam, which varies in its thickness, depending on where it’s positioned ( much thicker around the temples, and the forehead than the top of the lid for example). Good old German engineering. They cost a lot more than most lids, but I don’t have a cheap head, so I won’t wear a cheap lid.
 
My lids are constructed from Carbon Fiber and Kevlar, over a carcass of high density polyurethane foam, which varies in its thickness, depending on where it’s positioned ( much thicker around the temples, and the forehead than the top of the lid for example). Good old German engineering. They cost a lot more than most lids, but I don’t have a cheap head, so I won’t wear a cheap lid.

Link ? pictures ?
 
Top Bottom