What's Cooler than being cool?



Discussions on helmets or any safety related issues/items seems to raise a lot of passion here. I guess that's a good thing? I'll go to a couple of LBS and try some on for fit and comfort. I wonder if anyone has ever done a scientific study of airflow and heat dissipation with various helmets? I'll never forget fitting my 4 year old with her first bike helmet: After getting it fitted she put her head down and walked straight into one of the columns in our basement and fell over upon impact. Both the helmet and the kid were intact; equipment and rider certified!
 
Originally Posted by jaygeephoto .

Discussions on helmets or any safety related issues/items seems to raise a lot of passion here. I guess that's a good thing?
The diversity of opinion on head safety and helmets is interesting. There is a video of Phillipe Gilbert training I came across on YT and when looking at the comments many of them were chastising him for not wearing a helmet. It's funny because it wasn't until I read the comments that I had even given it a second thought.

Managing ones safety is an admirable thing, but like religion it would never occur to me to tell someone they should or shouldn't believe in whatever it is they do or don't believe in. Ride safe.
 
"One should never where a helmet unless you have something to protect" - that's the extent of my proselytizing. I rode many miles during my college years (back when the earth was still cooling) and only the patron saint of ding-bats kept me safe. That's my religion.
 
Originally Posted by jaygeephoto .

I rode many miles during my college years (back when the earth was still cooling) and only the patron saint of ding-bats kept me safe. That's my religion.
You and me both. I started racing before helmets were even mandated by the USCF. Going into a bike shop then one had a selection of leather hairnets, which would have done a splendid job of keeping ones skull fragments in one place, or the ginormous Bell.

Here is an intesting read on the evolution of the racing helmet rule: http://www.stanford.edu/~learnest/cyclops/bash1.htm

.
 
I'm going with a Bell Sweep; it's seems like a reasonable compromise. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
My wife, as well as my sense of responsibility to her and our daughter, compels me to wear a helmet. Once in a great while, though, I forget to put it on 'til I'm a mile or so down the road, and it feels so nice.

Had a Sweep for three years. It's extremely well ventilated, but it makes a lot of wind noise and the fins on the back are very sensitive to being dropped on. The Volt is quieter and more rugged with no apparent loss of cooling effect.
 
oldbobcat said:
The Volt is quieter and more rugged with no apparent loss of cooling effect.
+1. A Volt is what I put on my head, and its cooling in desert heat was as good as I could have wanted.
 
Originally Posted by jaygeephoto .

... I heat up easily and in fact breaking a sweat just now thinking. My major concern is something that will give me the best ventilation and not cook away what little brains I have left ...
FWIW. Regardless of the helmet which you end up using, a strategy which you may want to employ on days when there is less natural breeze is to wear a thin cap, dew rag, thin "sponge" or cabbage leaf (which has been soaked in water overnight) under your helmet AND keep whatever you choose dampened with plain water ...

  • if necessary, then stop, periodically, and re-moisten ...

DON'T allow yourself to overheat -- drink more fluids, too.
 
Originally Posted by alfeng .


or cabbage leaf (which has been soaked in water overnight)

  • if necessary, then stop, periodically, and re-moisten ...
You sure dont mean a cabbage leaf from the cabbage vegetable yeh?
 
" Going into a bike shop then one had a selection of leather hairnets, which would have done a splendid job of keeping ones skull fragments in one place, or the ginormous Bell."

I still have my thin Cinelli hairnet and my American made Kucharik hairnet. The Kucharik is three times the thickness of the Cinelli and the padding is much less squishy in addition to having much more padding, period. I have no doubt it would offer the protection of a modern helmet, but I would ride with confidence in it today.

Kucharik:



Cinelli:

 
Quote:Originally Posted by Volnix .You sure dont mean a cabbage leaf from the cabbage vegetable yeh?


Yes ...

At one time, using a leaf from a cabbage plant placed under a cycling cap was a preferred option for keeping 'cool' on hot days ...

It is an option which 'I' never actually tried, but it made sense because a raw cabbage leaf is fairly stable.
 
Originally Posted by alfeng .


Yes ...

At one time, using a leaf from a cabbage plant placed under a cycling cap was a preferred option for keeping 'cool' on hot days ...

It is an option which 'I' never actually tried, but it made sense because a raw cabbage leaf is fairly stable.
Havent heard that one before...
 
Originally Posted by mpre53 .


I'll check it tomorrow. The helmet's in my car. It's pouring like hell and I'm not about to go out tonight. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif
Totally forgot about this thread. The label says Snell B 90A.
 
Originally Posted by hyperliterate .

For what it's worh, Consumer Reports rated the Specialized Echelon the highest for it's greater impact resistance and that's a $60 helmet.


http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health/exercise-fitness/bike-helmets/bike-helmets-ratings/ratings-overview.htm
I found a standards comparison between the CPSC and the Snell B-90. They are almost identical, except a couple of load cases:

http://www.bhsi.org/stdchart.htm

There is also a more detailed version on that website.

I havent found any websites that do catastrophic tests on helmets though in order to measure ultimate strenght values...
 
Current issue of Bicycling has an article discussing the lack of progress in helmet standards, and how that's about to change with two new design concepts coming to market soon. Called "MIPS" and "AIM", they attempt to reduce concussions via attenuation of rotational forces.
 
"I havent found any websites that do catastrophic tests on helmets though in order to measure ultimate strenght values..."

Well, sir...allow me to introduce you to the CampyBob Institute of Helmet Standards and Certification, Compliance and Approval! Or just CBIOHSACCAA for short.

This is the first and only helmet I've destroyed in 41 years of cycling. Thanks to Giro, my eggs were not scrambled.





"Strength" is not so much the issue as is how much deceleration the helmet will provide during an impact. One good thump and they're all toast, from $30 to $250...junk. That was a medium speed fall (approx. 20 MPH) and the side impact when my head slapped the road was not all that severe as crashes go.

The issue of helmet ventilation or 'coolness' is critical because most people are not going to wear a sweatbox on their heads. My first hardshell helmet was a Brancale and it was like riding in a steam sauna. Matter of fact, that old Kurcharik was VERY hot. The Cinelli hairnet was probably the ultimate in 'cool' and offered all the protection of a dewrag.
 
Originally Posted by CAMPYBOB .

"I havent found any websites that do catastrophic tests on helmets though in order to measure ultimate strenght values..."

Well, sir...allow me to introduce you to the CampyBob Institute of Helmet Standards and Certification, Compliance and Approval! Or just CBIOHSACCAA for short.

This is the first and only helmet I've destroyed in 41 years of cycling. Thanks to Giro, my eggs were not scrambled.





"Strength" is not so much the issue as is how much deceleration the helmet will provide during an impact. One good thump and they're all toast, from $30 to $250...junk. That was a medium speed fall (approx. 20 MPH) and the side impact when my head slapped the road was not all that severe as crashes go.

The issue of helmet ventilation or 'coolness' is critical because most people are not going to wear a sweatbox on their heads. My first hardshell helmet was a Brancale and it was like riding in a steam sauna. Matter of fact, that old Kurcharik was VERY hot. The Cinelli hairnet was probably the ultimate in 'cool' and offered all the protection of a dewrag.
I havent crashed in 3 years now! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif Last time I crashed I only got some scratches... I am kinda worried what will happen -if- I do though... I dont have a computer on the road bike and I use the Strava application to record the rides. The other day I came back and saw this:




I am pretty sure that this is some GPS glitch, but if it wasnt that was a ride in the city that its about 20km and I do that every once and a while. I never felt that I was going more then 40kmh. So there must have been some wind, road and awesomo-power at synergy to come up with this result... /img/vbsmilies/smilies/eek.gif

A guy who is doing some cycling tours here once said that its also pretty important to have body protection too not just head protection. I use a CSPC certified helmet (a standard Bell one). It isnt overventilated but it doestn get uncomfortably hot. Worst thing I mind is the strap which when adjusted correctly is still annoying. Some people on a training session I went had little pillow pads on their helmet straps...

I am sure that the helmet will help in case of an impact with a flat surface, by absorbing the force of the impact, If something sticks right through it though its another thing... /img/vbsmilies/smilies/redface.gif

I was checking some crazy stuff on the net the other day like this ones:




A "pressure suit" something... Right... might as well start riding slower and play Gran Turismo on the playstation... /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif