gearbasher

...then this is for you



Sorry, I can't stop laughing.



https://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2012/...met/?hpt=hp_c2

gaucho777 

For those that hate the feeling of riding with a helmet, but don't mind a giant $600 nylon neck warmer.

puchfinnland

that is great motivation to ride very carefully so that you are not laughed at after it deploys.

remember the scene from
[h=1]Demolition Man[/h]when the car fills up with foam?

Cougrrcj

"...and the next thing I knew I'm in the inside of a cannoli!"

lostarchitect 

The problem with this is the price, and the fact that it can only deploy once. They need to fix those issues.

If you actually look into it, it appears to be effective protection, so don't laugh too hard.

Der_Kruscher

Add to the problems that it will be unsuitable for warm climates and the potential for it to fail if something goes wrong with it. Another concern of mine is how grippy the helmet fabric is. If it doesn't slide on the ground like a plastic shell does it as to potential to cause neck injuries. Anyway, my general feeling is that people need to get over their vanity if they want to protect their heads.

cpsqlrwn

Really enhances that peripheral vision!

lostarchitect 

It only blows up if you crash.

lostarchitect 

I think they can solve both those issues, if they are a problem. I think it's an interesting experiment and I would like to see where it goes.

iab

This has been on the design blogs for quite some time now. It has been widely lampooned. My favorite is how one of the inventors is so dramatic about hating helmets and how her professor thinks this POS will save the world.

steppinthefunk 

I personally think it's an awesome idea!

rhm

The point about vanity, a few posts back, is on target. The designer thinks bike helmets are ugly, and her aesthetic sense rebels. I can sympathize. But I have long ago come to the conclusion no one will admire my beautiful hair when I'm on the bike. They will have to settle for my legs.

RobbieTunes

I wonder what they did with the other $9.75 million, besides make a video.
I also wonder if those were European venture capitalists.
Makes their current situation understandable.

Velognome 

I'm working on a smaller Flux Capacitor to mount on my handle bars. It's triggered by an inertia switch and I've got it set for 1972.

Cougrrcj

I never wore a helmet until I was 'forced' to when on an organized ride where helmets were required bits of rider gear. That's when I wore the borrowed 'Skid Lid' for TOSRV 1977.

Heaven (and 'Safety Nazi') forbid, but I rode around - helmetless - for literally thousands of miles before then. From the age of four or so (say early 1960s) until that ride in '77 I never wore a helmet. I don't think I even saw a bicycle helmet until I went to college in '76!

Be it said that one of my college roommates that freshman '76-77 year had one of the original Bell Shells (White Mushroom) helmets that literally saved his life. Well, it may not have saved his life, but it for sure saved his ear from being ground off as he slid along the pavement after being hit by a car the summer before I met him... Another dorm-mate had a yellow BSR bike helmet.

I do wear one now, although I probably should replace it since I bought it over 14 years ago and it is getting a bit long in the tooth. But then again, it is kinda like the rest of my gear -- VINTAGE!!!!

Amesja

Or just do as millions of riders did before Big Helmet got into the act and simply ride without one.

Riding bicycles really isn't THAT dangerous, and helmets don't really do THAT much good with regards to protection over-all.

Cougrrcj

You do realize that Back to the Future was in the mid '80s, right? Oh wait,... they went back to 1955...

mkeller234

Wait a minute.... I have to sit down. Your going to be a millionaire.

puchfinnland

I will order a fluxgate when you got it done!
PM me I will be waiting!!


I think the big scarf is more annoying then a helmet.
this is a better direction to go!

RFC

Wasn't there an Outer Limits where key executives who had heart attacks were incased in a cocoon?

RobbieTunes

I like riding helmetless, on slow, meandering rides at 6mph with the missus.

I like riding helmetless on my hard workouts, but as soon as I think about my friend with the staples in his head, or the triathlon friend who has had three serious bone-breakers (and cracked helmets) and the other triathlete who has done the human cyclist vault twice over cars (and cracked two helmets), I generally turn around and go back home and get it.

I'm really not sure if they make a difference, actually, but I wear one. I'm more concerned that, with my luck, I'll be the one who hits his noggin on that fire hydrant, and I'd prefer something there.

I simply don't ride statistics, pretty much do what makes common sense, based on my experience and my own cracked helmets.

iab

Nobody wants to use insurance,

But you still have it to mitigate risk.

Roypercy

I think the main problem here (besides the fact that its inventors are annoyingly self-important, and the thing looks like it would be bulky and hot) is that, if you fall over on your bike it deploys all $600 worth of one-time compressed air, no matter if you were going to hit your head or not. A helmet, on the other hand,works when you need it and retains its value the rest of the time. Hell, I wouldn't buy a single use helmet if it cost $60; if they can get it down to $6, then they'll be on to something...

Amesja

+1

This gee-wiz gadget seems to be a huge liability. I'm sure people will buy it though. My prediction is that a lot of folks will get them and hang them next to the bikes they have hanging from their garage rafters. And both the helmets and the bikes will sit there for years waiting for the next buyers.

CbadRider

Welcome to A&S from C&V.

If this turns into a helmet pro/con thread, it gets merged with the existing helmet sticky thread.