Mountain Biking - So i stacked pretty hard today

Landed right on my shoulder and hit my head pretty hard. Shoulder hurts like hell, i dont think its broken because i can still move my arm full range of motion. I busted my helmet pretty badly.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/F14K/crackedhelmet.jpg

Thank god i was wearing it! Amazingly, my head feels fine. No headache, i didnt feel any pain when my head hit. There was never any doubt that wearing one was a good idea, but this sure reinforced that!

That said, i was wondering if there are helmets out there that can sustain multiple impacts without cracking? I was thinking about getting a skate helmet or something. Anyone use one? Are they still good after a fall?

Skate helmets are very uncomfortable for xc. Glad to hear you are ok.

wow you really cracked that helmet nice and good :p at least it wasnt your skull

Wow dude. I'm glad your OK.

Thank God your melon is okay!

Regarding multiple impacts. Any helmet that withstands any kind of really hard impact I would replace, cracked or not - who knows what is happening under that plastic shell? You don't know if the foam is compressed or damaged unless you remove the shell to inspect it. My friend regularly would take off his motorcycle helmet and throw (bounce) it across the garage. We kept warning him not to do that. He said that if it could withstand a crash, it could withstand the impact. One day his brother and I decided to take that beat up old thing and rip it apart. Sure enough, under the shell it was all deformed and compacted - damaged - from his repeated abuse of it. So we hurried up and got him a new one before he got mad. Boy was he surprised at the potential for failure. Now he keeps the new one nicely on the shelf.

You never know what lurks below...

Yeah ive been doing some reading and decided ill just replace it, probably with the exact same model. Its comfy, and i literally didnt feel a thing headwise when i smacked it. Good helmet, not too expensive either.

i have a trek helet, and even if there is no visibale damage all i have to do is ship it to them and they ship me a new one for free. lifetime garantee too

Guarantee against impact? Or just defect and the like? If i have another crash and they will replace it, even damaged, then that would be worth looking at.

Helmets are designed to absorb impact and get crushed to save your head. After an impact, you have to buy a new one. That's that.

Yep exactly what the post above said. They are not designed to last over large impacts, they are supposed to crush and aborb the impact.

Yeah, i knew that about regular helmets. I thought skate helmets were supposed to be different.

Ill take buying a new helmet over a concussion anyday.

trek vapor 2 is what i got from my local shop. ive had some hard falls on it and its worked great, i had to send it back in once and they gave be back a different color because i asked :D. i read somewhere that they dont meet some standards? but i feel its a great helmet and it looks cool too :P.
as for the garentee yes its lifetime and it says not exactly but like this: if you fall using this helmet send it back to our company and we will return to you a brand new helmet. you can crash and there might not even be the slightest visibal evidence of it, send it in to us and we will return you a new one.
it was 40 bucks for the helmet but with the gaurentee like that i couldnt resist.

Most dirtjumping (skate-style) and DH (Full-face) helmets are, to a degree, multi-impact. If the guys in these diciplines really replaced their helmets everytime they bumped something, they would spend thousands of dollars a year on helmets! Generally they have fibreglass or carbon shells, and they will be at least a little bit hotter and heavier than XC and road lids. But that said, I wear my fullface for quite a bit of freeride/XC, so I guess you can get used to anything.

A big enough whack will damage any helmet, though... multiple-impact means *small* impacts, not crunching off a giant rock (or bouncing across a cement floor).

Take some advil, the pain is coming.