Originally Posted by
livedarklions
Since I don't think we should be experimenting with hitting our own heads, I think the best data we can share is whether we as actual riders find the helmets comfortable and useable, and I'm interested in hearing your "review".
LOL. This is the absolute fact. Weight, cooling, comfort, style, all trump safety by miles. Otherwise we'd all wear full-face motorcycle helmets with built-in mirrors and modified HANS devices. Most crashes are faster than the 13.8 mph or whatever these helmets actually protect from, and because there are so many variables, no one knows or ever will know how any helmet protects compared to any other in real-world scenarios.
Not to put down people who buy $300 helmets. Freedom is wonderful, and if they feel better, that itself is the value they are paying for ... like the people who put 40-pound locks and chains on their bikes, when an angle grinder or bottle jack can defeat any of them anyway. If a person can buy peace of mind, super.
Weight, cooling, general comfort after long rides under different conditions, matter more than MIPS or "Wavecell," whether or not people admit to that. And [MENTION=484412]livedarklions[/MENTION]' $40 helmet is as good as the $300 helmets ... both by his rating and by the rating of the high-tech testing boards.
What does it all mean? We are all constantly balancing reason and emotion, logic and imagination, in our own minds, and we think the picture, the mental model of reality we react to is actually the real world while in fact, most sensory data is elided and a lot of imaginary "data" is added. We live in fantasy worlds in our heads ... and what "works" is what keeps us happily in our fantasies regardless of what reality might be doing.
I "feel" safe riding with no helmet. I might die of a head injury while cycling but I haven't so far. Livedarklions feels safe with his top-rated bargain helmet. He might die of a head injury while cycling but he hasn't so far. Some other person feels safe with his or her Mips or Wavecell helmet, and hasn't died of a cycling head injury and might or might not. But what matters to all of us us is feeling safe---whatever it takes for each of us. And the reality is we might die of Anything at any time----we might get hit from behind by a drunk driver and die of broken necks with our heads perfectly intact.
Statistically we are all more likely to die from slipping in the bathtub and hitting our heads---where none of us wear helmets and would consider it ridiculous. See what I mean?