I worked at a materials science and mechanical testing lab for a while and just out of curiosity, what type of equipment did you test helmets with and how did you record the data?
Originally Posted by cyclintom
It is VERY important for people to understand that a helmet MOSTLY works by crushing. If you see a helmet broken up and the foam not crushed to half of its original depth it didn't work. It might have spread the blow around on your skull so that your skull could take the blow, but the main job of a helmet is to ABSORB the energy and not simply to spread it out over a wider surface area.
Lately what I've been seeing is more and more people reporting that helmets are breaking and not crushing. As an engineer I know what that means and it isn't good. It suggests that the material from which the helmets are now made and the fit is entirely inappropriate for anything other than manufacturing reasons. I could go more deeply into it but I don't really believe that Bell should be sued for producing what the market wants.
I've torn helmets apart and tested the various components to gain a better idea of what you can and what you cannot expect from a helmet. The material in 1995 helmets was tough stuff that wouldn't break when exposed to hard blows.