I need helmets for my kids. What advice can you give me and how can I save some money? Also, I don't have one but I've never used one. How important is it for adults? By the way, is there a law in every state for bicycle helmets?

I think this is pretty accurate for the laws (refer to the last column)
State Motorcycle and Bicycle Helmet Laws

Having said that, here's my stance on this controversial subject. There is a lot of debate whether helmets make it safer or not, some evidence claims that drivers give cyclists without a helmet more room. I don't know about that.

But, I personally think it's important for kids to wear a helmet, and that the adults riding with them should as well. They will be a lot more likely to willingly wear a helmet if their parents are.

Safety wise, they are pretty much all the same, there are standards. Always buy new, and for them get a helmet that they like, even if that means whatever cartoon character is popular. Fit and proper placement of the helmet is the most important aspect.

I use a helmet, but I do a lot of my street riding with the cycling club that requires it for insurance purposes.

I have a helmet. I don't like wearing my helmet. But my streets have loads of potholes. Infact, the city just paid out a $3M settlement because of a cyclists who died after hitting a pothole. I killed my shocks on my car after hitting a pothole and needed to get them replaces. It was just before the freeway onramp and I was going 35-40ish. So I wear it for safety knowing how much my roads suck. On one of my main pathways out of my street, there is a 4 inch ledge like pothole on the street that has been there for years (there is a really old tree next to it, so I am sure it is the root system).

I decided if I was going to wear one, it would be cute. So I got one from Nutcase. They make fun helmets for kids and adults. And amazingly enough, I get compliments on my helmet all the time. 3 today while I was running my errands.

This is my helmet's silver twin: https://store.nutcasehelmets.com/collections/bike/products/silver-sparkle-1

To save money, buy helmets at a dept or big box store. You still need to have them try helmets on. You may find close-out deals on helmets at bike shops.

Helmets should fit snug when adjusted properly; too small a helmet will fit too high on the head and probably be too tight somewhere on the skull, too big a helmet will tend to roll forward or back.

You'll need to check your state and local laws -- there may be a cycling advocacy group in your state with a website listing state and community helmet laws. Generally, kids are required to wear helmets, adults no.

Importance for adults...? There's a stickied thread at the top of this forum debating the utility of helmet use. Some think they are critical equipment, and those who don't wear them are ignorant future organ donors; some think they are beyond useless, bordering on dangerous. I wear a helmet to provide some injury mitigation regarding less than serious head injury in the rare occurrence that I crash my bike and the even rarer occasion when I hit my head as a result -- I don't wear one thinking it will make me invincible, a safer rider, or that it will protect me from serious head injury.

Concussions are bad news, for kids and adults. There's actually plenty of research showing that kids are more likely to bounce back from certain brain injuries than adults are, though. Their brains are still growing so actually have the ability to "send" a function lost to brain damage over to another, uninjured section of brain (Neuroplasticity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Buuuuuuuuut, that being said, definitely put a helmet on your kids. That kind of stuff happens to varying degrees (here's an interesting example: Hemispherectomy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), so yeah, a lot of irreversible damage can still occur. I'd suggest one for yourself too; your brain is you, you should protect it.

Off to the helmet thread, especially since no helmet maker claims to help to prevent concussive injury.

You can't claim something unless it's been proven, or at least, you shouldn't claim something unless it's been proven or tested. You can't claim a helmet prevents concussive injury because you can't ethically make people fall of bicycles in a controlled, repetitive manner and then quantify the results; the way a scientific experiment would be carried out. You also can't use animal models because their heads are different shapes than ours...and, well, it should be obvious. What you can do is create models that approximate what could happen to our heads and use that info to provide evidence as to whether or not helmets increase safety and reduce instances of traumatic brain injury, like concussions, as seen here: Bicycle helmets are highly effective at prev... [Accid Anal Prev. 2014] - PubMed - NCBI

Go to this website:Helmets: Bicycle Helmets

I'm not a helmet "true believer" and don't wear one, because I don't consider my risk level high enough to call for one. But my risk level doesn't translate to anybody else's. But I do understand why helmet makers make few claims. They stand on the theories of testing agencies (Snell foundation, and ANSI - American National Standards Institute) which set the levels of protection and the testing procedures.

Helmets do reduce impact G-force in head strikes, and there is very good medical science that correlates G-force to TBI. Of course, this being biological, there will be variations human to human, but the overall ranges are well established.

Helmet makers are also careful not to make claims because that might be held against them when injuries occur. But realistically, reducing impact G-force, will reduce or mitigate injury. What may otherwise might be mitigated to no injury, what might cause a sever concussion, might be a milder concussion, and what may be fatal might become a major concussion. Notice, it's always might because there's no assurance, nor is there sure knowledge of what might have happened without a helmet.

We're used to these types of might help claims, because they're common in other applications. Statin drugs con't claim to prevent heart attacks, but millions of people are taking them on the theory that reducing cholesterol might reduce the likelihood of an attack.

Last thought. A helmet might offer protection against head injury, but the best protection is to not have a head strike in the first place. The best way to improve safety is to learn how to ride safely, which is not only about bike handling, but understanding traffic, and the other hazards of riding on roads.

My best advice is to talk to a reputable bike shop in your area and forget that you started this thread.

Marc

Agreed. Have a responsible salesperson help select and fit the helmets to your children's heads and show you how to properly adjust them. You can go to a big box store and buy a helmet but it is unlikely there will be someone there to talk about the importance of proper fit. Nothing is more troublesome than to see kids riding around with helmets on backwards or flopping about on their heads serving no other function than to give the parents some kind of absolution by saying, "But he was wearing a helmet." after a crash.

And some one posted this already but it has some useful info: Helmets: Bicycle Helmets


And you could watch this video-

Closing this before it become Helmet Thread fodder, since the OP hasn't returned to the thread.