Which is the Safest Helmet?
 

If money is no object, which helmet do you deem to be the safest for commuting and why?

I just read an article that says "Most helmet designs haven’t changed in decades to account for different types of crashes... and only a newer kind of helmet engineered to deal with multiple types of forces would fully protect your brains from a bash."

(Please post links if possible.)

I have a POC Trabec Race MIPS helmet. It goes for about $250 retail. REI sells them for $230. I got one on a combination of sales at about $150.

MIPS helmets should be the safest ones around now, they incorporate far more modern knowledge about brain injury than the old CPSC standards.

They're right, the CPSC standards have not been updated in decades. Apparently congress (opposite of progress) forbids the CPSC from updating the standard unless they can show that the financial savings of reducing injury is greater than the financial hardship of forcing companies to change how they make helmets and of obsoleting old helmets. Yup, they want CPSC to put a dollar value on your brain damage. Your tax dollars protecting you.

Where did you hear that?

There was a test of a few standard EPS foam based helmets. The regular helmets made of black foam.

Everything from a sub 20 dollar model to the pricey models performed almost identically in terms of reducing head acceleration.

Now, there are a few innovative designs out there, such as MIPS helmets, cardboard helmets, and green straw Koroyd helmets along with airbags held around your neck. I don't think any of them have been conclusively shown to be safer.

If you really, really want a safe helmet maybe consider a full-face mountain bike helmet. That way at least you won't get road rash on your face should you be hit or fall. Something like the Bell Super with a removable chinbar. That way you can choose whether you want the mouth guard there or not when you ride.

Safest??

The Arai Corsair V Race Carbon would be about as safe as you will get.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=455665

Of course it is a motorcycle helmet and cost almost four thousand bucks :p

The article doesn't describe the design of the helmet. It is too vague. The article is clearly against wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle.

I think the right answer is "the one you'll wear".

I was sold on MIPS when I first read about it because two weeks earlier I had crashed hard and slammed my head. My chinstrap wasn't tight and the helmet slid down my face, knocking off my glasses, the chinstrap nearly taking my ear off. I had cuts around my eye from my glasses. But ... no concussion. None at all. And this on a guy who has slammed his head enough that his brain is loose. I get concussions very easily. (A major head injury 40 years ago - coma and more than a few lesser head contacts since.)

So two weeks later I read that slippage apparently minimizes head injury. After what I just experienced, that made perfect sense to me. I now own a POC Trabec with MIPS. From REI. I didn't get the sale price. Just bought the first MIPS helmet I actually got my hands on that fit and was white or yellow. (I see accidents that don't happen because I am seen as even more important than protection when they happen.)

Plus of the POC - it's a really good helmet, very comfortable, very well thought out.

Ben

Bicycling magazine, June 2013

(OK, 16 years, not "decades" - though I guess 1.6 decades still counts as "decades"...)

Right. I was thinking, "the one on your head."

I was thinking, "the one you never discover whether it works or not." :roflmao2:

From all I'm able to see and read it seems that everything from a cheapie Schwinn helmet to the $200+ Smith helmets offer the same level of protection. In that case, I gotta ask the next logical, and innocent question: I wonder why people would spend so much money on expensive helmets? I can understand 79pmooney's argument though.

Weight
Ventilation
Style
Marketing

Oh yeah. I can't dispute those things either. Personally, being a vein man, it's a lot like choosing a sports car. I must like the way it looks first. And I must like the image the brand puts forth. If those things are in place, then it comes down to a series of trade-offs between price, ventilation, and weight.

Is that like a vampire? :)

I believe their preference is for clean, arterial blood. But, yes, close enough. Haha!

Funny thing is, this thread was supposed to be about the "safest" helmets, but it doesn't seem there's any kind of conclusive evidence pointing to the safest helmets.

Now this thread will die off...

For $200, here's the corrected order:

1. Marketing (it's what the pros wear! New and improved!)
2. Style (better to look good than be good)
3. Ventilation - but you can find well ventilated helmets for much below $200

Why do I constantly see overweight middle aged men riding grillion dollar carbon fiber bikes with fully logoed kit out on the road? It ain't the ventilation, my friend.

Right, so we can go back to debating if no helmet is the safest helmet

or "the one you never needed"

..............

IMO the helmet protection band is fairly narrow within the possible outcomes from a fall or crash.

If we used the spectrum below as an example of all possible outcomes we might say that the green band is where the helmet makes a difference. The blues to the left represent those impacts where there would be little or no injury without a helmet, and the yellows and reds to the right impacts where the likely outcome is serious injury or death despite wearing a helmet.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=455819

Given that the band of protection is that narrow, small differences within that band are relatively less important. Keep in mind that bicycle helmets are designed with protection levels suitable for simple bicycle crashes, and not for crashes involving motor vehicles. So as a commuter, you face a reasonable likeliness that a crash will involve forces beyond the protection of any helmet.

This isn't to say that all helmets are equal, nor that wearing one is unjustified, but to offer some perspective so you may align your expectations to reality.

When travelling at Ludicrous Speed, there is only one helmet choice for the thoughtful commuter:

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...t_unmasked.jpg

If considering helmet safety and energy absorption capabilities, this may be required viewing. Of course you should consider the source, but it does make the point about the limitations in helmet capabilities.

True if they only conform to CPSC. If they conform to Snell or MIPS or some other standard, then this is not the case.