CR review of bike helmets
 

This has been out for over a week now, but I just saw it.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/05/31/n...-reports-72616

I commute with a Bern helmet, but not the one reviewed.
How do you read this? Can a bad review of the Bern Brighton be broadened to all similar Bern helmets or just to this particular helmet. Or can you go even further (considering the Nutcase helmet received a similarly poor review) and question the safety of the multi-sport helmets (the ones that Bern and Nutcase are known for, the more roundish helmets).

I just was curious what others thought and if I should start looking for a different helmet.

Thanks.

Looking at the article, it looks like the hard shell "urban" helmets are just not performing as well as the big blocks o' foam. Several years ago motorcyclist did a study of motorcycle helmets and had a similar result. The soft bulky helmets do perform better in single "hit" tests.

However, unlike motorcycle helmets, bicycle helmets are, generally, not mandated. So, it becomes harder to make a real comment on the overall effectiveness. If a rider is willing to wear their Nutcase (picked because it was named in the article) on 99% of their rides, versus a block 'o foam for, say, 20% of their riding, are they better off with a Nutcase or a block o' foam?

You are probably best off with a full face motorcycles helmet; however, you probably wouldn't wear one. I remember a question being asked about motorcycle gear, "if you knew you were going to be in a crash on a particular day, what gear would you wear? To me to obvious answer was, "I'd stay home that day."

It is all about compromise; however, that does not say that these testes are unimportant, or should be discounted. To make compromises it is best to be as informed as possible. Myself, I think a person is better protected by wearing their Bern (also named in the article) on 99.9% of their rides instead of only wearing their block o' foam on their weekend group rides.

This is similar to what I was thinking. If a Bern or Nutcase is a helmet you will wear, it is better than one you won't wear.

Personally, I am not in a market for a helmet, but I will keep this in mind next time I am. There are questions about the methodology, but with the Dutch group coming to similar conclusions and Nutcase apparently not coming back with data (at least not yet) it should raise some eyebrows. I probably wouldn't get one of these hard shell "urban" helmets regardless, but it will make me think twice should I decide I wanted one. Likewise, I will seriously consider the Specialized Echelon - not so much for the overall rating (too subjective IMO), but because of the safety rating.

I generally dislike CR as I feel their priorities are usually/often meaningless. However, the referenced article makes sense - the cited helmets are much like the useless "manly" helmets most Harley riders wear.