What kind of helmet do you use?

[mvadventure]

Without walking down to the bike I can't tell you the name of the store I bought this from, it was in Oregon and that's all I remember and that store beat the price on this one. I believe it was $76.00 including shipping and no sales tax. After I paid for it I found one for $56.00 plus shipping but I have no clue as to who that was either.

It came last week and I've used it several times, the fit is perfect and the convenience is wonderful. What makes it nice is the fact I can plug either my MP3 or my Sony Erickson Walkman phone right into it, no additional ear buds, headphones or anything and it even has a volume control and a mute button on the other ear flap built right in. By avoiding turning on anything too loud I can hear my tunes and surrounding traffic with no problem and the ear flaps provide some relief from the wind noise.

Last Friday it was in the mid 80's and the helmet wasn't too warm, the vents open, but it will be warmer than a regular bicycle helmet. It looks stronger than a regular bike helmet and a little less dorky.

http://snowboards-for-sale.com/red_snowboard_helmets/skycap_ii_audex_audio/

Mike

 

[monster]

sorely you don't plan on listening to radio head while blazing down the road at 40. -that will get you canned quick!

 

[mvadventure]

The speed limit in Florida is 20 MPH for an electric bicycle and I have found that is fast enough for me. All of my normal trips take 30 minutes or less each way at that speed and I don't get hassled by any law enforcement agency at that speed.

When I was younger speed was important but as I age it becomes much less so. We have a 26,000 pound (1182 kg) boat capable of 40 mph and I operate it at normal cruising speeds of around 25 MPH. With the car I may exceed the Interstate speed limit by four or five miles an hour but generally find myself quite satisfied with the speed limit. My bike, wide open, will provide >32 MPH but I don't consider it safe or power wise to operate it at that speed. If I'm in that big a hurry I'll take the car but most of the time there simply isn't enough difference in time to warrant it. It takes me 25 - 28 minutes to go to one of my golf course on the bike (8.6 miles by bike) and 20 minutes by car (9.5 miles) It's the same for trips to town, 15 minutes by car, 20 - 22 by bike and with the bike I don't have to pay the tolls on the bridge. ($2.00)

Mike

 

[morph999]

anyone have a stylish helmet? Should I get a bike helmet or motorcycle helmet?

 

[Link]

I wear my hair as a helmet.

This is not recommended, obviously.

Pretty much anything with DOT approval will be fine for normal bike speeds (say no faster than 30mph), but a full-face dirtbike or motorcycle helmet will protect your brainstuffs better. Even if it does look a bit out of place on a bike rider's head.

 

[mud2005]

I wear full face motorcycle helmet cause I want to live 8)
I can't hear much now while riding but it keeps the wind and bugs out of my eyes
View attachment helmet1.jpg

 

[michaelplogue]

 

[Ypedal]

8)

 

[dogman dan]

My commuter bike, I ride mostly 25 mph, and wear an ordinary bicycle helmet. When I put a waterbottle into my front wheel last spring, I went over the handlbars, broke both collarbones, and smashed the helmet on the curb edge. Head was fine, nothing much left up there anyway but empty space, but the helmet definitely saved my life. That crash was at about 15 mph. I also wear eye protection, and often have a rock bounce off the lens from a passing car. Part of my bike route is a bike lane on a 45 mph road, so rocks will fly.

On the ICE scooter, I wouldn't settle for less than the dot approved full face with a sheild. At highway speeds, I really need the sheild, again for rocks, swarms of grasshoppers, etc, and just so its more comfortable. Wind noise in the ears is pretty loud at 60 mph.

 

[northernmike]

.. but in orange

 

[Aerowhatt]

anyone have a stylish helmet? Should I get a bike helmet or motorcycle helmet?

I love my helmets from.

http://www.carbonfiberhelmets.com/

Light and strong, plus the "polo" style makes for a nice trim sylish look IMO. MADE IN THE USA too!

The downhill mountian biker full face helmets (like ypedal pictured) make a good choice for ebiking too. Good coverage and light weight.

Light weight in a helmet is critical both for comfort and to lower the stress on your neck during a crash. A broken neck sucks and a light weight helmet is less likely to cause one than a heavy one.

Aerowhatt

 

[CGameProgrammer]

Light weight in a helmet is critical [...] to lower the stress on your neck during a crash. A broken neck sucks and a light weight helmet is less likely to cause one than a heavy one.

This is a myth with no evidence whatsoever backing it up. It's an argument used by motorcyclists who hate full-face helmets to help convince themselves it's OK not to wear one.

Bicycle helmets are designed to allow for high ventilation; riding a normal bicycle while wearing a motorcycle helmet can make you overheat and possibly die. If you ride an e-bike, overheating is still possible though less likely, depending on your setup, so a motorcycle helmet might not be good, but a downhill bike helmet I would think would be great. Then you have people like me who never pedal and I ought to wear a motorcycle helmet, and have one (for my motorcycle), but would feel self-conscious riding an apparent bicycle with one.

 

[mud2005]

but would feel self-conscious riding an apparent bicycle with one.

I'm lucky in that respect, the town I live (Eugene, Oregon) is home to so many unique(crazy?) people that the helmet on a bike doesn't even get a second glance.

 

[Zoot Katz]

Most of the time I'm wearing the Romer kayak helmet I purchased way back ~1975. It's got a thick hard shell and a suspension system for shock absorbtion. It looked sturdier and felt better than the brittle styrofoam stuff being offered for bicyclists. It also has better ventilation in the form of drain holes. It must be stylish in a retro sense because people yet unborn when I started wearing it comment that it's a cool looking helmet. I've replaced the rotted bits a couple times.
My other favourite helmet is stylish too. The chromed electric kettle always gets looks and comments. It's solely for stylin' and just about the last thing I'd want on my head in a crash.
The Nutcase skaters pot I recently won in a raffle is kinda cool. They make lots of colourful designs. Mine's black with a bandanna motif printed on it.
Were I to go out and buy a new helmet, I think it would be this one.http://www.shredready.com/products/sherlock.html except they don't come in white. White helmets are most visible and arguably more visible than those little orange flags people put on recumbents and trailers.

I've worn a helmet 99% of the time spent cycling as an adult and never needed it except once when I didn't have it on. I broke my leg. Everybody knows that helmets prevent over 72% of broken legs. The facts are there in the same data used to arrive at the claim they prevent 88% of head injuries.

 

[Aerowhatt]

This is a myth with no evidence whatsoever backing it up. It's an argument used by motorcyclists who hate full-face helmets to help convince themselves it's OK not to wear one.

Bicycle helmets are designed to allow for high ventilation; riding a normal bicycle while wearing a motorcycle helmet can make you overheat and possibly die. If you ride an e-bike, overheating is still possible though less likely, depending on your setup, so a motorcycle helmet might not be good, but a downhill bike helmet I would think would be great. Then you have people like me who never pedal and I ought to wear a motorcycle helmet, and have one (for my motorcycle), but would feel self-conscious riding an apparent bicycle with one.

Really . . . a myth huh? It would be pretty hard to back up scientifically. Simply because multi angle video of all crashes is hard to come by.

It's common sense though that a lighter helmet wth a trimmer profile would be less likely to catch on road cracks etc. and try to change your momentum with your head via the only attachment (your neck) to your larger mass (your body) What we do know for sure is that there are far more jaw and facial injuries from non full face helmets.

Bicycle or motorcycle helmet is a no brainer based on speed though. Bicycle helmets are tested at 16mph and are only required to protect for a single impact. Some will break in half and provide no further protection past the first impact. Motorcycle helmets are tested under much harsher requirements. Most of the eBikes on these forums have far outrun the safe speed for a bicycle helmet.

Personally I wear a full face motorcycle helmet with visor in the winter on the electric motorcycle. In summer I wear a DOT approved motorcross full face helmet (good protection and some decent ventilation). On the 25 to 30 mph eGO cycle, ebike, or a pedal only bike I wear the Head Trip Polo style helmet. I find it actually has less dork factor than many bicycle helmets have.

Aerowhatt

 

[Ypedal]

I should take a picture of all my helmets

2 x bicycle ( regular skull cap )
DOT chopper cap
DOT Motocross
DOT Winter Modular ATV helmet with heated shield
DOT Motorcycle full face
Giro ( picture above ) full face downhill
A few more vintage old school ATC type honda trike era..

My Giro rules, it's light as a feather, breathes really well, keeps the wind out of my ears at 30mph, gives car drivers the impression you mean business and pay attention to an extent.. :lol:

 

[CGameProgrammer]

This is a myth with no evidence whatsoever backing it up. It's an argument used by motorcyclists who hate full-face helmets to help convince themselves it's OK not to wear one.

Really . . . a myth huh? It would be pretty hard to back up scientifically. Simply because multi angle video of all crashes is hard to come by.

The burden of proof lies with the assertion. It would have to be proven that normal full-face helmets can cause peoples' necks to break, and I've never heard of this happening even once. The only times I ever hear of a motorcyclists' neck breaking, when wearing a full-face helmet, is if he slams into a stationary obstacle at 90 mph, which has nothing to do with the helmet obviously.

A normal full-face helmet weighs three pounds or less (1400 grams). A normal adult head weighs 10-12 lbs.

 

[Aerowhatt]

A normal full-face helmet weighs three pounds or less (1400 grams). A normal adult head weighs 10-12 lbs.

I'm not going to argue with you further, clearly you need to be right. Good enough, we can agree that a full face downhillers helmet like ypedals "Gyro" is a pretty good choice for 25 to 30 mile per hour e biking. I go with something as light with a much stronger shell. Having raced mountain bikes a few years ago out here in the rockies. I don't have much faith in the jaw/chin protection of those lightweight dowhill bicycle helmets. Better than skin and bone alone without question though!

Just for those who value common sense. I just weighed my winter full face motorcycle helmet. At 3lbs 3 1/2 oz it represents about a thirty percent increase of the mass of my head. Being a physics major I know that to be more than insignificant. Anecdotally, I don't know of anyone who broke their neck with a full face helmet on either. That said, I don't hang out with people who ride motorcycles at all (not that there is anything wrong with it). In fact the only person I know personally that has broken their neck is me. But that was downhill skiing and I wasn't wearing a full face helmet. I do wear them on a motorcycle, mainly because I like my face.

Aerowhatt

 

[deronmoped]

You wear a helmet, you are more likely to get run down. At least that what this guys study says.

http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/releases/overtaking110906.html

There have been other studies that say a helmet is not such a great idea. On the surface you would think a helmet would be a good idea, but the more you dissect it, the more you find the downsides of a helmet.

http://www.cmtabate.com/Legislative/Helmet%20Laws.htm

It's like the red light cameras were supposed to reduce traffic accidents, when a study in Florida showed that they actually increased accidents.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311151159.htm

Deron.

 

[CGameProgrammer]

The Bath study is interesting, though it seems to suggest the researcher was actually swerving into traffic to avoid potholes and the like, which is retarded and inexcusable. When I rode a [regular] bicycle on roads as a teenager, I never expected or assumed cars would veer out of their lane (as I was on the shoulder) to increase their distance from me, and I actually found it a little insulting when they did since only an idiot would swerve into a traffic lane.

The CMTAbate site is a highly biased site dedicated almost entirely to repealing mandatory safety laws such as helmets, and its assumptions are nonsensical. People who don't wear helmets nearly always die or suffer permanent brain damage when they get in bad motorcycle accidents. People who wear full-face helmets don't die of head injuries except in really extreme circumstances. There is a ridiculous amount of data verifying this. Race-car drivers wear helmets for the same reason.

You hear the same arguments by anti-seatbelt people.

The red-light study is logical and so is probably correct.

 

[deronmoped]

What I'm pointing out is, people say take something rap it around your head and you will be safer in a crash. It's not all that simple, there are tons of things going on. It's like they say 55 saves lives, but when someone actually did a study, they found that it was not the case. They also found the savings in gasoline consumption were half as much as they predicted. In fact, they said it was costing us 2 to 3 billion a year in lost economic benefits from lost time commuting.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-346es.html

As for helmet laws, when they required helmets in California, that put a damper on the number of people that ride motorcycles. That is one of the reasons I do not own a motorcycle and ride my ORV less. The ABATE people make a good argument that quite a few people do not ride double on a motorcycle because everyone does not own a helmet.

I wonder how many less people would ride a bicycle if they were required to wear a helmet? What if insurance, riding classes and safety checks were also required? Gaining safety from less of something is a sure way to kill something.

Sure, a helmet might save you from greater injury in certain circumstances, but what do you lose to get there? If you never get on a bike, you will be safer, you never get in a car you will be safer, you never climb a ladder you will be safer...

In fact, here is your chances.

Motor vehicle accident, 1 in 84.
Falling, 1 in 219.
Pedestrian accident, 1 in 626.
Drowning, 1 in 1,008.
Motorcycle accident, 1 in 1,020.
Fire or smoke, 1 in 1,113.
Bicycling accident, 1 in 4,919.

If you believe in helmets, the logical conclusion should be to, wear one in a car, wear one when climbing, wear one as a pedestrian, wear a life vest when near or in the water...

Deron.

 

[Toshi]

deron,

that anti-helmet site is crap. here is the abstract of an article from JAMA that totally refutes their claims.

Kraus JF, et al. The effect of the 1992 California motorcycle helmet use law on motorcycle crash fatalities and injuries. JAMA 1994:272(19).

OBJECTIVE--To determine the effects of the California motorcycle helmet use law on statewide fatalities and a large sample of nonfatal injuries before and after law implementation.

DESIGN--Police reports and death certificates were collected for motorcycle crash fatalities in California for 1991 (prelaw) and 1992 (postlaw). Official counts of registered motorcycles provided a statewide basis for exposure to a motorcycle crash. Autopsy results were collected for fatalities in 11 counties. Hospital records were reviewed for nonfatal injuries in 28 hospitals in 10 of the 11 counties. Police reports were linked to injury data for the riders.

SUBJECTS AND PATIENTS--A total of 850 fatalities and injury data for 547 fatally injured riders and 3252 nonfatally injured patients.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Changes in number and rates among statewide fatalities were estimated. The number and pattern of head injuries in fatally and nonfatally injured motorcycle riders were evaluated.

RESULTS--After implementation of the helmet use law, statewide motorcycle crash fatalities decreased by 37.5%, from 523 fatalities in 1991 to 327 in 1992, more than 37%, and an estimated 92 to 122 fatalities were prevented. Motorcycle fatality rates were reduced by 26.5%, from 70.1 per 100,000 registered motorcycles in 1991 to 51.5 per 100,000 in 1992. Head injuries decreased significantly among both fatally and nonfatally injured motorcyclists.

CONCLUSION--Enactment of an unrestricted helmet law significantly reduces the incidence of motorcycle crash fatalities and the number and severity of head injuries.

 

[CGameProgrammer]

And the effectiveness of helmets is far greater than what even those numbers suggest, because:

1) Lots of people would have already been wearing helmets anyway.
2) The majority of cruiser (Harley etc.) riders buy the minimum legal helmet: a half-helmet, which isn't actually very protective.
3) There are still a lot of cruiser riders that wear fake helmets to try to avoid tickets, but they offer zero protection.

Yet fatalities still decreased significantly just from enacting the law.

 

[Aerowhatt]

And the effectiveness of helmets is far greater than what even those numbers suggest, because:

1) Lots of people would have already been wearing helmets anyway.
2) The majority of cruiser (Harley etc.) riders buy the minimum legal helmet: a half-helmet, which isn't actually very protective.
3) There are still a lot of cruiser riders that wear fake helmets to try to avoid tickets, but they offer zero protection.

Yet fatalities still decreased significantly just from enacting the law.

That's an excellent and insightful point. When reading studies like these most people brains compare the numbers automatically "no helmets" to "all helmets". As you point out, the results are far more dramatic when one realizes that many riders were already wearing helmets before the law was enacted.

Here in NM helmet laws are not in force. Since I ride, I notice other riders more than the average person. Even without a helmet law I see 50 to 60% of riders wearing helmets. Assuming that pre helmet law, helmet usage numbers in the study were similar. Then 26% fatality decrease per 100,000 riders takes on far more dramtic meaning.

Just as an observation, with the advent of sport bikes I see many riders show boating and racing each other in traffic both off and on the freeway. 90% of these idiots do not have a helmet on. Hey, I have nothing against anyone who wants to do wheelies or drag race each other. But to do it on traffic filled public roads is suicide (eventually) and endagers everyone else on that road. Anybody caught doing this crap on public roads should have their bike impounded and be treated just like a DUI arrest by the judicial system IMO.

Aerowhatt

 

[morph999]

You wear a helmet, you are more likely to get run down. At least that what this guys study says.

http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/rel ... 10906.html

There have been other studies that say a helmet is not such a great idea. On the surface you would think a helmet would be a good idea, but the more you dissect it, the more you find the downsides of a helmet.

http://www.cmtabate.com/Legislative/Helmet%20Laws.htm

It's like the red light cameras were supposed to reduce traffic accidents, when a study in Florida showed that they actually increased accidents.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 151159.htm

Deron.

I didn't know that. I've actually never in my life worn a helmet while riding a bike. I used to ride my bike for 15 - 20 miles when I was 16 yrs old and never rode a helmet and I never had even a close call...ever. And I rode it the whole spring and summer , too.