Man, I was busy looking for the cheapest, Chinese-made self-vasectomy utensils for auction on Ebay... but you reminded me that a terrible helmet should be my top priority!

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The irony is after watching that video i actually felt better about the Chinese helmet than i did before watching it. After watching the Russian video what i saw was a helmet where the exterior was more damaged on initial impact but the foam interior still looked intact. Which kinda brings me to how i feel about cycling helmets in general is that they're just crappy styrofoam coolers we strap to our heads... they don't do anything to slow or lessen the impact. I'd rather have a helmet that compressed on impact vs one that held up... i want it to absorb some of the impact. It seems like bike helmet technology is SO far behind where it actually should be.

well sort of, the helmet your buying is not certified, the design or one similar was but who knows what the QC is on a cheap helmet. But if there is nothing important in your helmet, go cheap. Otherwise buy the most expensive one out there. Personally think the airbag collar is the smart way to go, but not legal for races.

Can't believe you people going for cheap on your helmet.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

I'll be honest, in North America, to be on sale in shops even at Walmart for 20$ an helmet has to pass the same safety test as the 300 $ one. However, nothing tells me if the Chinese one passed it. That's the issue here and that's why I won't try it. It may be awesome but unless I have proof of it. It'll be considered as unsafe.

There was a programme on TV last night where they tested a real Giro vs a Giro fake bought cheaply off Amazon. They did a kerb drop test on both with a dummy head inside. The real Giro stayed intact and registered 85G, well within the test limit of 250G. The fake helmet broke in two leaving an impression on the head and recorded over 1250G (testing machine limit).

If a deal seems to good to be true, maybe it is? Before seeing this I did wonder what special magic the Giro foam had, turns out quite a bit.

I cannot believe you think that an expensive helmet provides more protection than a budget one even though both pass the same tests and the most expensive helmets are typically made as light as possible [Read that as using the least amount of material.] while still, perhaps barely, passing certification. Ever notice that no helmet makers tell you by how much their helmets passed the cert tests? Instead they focus on how much a helmet weighs and how ventilated it is. They certainly don't want it known that their $300 super light wonder helmet scored worse than a heavier and cheapo Walmart special.

alexvpaq wrote:

Yeah thus my motto: if you don't need an helmet, you don't need a brain.

It's interesting that when people advocate for helmets some of them have to start insulting people who don't use helmets.

What's your motivation in letting fly like this? And do you insult people like this in other spheres of life?

"My motto is: you're over 25 and don't save at least 15% of your income, you too dopey to enjoy retiring anyway"

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http://www.jt10000.com/

I wouldn't wear an untraceable, uncertified helmet.
Too much risk for a small saving.

If you want to save money, look out for sales or choose a heavier less ventilated helmet. There are lots of cheap certified helmets about. The foam used in the helmet construction is not a significant cost. What you're paying for is development, moulds, labour, fittings, certifications, marketing, transportation, etc. I believe cheap helmets use broadly similar foams but since they're less concerned with weight, ventilation and finish, they don't have to incorporate additional carbon/aramid/aluminium frames and the moulds are almost certainly simpler. Add to that the fact that cheaper helmets sell in much greater volumes and you can see why the price varies so much. When you splash out on an expensive helmet you're paying for weight savings and ventilation, not safety.
Also, I'd suggest ignoring anecdotal "evidence" of helmets saving lives or otherwise.
Those of you who crashed, your helmet broke and you walked away - please refrain from suggesting this is proof that helmet X works. You're talking nonsense. Such an incident does not mean your helmet saved you. It may have, or it may not. You don't have the information necessary to determine that so stop claiming otherwise. By all means share your experience and give a qualified opinion, but don't claim more than that.

Or even peace of mind ;). In the context of this thread, it's a very funny typo

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Francois-Xavier Li @FrancoisLi
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw
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[/quote]well sort of, the helmet your buying is not certified, the design or one similar was but who knows what the QC is on a cheap helmet. But if there is nothing important in your helmet, go cheap. Otherwise buy the most expensive one out there. Personally think the airbag collar is the smart way to go, but not legal for races. Can't believe you people going for cheap on your helmet.[/quote]


Um no... Do you think the CPSC tests the expensive helmets but not the inexpensive ones? They don't care if it's expensive or a trendy brand name or aero, they test just for safety. As the other poster said they don't tell you by how much a helmet passes, they just tell you that it passes. And if it passes the safety standards, then definitely should be good enough for you or anyone else. If an inexpensive helmet sold at Walmart passes the exact same safety standards as the super high-end race helmets, then that means it works well enough for its intended use. For all we know the cheap helmet could actually have passed with even better results! Being expensive certainly does not equal being good. You are paying more for tech related to slightly better aero/light/ventilation, not better safety

I'm a nurse, TEACHING people to wear their helmet is part of my job. Because if you crash, and end up like a vegetable( sorry for being crude). I'll be the one setting a 2 hour routine check to see if your diaper is clean and to change your position. And that's the not so funny truth.

A motto doesn't need to be politically correct but it has to be something you live for and that you will remember and that's how I feel about helmets. Because you know... You just have one brain and its the same one that makes me work to save for my retirement, makes me have a sane relationship with my girlfriend and coworkers, the one that makes me think, dream and even breath so it deserves to be protected.

This site has some good info http://www.helmets.org/helmet15.htm

One of the first things they say on every review page is : "We have tested a sample of cheap and expensive helmets and found no real performance differences by price"


"Higher priced helmets usually have big vents, but no verifiable advantage in impact performance. Our testing showed that the sample of very expensive helmets and very cheap helmets we had tested had about the same impact protection"

If you have a consumer reports account I believe there are several reviews on there too but they may be older. But again price had little to no impact on how safe the helmet was in any of the research on either site


Again spending more can get you better performance features, but it won't increase safety if both are CPSC certified (I'm saying cheap is fine, I'm not saying Chinese knock off is fine)

There is no reason to pay retail for a name brand helmet as long as you not insisting on having this year's model. And, if you are that vain, what the hell would you want a Chinese knock off for anyway?

Here's a barnd new new Giro Atmos for $55.

http://www.backcountry.com/...KHA&gclsrc=aw.ds

Seems like it would be worth the extra $40 just for the piece of mind let alone the fact that the top pros wore this very helmet just a couple years ago.

Yep, that's what's nice with helmets, they all have to pass the same tests, where it will really change however is weight, comfort, fixation system, cooling, aerodynamics, look. And imho just for the better fixation systems and their ease of use, it's worth investing a little bit more so that you actually wear it. Then it's all a matter of preferences.

I crashed this spring and cracked my helmet in several places (it worked!). I was surprised to see that the there was plastic strapping sandwiched inside the foam. That kept the thing from totally breaking in half, which actually was pretty nice because I went down at 25 mph and I did have multiple impacts, something the basic bike helmet certification is not required to handle. I'm not sure if internal re-enforcement like that is a minimum requirement but if it is not, there is no way to know what is going on inside your Chinese knock off until you crash test it yourself.

The key for me is that at least with a name brand (Giro in my case) you can have some faith that they are trying hard to make the thing safe beyond just barely meeting the minimum certification requirements. And your Chinese knock off may not even do that.

Giro and the other name brands have millions of dollars to lose if word gets out their helmets suck whereas a no name Chinese helmet (or any knock off product like wheels etc) has no such market pressure. They can just change the name and keep selling junk. Too risky for me!

Check out the new Smith helmets, biggest innovation in helmets in a long time, and they claim to have produced 30%+ better results than foam helmets. I bought one this year, $200 for a helmet beats the hell out of months in a hospital and hundreds of thousands in medical bills.

As another poster said, higher end foam helmets often add other materials into the foam to produce better crash results. For instance the Poc Trabec Race mountain helmet. They have some sort of material woven into the foam to hold it together during impact so it doesn't just shatter and leave you on your own.

I had a riding buddy go down hard wearing a cheap Bell helmet from Walmart. He got tangled in a wheel and essentially endoed at 30mph, no slide just direct impact head first into the road. We attempted to pick up his helmet after the ambulance took him, but after gathering 35+ pieces we gave up, that helmet literally blew up into 100 pieces. Yes, the helmet did it's job and he didn't die. But I have to wonder if a better helmet would have done a better job. He ended up in the ICU for a month and rehab for another couple months. Took a year to be able to care for himself and get back to limited work, still has some limitations 15 months later. I'll gladly hand over the $200 for my new Smith helmet if it has any chance of reducing my impact even by a small percentage.

Yes, you are right, all helmet technology has a long way to go, but you may not fully understand how a bicycle or motorcycle helmet works.

That Russian video, while highly unscientific, did indeed show that the Japanese helmet was far superior to the Chinese helmet in crash and brain safety.

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While I wouldn't personally buy a Chinese helmet due to the potential QC issues, I will bring up a counterpoint to all the "pay for protection of your most valuable asset - your head" :

You can buy US-branded helmets for <$20 on Amazon that by law, are CPSC certified. Here's one for $17.

http://www.amazon.com/Bell-Womens-Thalia-Times-Helmet/dp/B00VG3DL5Q/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1448990630&sr=8-8&keywords=bike+helmet


In the recent past, paying like $100+ for a bike helmet does generally does not increase safety to your skull in a crash compared to these lower-priced helmets. So while the helmet manufacturers would LOVE for you to believe that the amount of safety you get is directly commensurate to how much you pay for your helmet, it's likely not true at all. You pay for styling, weight, airflow, but in terms of increased safety, I haven't seen much that shows more expensive helmets are significantly safer than other cheaper CPSC.helmets.

I'll have to check out those recs above about newer helmets performing better on safety - that would be a good thing.

In fairness, most people buying expensive helmets know they are paying extra to get lightness, ventilation and/or aero benefits, not improvements in basic safety. (Although some higher end helmets do advertise enhanced safety features, e.g. Giro's MIPS system).

I think the knockoff market is really aimed at folks who want those non safety related benefits of expensive name brand helmets but are not willing to pay for them. As mentioned, if you just want a cheap helmet for safety, there are plenty of certified name brand alternatives available for very close to what you'd pay for a no name Chinese knock off.

I think the embedded materials in more expensive helmets is generally just to compensate for the reduction in foam. I don't think the fact that it may hold the helmet together after the first impact is a design feature. In fact there are circumstances where this could be a liability rather than an asset.

As another poster mentioned, MIPS is a feature which should really make a difference in some types of incident and may be worth spending money on, but mostly more money just buys you ventilation, light weight, comfortable and adjustable harness, and nice aesthetics.

I went ahead and purchased a tri helmet at an Ironman race this year, it was an impulse purchase.
My big thing was that the strap on mine had broken and there were no retailers with a part to repair my aero helmet.

Let me say me say one thing, the helmet looks really good, but no certification and the visor was bolted to the cover.
After some after thought after the race, im really just through that money our the window. If I would have crashed i would have lost my nose for sure from the visor and more than likely the helmet would have looked the same as the one shown in the russian video.

I was going to sell it off after I got mine fixed, but really who could do that and still sleep at night.

 
Here is a pic of the new helmet material from Smith.



This is the helmet I bought.



Pretty cool tech, and testing results look nice as well. Worth the $200 to me.

I've always gone with the cheapest name brand helmets I can find. Here is a Bell Helmet on Nashbar for $25. Does it offer less protection than the $200 Bell helmet?

Edit to add: I researched the Bell Helmet website. They now have an option called mips available for helmets, which supposedly gives extra protection in some kinds of crashes. Cheapest mips helmet is $60 and most expensive mips helmet is $195. Most expensive helmet is $320 and does not have the mips.

If it is from name brand and has sticker in it, that is good enough for me.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

I'm not sure the Smith helmets are any better than a traditional helmet. Is there any research to support this?

I'm all for helmet technology, especially for motorcycles. With a full face motorcycle helmet you can feel the construction difference in how easy the face guard bends with your hand. A $150 helmet and it flexes easily. Pay $500+ and it's stiff and they fit better, which is key. I'll pay $700 for a 6D helmet to use in motocross but I typically pay less than a $100 for a bicycle helmet. A bike helmet ma prevent your head from splitting open where a good motorcycle helmet with the new technology will reduce your chances of a concussion on certain type of directional forces. I've been riding my bicycle for 40 years and have tested my helmet maybe once. Now don't ask me how many times I've tested my motorcycle helmet this year.

The Smith website quotes MIPS technology but I wonder how well this technology works on a bike helmet where the fit isn't very precise, helmet sits high on your head, and it's held in place by a half inch fairly loose strap.

http://www.bhsi.org/mips.htm A link to MIPS technology in bike helmets - In short, it probably doesn't do much.

Yeah I don't put a ton of stock in the MIPS deal, I'll take it for $20 but if the price difference is much more than that I'll leave it.

The Koroyd stuff in the Smith helmets is entirely new and they claim it resulted in 35% less force for same impact in their tests. I'd have to dig the tests up, probably on their website somewhere.