Road Helmet Recemondations

CianRyan

I'm pretty bogged under with the amount of helemts there are and I didn't see another thread on this in the search, so...

What would you lot recommend for around €80?
I like the look of the Bell Lumen (€76) and the Giro Monza (€95).

Obviously priority is keeping my brain inside my skull but is it justafiable buying that bit extra or is it brand snobery?

Any other brands/model recemondations would be nice too, Cheers.
Cian.

Whitehawk

most helmets that i know of after say around 50e mark (this can go a bit up or down ofc) all will come with the same high safty rating so after that they will all do the same job, ofc there could be the odd one that is more expence and has nto got a good safty rateing so do watch out,
After that its really weight of helment, lighter the better,
out of the 2 you said there id go with the Giro Monza,giro is a pop make that i would see, tho i do have giant make

Lemag

I have the Monza. 'Tis grand. There are lighter ones out there. Another factor to consider is the number of vents. If you buy online you'd be taking a bit of a gamble. I've bought a couple which, according to the sizing charts, should have fitted me. They didn't. Best to go in to a shop for this and for shoes.

CianRyan

Hmm, I'll look at the safety rating on them and browse next time I'm in a shop.

I thought the Monza looked nicest out of the few I'd been looking at alright and at this stage, weight isn't a huge factor to me. :rolleyes:
I need to get one soon, I always have to hold myself right back on declines and it's getting pretty annoying!

tomasrojo

CianRyan wrote: »

I need to get one soon, I always have to hold myself right back on declines and it's getting pretty annoying!

I found what you said here interesting. How much do you find yourself holding back, and would you say you are safer by holding back or by wearing the helmet and going faster? Or about the same?

redzone

CianRyan wrote: »

Hmm, I'll look at the safety rating on them and browse next time I'm in a shop.

I thought the Monza looked nicest out of the few I'd been looking at alright and at this stage, weight isn't a huge factor to me. :rolleyes:
I need to get one soon, I always have to hold myself right back on declines and it's getting pretty annoying!

No helmet :eek: , prepare for a roasting.....:D

Home:Ballyhoura

Maybe take a look at some of the less common helmets, for example...
http://www.ekoi.fr/look-ekoi-categorie.php?var=1

CianRyan

tomasrojo wrote: »

I found what you said here interesting. How much do you find yourself holding back, and would you say you are safer by holding back or by wearing the helmet and going faster? Or about the same?

Well, the way I see it I'll be more likely to have a hard fall if I'm flying down a hill so it seems logical to hold back while I'm not wearing a helmet.
In saying that, I've not been seriously getting into cycling for very long so I'll have to take my skill level up too because really, I'd rather not fall with or with out a helmet on.

I do hold myself back quite a lot, especially if it's a road I haven't come down before and with a lot of bends.
For the likes of club spins, I'll need to learn to ride hills fast and hard but that can come in time.

CianRyan

Home:Ballyhoura wrote: »

Maybe take a look at some of the less common helmets, for example...
http://www.ekoi.fr/look-ekoi-categorie.php?var=1

These look nice, the Diablo one especially caught my eye and for less than the others I was looking at.

Do you have to order them online or do you know of anywhere in Dublin that stocks them?

DirkVoodoo

They (nearly) all conform to the same Snell, CPSC, etc. safety rating (pretty much involves dropping it from a fixed height onto a flat anvil and another drop onto a hemispherical anvil). Manufacturers just need to meet the standard, a more expensive helmet won't be any safer, it will only be:

a) Lighter
b) Better ventilated (obviously (a) and (b) go hand in hand as punching more holes in a helmet makes it lighter, I don't recommend adding more "speed holes" yourself though.
c) Look better
d) More likely to be seen in the pro peloton.

What it boils down to is simply this: advising people on helmets is pointless, head shapes vary as much as feet or bottoms so be it a helmet, saddle or shoe, what you find comfortable is entirely subjective and not governed by popular opinion.

Pick a budget. Then go try on as many helmets that fall within that budget as possible. Pick whichever is whitest.

tomasrojo

CianRyan wrote: »

Well, the way I see it I'll be more likely to have a hard fall if I'm flying down a hill so it seems logical to hold back while I'm not wearing a helmet.

I just ask because I'm interested in the concept of risk compensation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

A lot of people aren't aware they do it, and many deny they do it (perhaps correctly), but you are very aware you do it. I guess the trick is to correctly judge how extra risk you can take without exceeding the protection you have added, and maybe dial a bit down from that so you're still coming out ahead. Not sure how easy that is to do in practice.

Anyway, off-topic. Thanks for answering!

tomasrojo

I think Snell is the most rigorous standard? I could be wrong. I know the old Snell standard was more rigorous than more recent ones.

redzone

+ 1 Diablo

Lashed

I ordered a Giro Monza last friday from here:http://cgi.ebay.ie/Giro-Monza-Road-Cycling-Helmet-Red-White-Medium-/360365868810?pt=UK_Cycling_Clothing&hash=item53e77ac70a

Came in at €83. Haven't any experience of it yet as it hasn't arrived.

CianRyan

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

They (nearly) all conform to the same Snell, CPSC, etc. safety rating (pretty much involves dropping it from a fixed height onto a flat anvil and another drop onto a hemispherical anvil). Manufacturers just need to meet the standard, a more expensive helmet won't be any safer, it will only be:

a) Lighter
b) Better ventilated (obviously (a) and (b) go hand in hand as punching more holes in a helmet makes it lighter, I don't recommend adding more "speed holes" yourself though.
c) Look better
d) More likely to be seen in the pro peloton.

What it boils down to is simply this: advising people on helmets is pointless, head shapes vary as much as feet or bottoms so be it a helmet, saddle or shoe, what you find comfortable is entirely subjective and not governed by popular opinion.

Pick a budget. Then go try on as many helmets that fall within that budget as possible. Pick whichever is whitest.

Best answer.
The more Euro, the better.

tomasrojo wrote: »

I just ask because I'm interested in the concept of risk compensation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

A lot of people aren't aware they do it, and many deny they do it (perhaps correctly), but you are very aware you do it. I guess the trick is to correctly judge how extra risk you can take without exceeding the protection you have added, and maybe dial a bit down from that so you're still coming out ahead. Not sure how easy that is to do in practice.

Anyway, off-topic. Thanks for answering!

Interesting, I've never heard of the subject but it sounds like me alright.
I've been into extreme sports for years and always found myself lagging a bit or being maybe overly afraid.
I noticed this quite a lot with Kayaking. I was very excited to get started, had a bit of a laugh with it but when it came to big rivers and white water I was too nervous to really progress and so never kept it up. I always felt though, that if I had a scuba diver's oxygen set up, I would have had no problem with it.

Interesting stuff, I'll be looking into that a bit more. Thanks for sharing that.

DirkVoodoo

tomasrojo wrote: »

I think Snell is the most rigorous standard? I could be wrong. I know the old Snell standard was more rigorous than more recent ones.

I think this is the most recent Snell Standard. They have a list of helmets that conform to it, very few are made to actually, I think it is restrictive in the amount of coverage required.

There isn't a lot of information given to the consumer as to what helmet conforms to what standard or how one standard differs from another, e.g. the European CE EN 1078, how is it different to Snell?

Helmet standards wouldn't bother me too much anyway, helmets are a great aid, but a warning to the OP is that a helmet is not an excuse to "not hold back". The standards are not entirely rigorous, dropping a helmet from a height is great for material testing, but it doesn't tell you much about damage to your head from sliding (quite likely in a bike crash) or rotational injuries (the testing headform is a solid 5Kg mass, your head is not, the helmet foam will deform more, hence absorb more energy in the test environment).

tomasrojo

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

a warning to the OP is that a helmet is not an excuse to "not hold back". The standards are not entirely rigorous, dropping a helmet from a height is great for material testing

Yes, I didn't want to get into this directly myself, as I feared a recrudescence of the standard helmet thread, but the standard against which helmets are tested is surprisingly mild; it's almost equivalent to falling from a virtually stationary bike onto your head, without the mass of your body adding much extra force. In other words, it's not like any crash you're likely to be involved with.

So try not to go crazy descending at speed; the extra protection is not as large as most people seem to think.

tomasrojo

On the subject of standards, there is some stuff here from Brian Walker, who studies this sort of thing:
http://cyclehelmets.org/1081.html

Having personally conducted or supervised thousands of impact and other tests on cycle helmets, all of which were recorded, I note the following:

1. The manufacturers of all forms of safety helmet have to sell their goods in a brutally competitive global market. With very few exceptions, safety helmets are made down to the lowest standard permitted within a given 'local' market.

2. Due in the main to the introduction of the weak harmonised EN1078 European standard, present day cycle helmets generally offer a lower level of protection than those sold in the early 1990s.

In the early 1990s, market research suggested that in excess of 90% of the cycle helmets sold in the UK were certified to the Snell B-90 standard, at that time the most stringent cycle helmet standard in the world. In 1998, Head Protection Evaluations (HPE), my safety helmet laboratory, conducted a test programme for the Consumers Association (reported in Which? October 1998) to assess cycle helmets available in the UK. By that year all of the helmets were labelled to EN1078. The results showed that, with only one or two exceptions, the helmets tested were quite incapable of meeting the higher Snell B-90 standard, to which many of the models had been previously certified. Some helmets were even incapable of meeting the weak EN1078 standard.

I think for cyclists who are taking considerable risks (mountain biker, roadies with a taste for speed), head protection is a great idea, but the current helmet paradigm really falls short of what's needed. The manufacturers should be facing a lot more pressure to innovate.

Unregistered.

Does anybody know what the most up-to-date standards are for helmets? And why ones people should look for before buying?

check_six

I feel that helmets offer limited protection, so your main considerations should be your budget and how the thing looks. CianRyan, you already know how much you have to spend, so just go for the nicest looking helmet for around that price. Going to a bike shop to try on the different brands you are interested in is a must do.

My own choice was a €9.99 Aldi helmet that was on sale in May. It looks like any other helmet in the sub €50 bracket, it met my budget requirements, and the helmet requirements for sportive rides I wanted to take part in.

Plastik

Home:Ballyhoura wrote: »

Maybe take a look at some of the less common helmets, for example...
http://www.ekoi.fr/look-ekoi-categorie.php?var=1

They have these in The Edge, Cork.

Home:Ballyhoura

Plastik wrote: »

They have these in The Edge, Cork.

Yes the whole Edge cycling team use the Ekoi Squadra personalized with their name. Now I'm wearing the Ekoi Diablo, a steal for €55....lighter than my Atmos too which is twice the price!

FISMA

OP - check out the Met helmets.

CianRyan

Hey lads, I've been away from the forum for a few says but bought my lid during the week, just thought I'd update by telling I've bought s Bell Array for €80 from my LBS. they had it priced at €95 so that was nice of them.

I was drooling over a white Catlike Whisper Plus but the extra €100 on the price tag means ill have to weight for that.

Who knows, maybe I'll be able to place my order for my new bike soon and I'll at it to the list.

Home:Ballyhoura

I know you said you already got a helmet, but anyone still looking for one...the Ekoi website are offering 30% off some products including helmets using the promotional code PHIL because they sponsor Philippe Gilbert, wearer of 3 jersey in the Tour de France. Great value, made even better.

poochiem

ahem
http://www.theage.com.au/world/motorcyclist-killed--in-helmet-law-protest-20110704-1gxya.html#ixzz1R6846alr
....

Unregistered.

What helmets do An Garda use?

tomasrojo

poochiem wrote: »

ahem
http://www.theage.com.au/world/motorcyclist-killed--in-helmet-law-protest-20110704-1gxya.html#ixzz1R6846alr
....

Well, motorbike helmets are a different topic.

I read somewhere that thanks to ABATE there are now states in the USA that have mandatory helmet laws for cyclists, but not for motorcyclists.

CianRyan

I really don't understand why someone wouldn't want to wear a helmet, other than just an excuse to kick up a fuss I guess.

Hopefully the rest of those NY bikers can learn from thy accident.

tomasrojo

ABATE are a very well-organised and tenacious lobby.

http://reason.com/archives/2005/11/01/freedom-riders

They've had a remarkable amount of success in fighting motorcycle helmet laws, it seems.

The final page of the linked article tries to explain their motivation.

Motorcyclists may have been quicker to recognize the importance of the principle because riding a motorcycle is much more dangerous than most other modes of transportation and forms of recreation. If the government can save lives and taxpayer money by requiring helmets, it could save even more by banning motorcycles altogether. The National Motorists Association's Baxter suggests that motorcyclists' consciousness of their minority status also fed their determination to resist helmet laws.

Unlike cycling, there is no real health benefit to motorcycling. So -- putting to one side how effective helmets are to begin with -- it can't be reasonably argued that it is healthier to travel by motorcycle bare-headed than not to travel by motorcycle at all.

Lemag

Home:Ballyhoura wrote: »

I know you said you already got a helmet, but anyone still looking for one...the Keoi website are offering 30% off some products including helmets using the promotional code PHIL because they sponsor Philippe Gilbert, wearer of 3 jersey in the Tour de France. Great value, made even better.

This one or this one ?

Home:Ballyhoura

Lemag wrote: »

This one or this one ?

First link....http://www.ekoi.fr/
Shipping is 15 euro I think but well worth it if you get one or two things from them. Took about 3 days for my helmets and bits to arrive.

Lemag

Home:Ballyhoura wrote: »

First link....http://www.ekoi.fr/
Shipping is 15 euro I think but well worth it if you get one or two things from them. Took about 3 days for my helmets and bits to arrive.

Cheers but how good is your French ;)