Canyon HUD helmet for road riding(media-centre.canyon.com) |
Canyon HUD helmet for road riding(media-centre.canyon.com) |
And turns out Virgina Tech does a bunch of helmet impact testing and maintains a ranking list https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/. The latest helmets have a releasable layer that absorbs (converts rotational energy?) more impact.
This HUD is pretty slick. In a way, it's more preventative (avoiding accidents) vs. reactive (absorbing impact in an accident) safety which sounds nice.
Thanks for sharing. Interesting to see my Giro (with MIPS) has... 3 stars. Hmmm.
A crappy helmet with MIPS is a slightly less crappy helmet that may still be worse than a great non-MIPS helmet.
Like upgrading a 1960 motor vehicle death trap’s 2 point seat belts to 3 point. It’ll help, but it’s still a death trap.
I'm anti MIPS
That is important and useful, and is best used in combination with other testing: Bicycling also has many other and more serious risks to cyclist head, including skull fractures, brain damage, and death.
Consumer Reports is another great source (better one IMHO); in their labs they do empirical testing for other outcomes of ~150 helmets, and provide a comprehensive guide to buying helmets:
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/bike-helmets/
In Consumer Reports’ tests, we strap helmets onto “head forms” that simulate the size of a human head, then drop them 14 mph onto a flat anvil to find out how well they withstand impact. An electronic sensor inside the head form monitors the force that would be transmitted to a rider’s skull in an accident.
To ensure the helmet will stay in place during an accident, we test the strength of the chinstraps, attachment points, and buckles by dropping a weight that’s 8¾ pounds and 2 feet so that it yanks on the straps to simulate the force of a crash.
Our testers also evaluate each helmet for ventilation, fit adjustments, ease of use, and other features.
Also, helmets are meant to be replaced every couple of years as the materials deteriorate (UV/heat) and the protection dissipates.
As we like to say, dentist helmet.
How can I get people to stop laughing at me for tinfoiling my helmet?
Don't apologize for being a human being. The world needs more of them.
Pogies are great but don’t do you any good off of your bike.
That works well enough for most road riding. I wonder if having a reverse view mapped onto my glasses would be an improvement or take away from my focus.
Recumbent bikes might be fun to watch in time trial races but would be ridiculously dangerous in a peloton. Visibility is bad enough on a regular bike when you're at the back of a group, and the lower perspective on a recumbent would make mass crashes even more likely. Yikes.
VA Tech (and others, IIRC) has years of empirical tests that show otherwise. What is your comment based on?
Edit: In fact, if I understand your analysis, humans won't get concussions at all.
Sure, buy all the safety equipment you can afford that has any possible benefit.
What’s better: a $15 more expensive bike light or a $15 more expensive helmet with MIPS?
How are they testing it in the lab? How do concussions work in realistic situations (is there one way?)? What is the distribution of realistic situations?
Maybe the benefits are better in realistic situations; maybe the lab tests are more aggressive than reality or the results are interpreted conservatively (because scientists spending years on something might have thought of a 30-second hot take), ...