CPSC/Safety Test Statistics - Where?

I certainly don't want to rub salt into the wounds of the ongoing helmet
debate, but I was wondering whether anyone knew where I could find
statistics from safety tests (or other objective assessments) conducted on
current bike helmets.

To provide a little bakground, I have a Specialized Telluride, but don't
find it that comfortable (impulse purchase - thanks, LBS!). I'm trying,
therefore, to determine whether to buy a Giro (Atmos/Pneumo/whatever) or
other brand.

Recognising that the value of a bike helmet is tantamount to the length of
a piece of string (i.e., unlikely to be zero, assuming that the string
exists, but subject to multitudinous factors) I am looking for a
compromise of safety, suitability to my riding style (road), etc.

In other words, I want to understand whether more vents, lighter design
etc. have substantial impact upon the safety afforded by given a helmet
design. I am also wondering whether pink helmets offer more protection
than blue ones.

I have searched the 'net, but cannot find anything of use. Any thoughts,
therefore, would be appreciated.

Incidentally, as one who has raced (and crashed) motorbikes since the age
of 7; and who gets enough thrills from eating high-cholesterol foods,
imbibing insane quantities of alcohol, flying aeroplanes, reading banned
literature and playing Russian Roulette in New York bars, I am comfortable
with my decision to wear a helmet on some occasions (especially as the
local clubs seem to insist on it). So please don't flame me for asking
the question!

Thank you.


Glm

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 20:02:46 GMT, Glm wrote in
message :

To provide a little bakground, I have a Specialized Telluride, but don't
find it that comfortable (impulse purchase - thanks, LBS!). I'm trying,
therefore, to determine whether to buy a Giro (Atmos/Pneumo/whatever) or
other brand.

The man who runs the firm which tests helmets against standards for
the UK market will not touch anything from Bell/Giro, and will only
recommend Specialized of all the major brands.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:14:06 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 20:02:46 GMT, Glm wrote in
message :

The man who runs the firm which tests helmets against standards for
the UK market will not touch anything from Bell/Giro, and will only
recommend Specialized of all the major brands.

Guy

Thanks, Guy. Now I am reading all the information on your web site.

I must admit, whilst I find it hard to believe there are many cases where
wearing a helmet would do me significant harm, I was shocked when I picked
up a bicycle helmet for the first time - compared with the motorcycle
helmets I wore as a teenager twenty years ago (largely Bell, actually),
these felt little more robust than the polystyrene packaging used to
protect cameras and hi-fi in transit!

Thank you for the response; and for the site.


Glm

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm wrote in
message :

I must admit, whilst I find it hard to believe there are many cases where
wearing a helmet would do me significant harm, I was shocked when I picked
up a bicycle helmet for the first time - compared with the motorcycle
helmets I wore as a teenager twenty years ago (largely Bell, actually),
these felt little more robust than the polystyrene packaging used to
protect cameras and hi-fi in transit!

Yes, that's essentially right. Just as you wouldn't expect a computer
to survive being hit by a car when packed in its foam packaging
(actually rather thicker than the average lid!), you would be mad to
rely on a cycle helmet to protect you against serious injury or death.
Wear one or not, just remember it's made of meringue covered in
eggshell and ride accordingly :-)

Thank you for the response; and for the site.

You're welcome.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:43:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm wrote in
message :

Yes, that's essentially right. Just as you wouldn't expect a computer
to survive being hit by a car when packed in its foam packaging
(actually rather thicker than the average lid!), you would be mad to
rely on a cycle helmet to protect you against serious injury or death.
Wear one or not, just remember it's made of meringue covered in
eggshell and ride accordingly :-)

Thank you for the response; and for the site.

You're welcome.

Guy

I spent my youth cycling around the Cheshire countryside, and never wore a
helmet. If I got hit by a car doing 80mph then I understood that that
would be that. My mother cared more than I did. Always wore one on my
motorbikes, though (which I raced off public highways, once or twice
directly into trees in friends' orchards!).

Now living in New York. Do my best to avoid metropolitan traffic, but
spent quite some time riding around the Park at night and on weekends,
when the place is closed to traffic. They have cycle lanes anyway
(largely populated by careening rollerbladers, though). Having in the
last fortnight witnessed 4 people decorate the road with lashings of blood
after falling from bikes, I observed that a helmet might be useful in this
kind of accident (six foot fall, 9.81 metres per second per second and all
that). So, now I need to find one I actually like wearing; and which
offers whatever protection is possible.

Failing that, I'll put a condom on my head. Should complement the spandex
rather well, actually.


Glm

Glm wrote:


I certainly don't want to rub salt into the wounds of the ongoing
helmet debate, but I was wondering whether anyone knew where I could
find statistics from safety tests (or other objective assessments)
conducted on current bike helmets.

One of the few places I've found comparative results from objective
tests has been Consumer Reports magazine here in the US. They don't
report numerical answers, but with little color-coded bubbles indicating
things like "Excellent", "Good", "Fair" etc.

Based on their ratings, the definite trend is that less expensive
helmets have heavier weight, less ventilation, perhaps klutzier straps,
and more protection. For more expensive helmets, the opposite is true.

Your spelling indicates you may be east of the Atlantic. If so, I
believe the corresponding magazine is "Which?" but I don't know if
they've done such a test.

If they have, I hope they haven't been as credulous as Consumer Reports.
While skeptical of the need for things like extended warranties and
trash compactors, CR has been yet another source of tales like "Little
Johnny toppled off his bike. If not for his helmet, he might have
died!!!"


--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:56:13 GMT, Glm wrote (more
or less):

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:43:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm wrote in
message :

Yes, that's essentially right. Just as you wouldn't expect a computer
to survive being hit by a car when packed in its foam packaging
(actually rather thicker than the average lid!), you would be mad to
rely on a cycle helmet to protect you against serious injury or death.
Wear one or not, just remember it's made of meringue covered in
eggshell and ride accordingly :-)

Thank you for the response; and for the site.

You're welcome.

Guy

I spent my youth cycling around the Cheshire countryside, and never wore a
helmet. If I got hit by a car doing 80mph then I understood that that
would be that. My mother cared more than I did. Always wore one on my
motorbikes, though (which I raced off public highways, once or twice
directly into trees in friends' orchards!).

Now living in New York. Do my best to avoid metropolitan traffic, but
spent quite some time riding around the Park at night and on weekends,
when the place is closed to traffic. They have cycle lanes anyway
(largely populated by careening rollerbladers, though). Having in the
last fortnight witnessed 4 people decorate the road with lashings of blood
after falling from bikes, I observed that a helmet might be useful in this
kind of accident (six foot fall, 9.81 metres per second per second and all
that). So, now I need to find one I actually like wearing; and which
offers whatever protection is possible.

For cycle lane travel, where, as you point out, the worst injury to
the head is a minor (i.e. shallow) cut (albeit one that looks very
bloody), why not try a woolly cap. Or one of the 70's bike helmets
made of strips of padded leather.


Failing that, I'll put a condom on my head. Should complement the spandex
rather well, actually.


Glm

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:10:56 GMT, Gawnsoft
wrote:


For cycle lane travel, where, as you point out, the worst injury to
the head is a minor (i.e. shallow) cut (albeit one that looks very
bloody), why not try a woolly cap. Or one of the 70's bike helmets
made of strips of padded leather.


Thank you for the response.

Not sure that I'd agree that "shallow" always applies: am aware of one
death from such accidents. Agree, however, that it's not quite as serious
as being mangled by an 18-wheel truck.

In fact, I am quite happy to wear a helmet: I don't think it makes me
silly (sic); and if I did I wouldn't care; likewise, I don't tfind them to
be a major discomfort or inconvenienece.

My challenge seems to be finding some objective, reasonably scientific
evidence (such as deceleration rates) that show what's good, bad and
ugly). Have trawled the web, to no avail.

Any thoughts in this regard would be appreciated.

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:56:17 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

One of the few places I've found comparative results from objective
tests has been Consumer Reports magazine here in the US. They don't
report numerical answers, but with little color-coded bubbles indicating
things like "Excellent", "Good", "Fair" etc.

Based on their ratings, the definite trend is that less expensive
helmets have heavier weight, less ventilation, perhaps klutzier straps,
and more protection. For more expensive helmets, the opposite is true.

Your spelling indicates you may be east of the Atlantic. If so, I
believe the corresponding magazine is "Which?" but I don't know if
they've done such a test.

If they have, I hope they haven't been as credulous as Consumer Reports.
While skeptical of the need for things like extended warranties and
trash compactors, CR has been yet another source of tales like "Little
Johnny toppled off his bike. If not for his helmet, he might have
died!!!"



Frank, thank you. Have always been wary of consumer reports in general
but I'll take another look at these. Much appreciated.


Glm

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:45:34 GMT, Glm wrote (more
or less):

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:10:56 GMT, Gawnsoft
t wrote:


For cycle lane travel, where, as you point out, the worst injury to
the head is a minor (i.e. shallow) cut (albeit one that looks very
bloody), why not try a woolly cap. Or one of the 70's bike helmets
made of strips of padded leather.


Thank you for the response.

Not sure that I'd agree that "shallow" always applies: am aware of one
death from such accidents.

True, but then again people die putting on their socks or using
stairs. I don't think there'll ever be a major push for safety
helmets for these activities. Then again, I've been surprised before!



Agree, however, that it's not quite as serious
as being mangled by an 18-wheel truck.

In fact, I am quite happy to wear a helmet: I don't think it makes me
silly (sic); and if I did I wouldn't care; likewise, I don't tfind them to
be a major discomfort or inconvenienece.

My challenge seems to be finding some objective, reasonably scientific
evidence (such as deceleration rates) that show what's good, bad and
ugly). Have trawled the web, to no avail.

Any thoughts in this regard would be appreciated.

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk