Recommend me a cool road bike helmet?

[macneill]

Just something to wear while I'm on the fixie or just putting around town on the Raleigh Sprite.

I've got a Giro MTB helmet that I wear on the MTB, but it looks odd wearing it on the other two. Not sure why. I guess I'm vain like that.

I'm not to keen on the uber road helmets, but something along the lines of these:

Thanks

 

[RiggerFJ80]

For the road bike I use Giro's Atmos, or whatever their overpriced road helmet is. On the mountain bike I wear a 12 year old Specialized that I should replace, but it's too cool and stickerized to get rid of. I removed the "iz" from the stickers, so it more closely resembles my mountain biking skills! I've had my single speed frame (trash day find steel Specialized Hardrock) for severalyears, but haven't gotten around to putting it together yet, but I would go with an old-school lid like this http://www.pro-tec.net/bike/main.html maybe in that funky green. Rubber side down!

-rob

 

[Bogo]

At this point I don't know brands, but get something with a true hard shell without a ton of vents. The standard for testing bicycle helmets sucks and is possibly deadly in it's effect. It allows helmets that don't properly keep the head from deforming during an impact. The most brain damage happens when your skull deforms. It doesn't need to deform enough to crack or break to cause brain damage. I really liked my old Bell bicycle helmet, but you haven't been able to get one of the style I have for 15+ years. My previous one saved my brain when I head butted a curb at 15 to 20 MPH.

 

[stinkyfj60]

I need to buy a new helmet this year, dont know what I want yet...

 

[stinkyfj60]

At this point I don't know brands, but get something with a true hard shell without a ton of vents. The standard for testing bicycle helmets sucks and is possibly deadly in it's effect. It allows helmets that don't properly keep the head from deforming during an impact. The most brain damage happens when your skull deforms. It doesn't need to deform enough to crack or break to cause brain damage. I really liked my old Bell bicycle helmet, but you haven't been able to get one of the style I have for 15+ years. My previous one saved my brain when I head butted a curb at 15 to 20 MPH.

THe only road helmets I see without a ton of vents are the time trials style...

 

[gmarshall7]

Style comes first.

 

[RiggerFJ80]

For true hard-core coolness, safety be damned, get an old-school leather "hairnet"! Think Eddy Merckx, 7 Eleven cyling team, Breaking Away...

 

[Jman]

I think I've found the right one for you. . .

Comes complete with sound effects.

 

[Junk]

 

[gmarshall7]

Bling Bling !!

 

[cary]

At this point I don't know brands, but get something with a true hard shell without a ton of vents. The standard for testing bicycle helmets sucks and is possibly deadly in it's effect. It allows helmets that don't properly keep the head from deforming during an impact. The most brain damage happens when your skull deforms. It doesn't need to deform enough to crack or break to cause brain damage. I really liked my old Bell bicycle helmet, but you haven't been able to get one of the style I have for 15+ years. My previous one saved my brain when I head butted a curb at 15 to 20 MPH.

Do you have any evidence to support your claims? I have been riding bikes for a long time, and cannot possibly see how the old helmets were better than today's units which are designs to deform and absorb energy. The old ones were just plastic with some foam in them.

To the original poster, the best helmet is the one that fits your head best. Different manufactures have different shapes for their molds. If Giro's fit you well, you will do well sticking with them.

 

[IdahoDoug]

Current helmets are better than they ever were, and they work well. I crashed with an older one without the thin hardshell molded onto the outside like the new ones have. The foam protected my noggin, but the soft outer shell conformed to the shape of the surface I was slapping the melon against and gave my neck a heck of a wrench as the helmet stopped briefly and I kept piling into it. Read an article about the new thinshell ones that cited this exact phenomenon for the new thinshell standard. I don't understand the criticism of the new ones, either. They work. I've now had my mtn bike pile into my head rear axle tip first just as if someone swung it at me and lived to tell about it. Hit me so hard, I saw stars, but the axle tip did not penetrate to my head. So they've done some nice work. Perfect? I guess a NASCAR helmet and neck roll would be an improvement but when the public says "lightweight" for this application that's what you have to design to.

Best advice for a helmet is don't buy one that you think makes you look cool - buy one that will save your life. Spend time finding out different makers have notably different head shapes as their preference and find the one that fits you. Believe someone who's got decades and tens of thousands of miles under his belt - you will never be ready for the crash when it happens. One second you're grinning and high fiving your best buddy about some joke and the next you've been cut off by Junk's grandma and you're bouncing your melon off the corner of a steel utility box. Get the best.

DougM

 

[atoyot]

I just went with the most comfortable one. It wasn't necessarily the most expensive either. I use it on the road and off road. It also has a little visor that can be removed which I like. I don't remember what brand I think it was a Gryo? or something like that. Comfort first for me.

 

[wob]

This is the one I used to use - maybe it explains some things...

 

[Bogo]

THe only road helmets I see without a ton of vents are the time trials style...

I know. The good hard shelled helmets disappeared from the market long ago. I've been wondering some about the hockey cross over helmets you are seeing now.

Do you have any evidence to support your claims? I have been riding bikes for a long time, and cannot possibly see how the old helmets were better than today's units which are designs to deform and absorb energy. The old ones were just plastic with some foam in them.

My sources are the EMTs, doctors and nurses who work with head trauma patients. They are the ones who have raised the red flag. For cyclists with the highly vented thin shelled helmets they were finding brain damage that was very close to what they would expect if there wasn't a helmet on. The patients with the older helmets like mine had little to no brain damage. Unfortunately nobody has been able to get any studies done yet as they get blocked.

To the original poster, the best helmet is the one that fits your head best. Different manufactures have different shapes for their molds. If Giro's fit you well, you will do well sticking with them.

Very true except for lack of a good stiff hard shell which is no longer available.

Current helmets are better than they ever were, and they work well.

I have to disagree with you on that. The dropping of the hard shell on adult helmets by Giro led to the all EPS foam helmet *****ed about below.

I crashed with an older one without the thin hardshell molded onto the outside like the new ones have. The foam protected my noggin, but the soft outer shell conformed to the shape of the surface I was slapping the melon against and gave my neck a heck of a wrench as the helmet stopped briefly and I kept piling into it. Read an article about the new thinshell ones that cited this exact phenomenon for the new thinshell standard. I don't understand the criticism of the new ones, either. They work. I've now had my mtn bike pile into my head rear axle tip first just as if someone swung it at me and lived to tell about it. Hit me so hard, I saw stars, but the axle tip did not penetrate to my head. So they've done some nice work. Perfect? I guess a NASCAR helmet and neck roll would be an improvement but when the public says "lightweight" for this application that's what you have to design to.

Best advice for a helmet is don't buy one that you think makes you look cool - buy one that will save your life. Spend time finding out different makers have notably different head shapes as their preference and find the one that fits you. Believe someone who's got decades and tens of thousands of miles under his belt - you will never be ready for the crash when it happens. One second you're grinning and high fiving your best buddy about some joke and the next you've been cut off by Junk's grandma and you're bouncing your melon off the corner of a steel utility box. Get the best.

Get the best, **** style, has always been my attitude. Oh, by the way, I once did century bicycle racing. I road 40 miles a day, and 100 miles on one day each week. I've even did a 600km brevet in under 25 hours. Having said that I'll also tell you that NONE OF THAT provided me with any better insight as to what makes a better bicycle helmet. What told me what should make a better bicycle helmet was learning the physics involved in head impacts that lead to brain injuries. What is being seen with the current crop of helmets are line impact injuries despite a helmet being warn. The injuries parallel the foam line in the helmet that hit the ground. The helmet is only transmitting the impact to a narrow line on the skull. The skull deforms along that line. With a point impact on an unprotected head you see the injuries roughly circling the impact point. With a nice stiff hard shell you get the impact spread over that whole side of the head. The skull does not deform, and the brain is fully supported in it's natural shape.

This is the helmet that saved my noggin... I can stand on it and bounce and it won't deform. The EPS foam lining is what deforms in an accident. It has a full hard lexan shell and a full EPS foam lining. Lots of history here.

 

[beaufort-fj60]

this one should keep you safe...

 

[sundaypunch]

New helmets all meet the same safety spec. Having less vents has nothing to do with the strength. I guess it's possible that some old helmets like that massive Bell might give more protection. If a $150 Giro isn't enough peace of mind it's time to start riding with a motorcycle helmet.

 

[Bogo]

New helmets all meet the same safety spec. Having less vents has nothing to do with the strength.

The problem likely lies with how the spec tests for compliance. It uses a rigid head form and the human head isn't really rigid. The human head deforms when you put pressure on it unevenly. Yes, the new helmets decelerate the head to spec, but they put pressure on it unevenly. It has been hypothesized the more rigid foams in the newer helmets combined with the narrowness of the pressure area on the the skull is little to no safer than just a padded leather skull cap. The old Bell helmet I have is designed to spread out that pressure over the whole side of the head.

 

[Spud]

Giro's fit most comfortable...

Go to your local bike shop and try them on. Kinda like shoes, they are worthless if they dont fit right.

 

[Spud]

Just an FYI, any foam based helmets, (which includes all of them now), the foam breaks down and becomes too rigid after a couple of years. So if your helmet is more than a couple years old it will not protect you like it should if you impact.