Helmets…

I finally got around to replacing my bike helmet. I really should have done it a couple of weeks ago after a slight knock, but one thing led to another and there you go…
The accident was just barely an accident which is one reason I wasn’t thinking much about. I was on a back street in the McCully area of town. I approached a stop sign where I planned on making a left hand turn. The car in front of me stopped and I slowed as I approached. The car in front of me didn’t move, even though there was no traffic on the cross street. I slowed more. The car didn’t move. I slowed more. The car didn’t move.
You can probably see where this is going. 🙂
I ended up more or less motionless balanced on my pedals when the car finally moved through the intersection and I pushed down on the pedal to get moving myself only to hear a scraping sound as my chain slipped the chainwheel. My foot, now meeting no resistance, went straight down pulling my weight to the right and…over I tipped. My head banged the pavement, but it didn’t seem particularly hard. I was more concerned about my wrist as it seemed I’d used my hand to try to break my fall (unsucessfully I might add). Luckily I didn’t break my wrist, nor, because I was wearing riding gloves, did I drive gravel into my palm. Whew!
So off I rode, embarrassed, especially as I’d been seen. But if you knew me you’d know I’ve been embarrassed before – far more than this – and survived. 🙂
In any case, I knew I should replace the helmet but I conveniently put it out of my mind until yesterday when I noticed that there was a crack running across the width of the helmet. It wasn’t noticable on the outside because of the plastic coating, but it was certainly visible on the inside.
My first step was to do a search on helmet reviews and the first place that came up turned out to be the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute. They have a lot of information on helmets, what constitutes a good one, the laws concerning them, and information on more helmet manufacturers than I knew existed. It seems to be a good starting place.
The also recommend checking Consumer Reports. One has to be a member to get the information on that link. They seem to think the only reason to buy a helmet is to protect your child, an excellent idea for sure, but they do rate adult helmets as well. The last ratings were done in summer 2007 so the latest and greatest helmets probably aren’t here, but things don’t seemed to have changed that much.
As it turns out Bell helmets are highly recommended, especially ones that are mostly rounded like the Citi. A rounded helmet is important because any protrusions can catch on the ground or something else in an accident and cause some real problems. A very rounded helmet, with no protrusions will be much safer.
After much reading I realized that my old helmet, a Giro Atlas II, was, in fact, a Bell. It’s a bit oversized for swelled heads like mine – able to cushion blows to both head and ego I suppose.
I decided I’d try the local box store as it was across the street from my work and while they had some helmets, Bell’s even, they didn’t have any that fit. So…
Off I went to McCully Bike where I’d gotten the Giro. They didn’t have any Giro’s, now all their helmets were Bells. Since they are really the same company these days it wasn’t a problem. I ended up with a Bell Triton which seems to be more or less an Atlas II with slight different fastenings.

So that’s my helmet and my story and I’m sticking to it.
Aloha!
Wear a helmet Robin!