Interesting article on Helmets and Concussions

I don't know about others here, but I don't get hit in the head or hit my head on stuff on my rides. There were many mentions of football and other helmets, but these people are getting hit all the time and the comparisons are ridiculous. I have had two serious incidents where my helmet saved me. I was knocked unconscious in one. In both cases the helmet broke and saved my head. These were major impacts and the helmet did its job in keeping my noggin in one piece. I don't think any kind of system would have prevented a concussion on brain slosh in those two incidents.
The whole thing about concussions at low impact and so on seem completely misguided when applied to cyclists. I am not concerned about repeated, blows to the head. I can see that children may have more incidents, but if a child is repeatedly bashing his head, perhaps he should not be in that activity. I am glad that they are designing better helmets and hope that they do come up with better protection. The other stuff about not wearing helmets and preventing people from riding and so on is tired stuff. It seemed like a lot of filler in that article.

I really didn't read the article that way. The best line was

"If a bicyclist is getting more than one
or two concussions a year," he added, "he
really needs to take up another activity."

Click to expand...

In general it was focused on the need to reduce rotational forces. The current helmet test appears to mimic the woodpecker's straightline hit v.s. the twisting motion that we would see during a cycling accident. So we have a test that doesn't necessarily represent real world usage.

The other major point was that once the CPSC test was mandated, all standards stagnated. No changes have occurred since 1999. Look at all the innovation in the cycling world in the last 14 years and from a safety point of view, helmets have not advanced one bit.

I don't normally fall on my head either, but when I do it's usually hard. After a fall last year where I don't remember the impact (and to this day, do not know why I fell) I know that I'm interested in a helmet that could reduce the chances of a concussion. Next helmet purchase, I'll be checking out something like the POV.