CPSC/Safety Test Statistics - Where? - Page 2

08-23-2004, 01:43 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:

>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.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

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

08-23-2004, 01:43 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:

>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.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

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

08-23-2004, 01:43 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:

>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.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

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

08-23-2004, 01:56 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:43:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
> message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:
>
> 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

08-23-2004, 01:56 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:43:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
> message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:
>
> 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

08-23-2004, 01:56 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:43:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
> message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:
>
> 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

08-23-2004, 01:56 PM

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 22:43:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know?
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:34:04 GMT, Glm <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in
> message <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>:
>
> 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

08-23-2004, 06:56 PM

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]

08-23-2004, 06:56 PM

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]

08-23-2004, 06:56 PM

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]