#bike helmets

[krumpkin]

Great chair, the guy who had this as a helmet must of been huge 🤔

[idroolinmysleep]

Time trial helmets are getting out of control.

[fiercynn]

okay i guess i have a little bit to add to bicycle helmet discourse, but it's kind of tangential to the other conversations so i'm really just using this as an excuse to share information that people might not know about helmets lol

wear a helmet unless you have a good reason not to: helmets do reduce head injuries and fatalities (and this is true in europe too - here's a study commissioned by the norwegian public roads administration on the impacts of helmets in cyclist accidents). so unless there are mitigating circumstances like health or cost that make it impossible for you to wear a helmet, you should do absolutely do it!

make sure your helmet is in good shape: if you are a regular biker, you may want to consider replacing your helmet every three to five years (but you can keep it for longer if you're a more sporadic biker), and you should definitely replace a helmet that has been through some kind of accident, even if it doesn't seem damaged

laws requiring helmets are unjust (in the u.s., but maybe elsewhere too): helmets are great, but using helmets as the fulcrum of policy interventions for bikers can actually perpetuate racial and economic injustices. studies in many u.s. cities have found that laws requiring bikers to wear helmets result in police disproportionately giving and enforcing citations/fines on bikers who are black, native, and/or homeless, as well as using such stops as pretexts to try and charge them with other things. my city, seattle, was the largest city in the country to enforce a helmet law until our county overturned all helmet laws last year to prevent this kind of police harassment - with support from local bike organizations. so helmets are good, but requiring them by law has bad side effects. (i tried to find out whether there's data from other countries, but nothing turned up, so maybe this hasn't been studied as widely outside the u.s.)

u.s.-ians, don't let helmets cover up the bigger problems: as with most issues of health and injustice, the real safety problems for bikers in the u.s. lies far deeper: in our infrastructure and our reliance on cars. we can be annoyed at europeans who say they don't need helmets, but they are correct that helmets are treating the symptom, not the cause. don't let your support of helmet-wearing keep you from also advocating for more protected bike lanes, better public transit, lower speed limits for vehicles, and other things that will better protect bikers (and pedestrians, for that matter)

[aus-bloke]

Bike life

[xz19]

History of bike helmet

1880's was when the first bike helmet was needed due to head injuries began to increase. Helmets was made from "Pith", it's the plant material of the rind in oranges, lemons, and other citrus fruits. It's spongy white tissue lining is easily crush-able, therefore was ideal  to break up on impact, riders only needed protection against a single impact to know the helmet saved them, and know it was worth buying another helmet. But it was likely the best material available at that time.

Bike boom during 1970’s, many American adults took up cycling as an exercise and a sport. "Helmets" (also known as Hairnet) was invented by Snell Foundation. Made by a strips of ring leather-covered padding, warped around the head and a wool ring above that. The style evolved and Italy produced beautiful soft leather. The interior of the strip was a foam, but it wasn't very protective and they would rot from sweat. By 1975, Bell Auto parts invented the first real helmet for cyclists. It consisted of a hard plastic shell padded with a foam-like material. Produced from a thick all-EPS helmet that was highly protective. The design was actually an adaptation of a helmet Bell had produced for pediatricians to protect child heads after surgery. Bell limited the idea to toddler helmets in the belief that adult helmets would always require a hard shell. This was the beginning of the modern helmet. The American National Standards Institute introduced standards for helmets that were widely accepted in 1984. Quality of only helmets helped to remove ineffective helmets from the market. Foam liner polystyrene was invented, so by the 1990’s a thin hard shell was added to the polystyrene foam helmet for durability. Nowadays helmets are even lighter, more streamline, and have multiple vents for comfort and adjustable straps to make them more secure and easier to wear. The increasing use of helmets, reinforced the drop in head injuries statistics.

source - davison.com

[disposablebabies]

[bikedweeb]

[T]he campaign to get people to wear helmets creates a perception that cycling is dangerous, and scares people off bikes[...] That is entirely the point; drivers do not want bikes in their way and will do everything to make it more miserable, from helmet laws to mandatory licensing. The real issue here is a battle over pavement and who controls it.

Everyone should wear helmets. So why pick on cyclists? by Lloyd Alter

[aus-bloke]

Bike life. Helmets save lives.