Lloyd_joy said:I've now started to take downhill MTB as a sport so had some question about the safety gears specially on the helmet. As of the moment, I am short in cash... had seen some moto-cross full face helmet at my local LBS. The price difference between a moto-cross full face helmet and that of a mountain bike full face helmet is amazing. The one for MTB costs 3.5 times that of the moto-cross. So I am panning to buy the motocross helmet... is my decision advisable or is my decision to buy the motocross full face helmet okay? Need your thoughts on this...
Thank you...
Lloyd
Lloyd, I have written a paper on helmets back when they were first all the rage. I have been continuously attacked for doing nothing more than showing that helmets as they were then and as most are now will not protect you from anything other than the most common accident - hitting your head from a slow speed or stopped fall over accident.
A couple of years ago I went back and checked the same sort of figures to see if they had improved any and they hadn't. This is because the helmet standard is based on the idea that the danger in an accident is from possible skull fracture. This is NOT the danger. The actual danger in bicycle accidents is from concussions and I had the unfortunate chance to prove that by getting a concussion in 2009 and being totally out of it until 2012 when a cop friend saw me having a seizure and he got me to a real competent neurologists. By competent I mean someone that actually works with concussion victims. Most neurologists end up working almost entirely with dementia victims and forget anything they ever knew about concussions. I now have to take anti-seizure medication for the rest of my life and the side effects aren't fun. But I can still ride. You can generally find a good neurologist at colleges with competitive football teams since American football is as dangerous as falling off of a bicycle.
However, Trek discovered in some manner, that the danger of head injuries was concussion and they actually invented a new sort of helmet liner that they originally referred to as Q-Cell. I have fallen off perhaps a half dozen times now and hit my head after getting one of these sold under the Bontrager name. You can FEEL the difference when you hit your head. And what's more, you don't have to throw the helmet out since it recovers to a large extent. Though I am due to get a new one.
Full face helmets of the foam plastic type are nowhere near as effective as the Bontrager Q-cell helmet. And don't pay any attention to the MIPS mounting system since that doesn't do anything of value.
