David Cowie wrote:
> I have a Burley trailer arriving soon and was wondering if it's
> necessary for helmets ?
Not a question it's possible to answer without being able to look into
the future :-(
AFAICT Burleys don't have a habit of flipping so there's no particular
reason the kids inside it should be banging their heads off the ground.
I can't /guarantee/ their safety without versus with, of course, but if
there's no reason to expect the trailer to unload them there's no
particular point in a helmet, which is designed for low speed,
relatively low energy impacts like just falling over.
> Given most riding will be sans-traffic.
Doesn't necessarily make any real difference. If it's hit by a motor
vehicle then all the bets are off and it's fairly unlikely a helmet
(even if properly fitted) would make any real difference in such a case.
Sad, but probably true.
> I always wear a helmet and favour Giro. I would want to invest the
> same care in the kids, but welcome arguments as to how necessary they
> are considering the roll cage etc.
See above. Note that a helmet specification (plus real world data
showing what they will do) is such that you can expect them to save the
wearer from a nasty graze (if they land somewhere the helmet's
protecting, mine didn't save me a horrible scab on my chin last year),
and not really much more. Now, that's a good thing in itself, but a
nasty graze is unlikely to kill you or even give any sort of long term
problems.
I used to always wear a helmet, these days I'm a bit more in touch with
what I can expect of them and certainly wouldn't want to be wearing one
today for just getting about as it's hot, sunny and humid, just the sort
of conditions to make wearing a lid particularly unpleasant. I'm not in
the habit of falling off, at least for utility cycling, so why wear
something to possibly mitigate a possible but very unlikely injury when
the cost to do so is a 100% certainty of a good deal of comfort loss?
If you want them to enjoy travelling by pedal power then having them
associate it with hot, sweaty boxes with snug chin straps doesn't look
to me like the Way Forwards. I'm a lot happier to wear mine in the
winter, but on a day like today it's just making what should be a
complete pleasure less so.
Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net
[email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/