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/