bike helmet, concussion talk

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Yup, I got a MIPS helmet about a year ago (when I had a relatively minor crash on loose and rutted gravel down a hill while trying to avoid an oncoming car that wasn't as far over to their right as they could have been). Hoping I never have to test it, though. I will say that my previous non-MIPS helmet really did the job. It has a good dent and some cracking in the foam, but I didn't even have a headache.

[ny biker]

I think with the helmets that have been on the market for years (non-MIPS), it all depends on the crash. Some people find that the helmet breaks but their head is okay, but in other cases the helmlet does not help prevent serious injury. I think it depends on factors like the type and angle of impact. I recall a few years ago watching a big high-speed crash during a sprint finish at a grand tour. In the replay you could see one rider -- Tyler Farrar I think -- hit the ground and his head bounced off the pavement. The worse injury he suffered that day was a bad cut to his elbow. So that was a case where the helmet worked. Sadly in other cases it does not help. I know people who have looked at the available statistics and concluded that helmets are not worth wearing because they don't really help in a crash.

When I bought my current helmet a few years ago, I had a hard time finding one with lots of big vents AND a visor. Most of the really vented helmets are high-end and the assumption seems to be that only people who wear less expensive helmets with smaller vents want a visor. Eventually I found the Bell Volt, which has worked well for me, so a few weeks ago I thought about getting another one. Then I thought, maybe I should look for one of those MIPS helmets instead. There's nothing wrong with the current helmet so I haven't looked further into the MIPS helmets that are currently on the market.

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Yeah, MIPS won't make a difference in all crashes. And a helmet won't even save a person's brain in all crashes, but it's certainly worthwhile in most.