There are many safety measures that you can and must consider when cycling, from carry a bike repair kit to know the climate conditions, and yet no one as important as wear your helmet.
Believe it or not, this tool can avoid death of cyclists in case of accident, and we don’t refer to being run over, but sometimes mishaps can be simpler and apparently not so severe, those that you might think that won’t happen to you.
For that, in today’s ride we will explore more about the importance of helmet, from accidents helmet prevent, how to wear it, to the right one for us.
Ready? Adjust your helmet, let’s go.
Bike helmets and their importance
When cycling, wearing a bike helmet make you seem more professional.
A good helmet can provide you more status to the eyes of others. An excellent helmet will help you to have a better performance, but the correct helmet will save your life.
Do you know all the advantages of using one? Maybe you believe their main purpose is protect you in case of being run over by a car, right? The obvious and correct answer is “yes”, but an accident of this kind isn’t the only thing to worry about.
The reasons for that and to wear t he bike helmet are the following:
- It doesn’t matter if you’re a bike god or if you use bikes with training wheels. For sure, you will fall at least once in your life, that’s why you should always wear a helmet.
- The importance of the helmet is that protects your head; obviously. But, is not a joke, considering that the 75% of annual deaths caused by bike accidents are due head injuries because of falling from the bike.
- A fall at low speed and distance can be mortal, isn’t necessary to being run over. The real danger is at the moment the head impact against floor; not in forward speed. Meaning, it doesn’t matter if you fall quickly or slowly when pedal, the key moment will be when your head impacts against the floor.
- The same happens if being run over by a car. Vehicle’s speed influence at the moment of the first impact, the second impact can be greater, in other words, when you fall to floor. In theory, there are more probabilities of survive while vehicle speed doesn’t exceed the 31 mph.
- In accordance with medical research, a bike helmet can prevent up to 85% of injuries in bicyclists’ head.
As you can realize, the use of this protection measure is key. It doesn’t matter if you practice professional or recreational cycling, neither if you cover miles or just a few blocks. Its important the use of helmet always in case of suffering an accident.
Features of the correct helmet
Of course, there are more probabilities of a high-end helmet to protect you better.
However, you must use the helmet that suits you the best. Here are some recommendations to consider:
- Bike helmet must be manufactured by a rigid foam layer to cushion the blow of being run over. It is suggested to be Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) material. The difference is the first deforms after impact and second recovers original shape.
- You need strong strap and fastener, these must adjust to your head, avoid loose and protects you in case of suffering several impacts after the fall. Therefore, helmet must remain in your head after the first impact, it must not come off after the first impact.
- As beautiful as a helmet may seem in your favorite color, the best is choosing a conspicuous color, this will make you more visible to people and pedestrians.
- There are quality standards, and make sure your helmet has at least one of the following: CPSC (required by United States), ASTM F1447, Snell B90-S, Snell B95 (stricter that the previous), CEN or EN1078 (standard for lighter helmets, the less strict).
Other recommendations
- Helmets are designed by sizes:
- Small, medium and big. Make sure to find the correct one according to the size of your head.
- Inner pads must cover the circumference of your head and being adhered to this one.
- Now, straps, the part with V shape must surround your ears, the lower part must fasten under your jawbone.
- Helmet must be adjusted but it doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable. Make sure if you leave this loose, this won’t move an inch to any direction.
Is recommended to have a helmet with an aerodynamic design with holes to vent, in this way you can cycling more fresh and comfortably.
