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Science and Bicycling Meet In a New Helmet Design (arstechnica.com)
John Timmer from Ars Technica got a chance to take a look at Trek's new bicycle helmet that they claim offers "the first major change in helmet technology in years," and is backed up with peer-reviewed science. Here's an excerpt from Timmer's report: WaveCel is the product of orthopedic surgeon Steve Madey and a biomedical engineer named Michael Bottlang. The two had been working on a variety of ideas related to medical issues and protective gear, funded in part by federal grant money. When considering the idea of a lightweight material that could evenly distribute forces, Bottlang told Ars that they first focused on a honeycomb pattern. But they found that it was actually too robust -- the honeycomb wouldn't collapse until a lot of force had been applied, and then it would fail suddenly.
The design they eventually developed has a shape that allows flexing almost immediately when force is applied. "It starts to glide right away," Bottlang said. The manufacturing technique creates a clear point of failure that allows more extensive flexing once a certain level of force is exceeded -- part of the structure will fold over rather than experiencing a complete failure. Then, once folded, the polymer it's made of will allow neighboring cells to glide over each other. This provides some resistance even after the structure has collapsed. For the helmet, a patch of this material is attached to the inside of a more traditional EPS helmet, which provides impact resistance. But the WaveCel mesh is allowed to float within the helmet and can absorb much of the force of off-axis impacts. The thin strips of soft material that cushion the helmet where it rests on the head (also found in more traditional helmets) are attached directly to the WaveCel mesh.
It looks more uncomfortable than it is. Madey, the orthopedic surgeon, said they've done tests that show that, even if placed directly on the skin, the WaveCel mesh wouldn't break the skin under most impact forces. How does their new helmet work? According to a paper authored by Bottlang and Madey, helmets including the material reduced rotational acceleration from impacts by 73 percent compared to a normal helmet. A slip pad within a normal helmet (MIPS) only dropped acceleration by 22 percent, which seems like a substantial difference.
The design they eventually developed has a shape that allows flexing almost immediately when force is applied. "It starts to glide right away," Bottlang said. The manufacturing technique creates a clear point of failure that allows more extensive flexing once a certain level of force is exceeded -- part of the structure will fold over rather than experiencing a complete failure. Then, once folded, the polymer it's made of will allow neighboring cells to glide over each other. This provides some resistance even after the structure has collapsed. For the helmet, a patch of this material is attached to the inside of a more traditional EPS helmet, which provides impact resistance. But the WaveCel mesh is allowed to float within the helmet and can absorb much of the force of off-axis impacts. The thin strips of soft material that cushion the helmet where it rests on the head (also found in more traditional helmets) are attached directly to the WaveCel mesh.
It looks more uncomfortable than it is. Madey, the orthopedic surgeon, said they've done tests that show that, even if placed directly on the skin, the WaveCel mesh wouldn't break the skin under most impact forces. How does their new helmet work? According to a paper authored by Bottlang and Madey, helmets including the material reduced rotational acceleration from impacts by 73 percent compared to a normal helmet. A slip pad within a normal helmet (MIPS) only dropped acceleration by 22 percent, which seems like a substantial difference.
My head is protected by my colon. I don't even need fresh air anymore. /Kendall
The helmet sounds interesting, but the testing apparatus (image from the study) in the linked study is really damned cool. I wish we could get something like that at the office, because it looks like it could one hell of an inverted choke-slam to those in need of such.
It won't help you when a two-ton pickup truck packed full of drunken illegal aliens plows into you and leaves you for dead.
ONODA Sakamichi, The Mountain King, that is. Not useless One Ball Armstrong.
Can you tell from casual visual inspection if the helmet will still function at 100%? If not, I'll stick with a traditional foam helmet.
It should be noted that MIPS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-directional_Impact_Protection_System) was only introduced to bike helmets pretty recently. The vast majority of helmets out there - and the majority of helmets on sale today - don't have MIPS. It tends to only be in high-end helmets, or is an additional cost over the non-MIPS version of the same helmet.
Mentioned by some of the commenters, looks safer to me.
https://youtu.be/61Kb53DCeEc?t...
Its a Purple mattress for your head
What were they using before when they designed bicycle helmets? Astrology? Homeopathy? Republicanism?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I've always wondered what brains would look like after going through a crinkle cutting device. I guess we'll soon know.
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Your spam and harassment is unwelcome, Alexander. You've harassed many other users, too, including Subie, Ol Olsoc, webmistressrachel, c6gunner, Zontar The Mindless, amicusNYCL, Coren22, and so many others. Isn't it time you stop being such a bitter crybaby and do something useful with your life? Although your string sorting program (APK Hosts File Engine) is complete shit, working on it would still be better than crapflooding Slashdot.
Grow up, APK. You're 54 years old. Act your damn age.
How about Hövding?
https://hovding.com/
Shouldn't there be helmets for car drivers and passengers? Brain injuries are the most serious car crash injuries. And those brains are more valuable too, because you know, unlike cyclists, these people can afford cars. I say we make helmets mandatory in cars. All professional racers wear helmets already.
And reality surely obliges the inbred nazi faggot soon enough, no doubt.
Here in Sweden we have airbag deployable helmets, you wear them like a collar over your shoulders, and should you fall off the airbag will deploy. The only issue then is that once used in an accident, you will need to buy a new one, but they are less cumbersome than a helmet, and so often preferred by city cyclists.
Middle aged men in Lycra, particularly slovenly overweight ones, will love putting this helmet on with their shiny spandex while they ride around on their little bicycles and tiny, asshole-massaging seats.
Bicycle helmets make no sense at all. They sit high atop the head, offering little or no protection to the periphery, where impact is most likely to occur when falling from a bicycle.
The bicycle helmet seems to be designed to be streamlined, stylish, and exclusive. In that order. Protection is clearly not a real consideration.
Consider almost all other helmets, football, baseball, hockey, climbing, paragliding, skydiving, construction, military... All of these helmets extend protection to a far greater area of the head than bicycle helmets do.
Bicycle helmets are designed for speed and looks while satisfying a helmet requirement. They provide shitty head protection. Bicycle helmets make no sense!
I got the promo for these helmets via email about a month ago. They looked cool and I thought the material was like a soft silicon form the images and videos I watched. Then I saw these helmets at the bike store 2 weeks ago. Nope! The material is like a hard plastic that is turned on edged toward the rider's skull. I can't imagine the laceration damage that would result in the event of a collision. Stick with MIPS, I think.
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