Review Addendum: Bluegrass Legit Carbon Helmet - I Tested It More by Crashing
A helmet that has lived a full life. Saved a life too, I guess.
The Bluegrass Legit Carbon is, as the name suggests, both legit and carbon. It's a high-performance helmet that offers comprehensive head and jaw protection, looks nice in my opinion, and weighs in at 1100g for size medium, which is a respectable weight for the level of protection. It's also the helmet I was wearing when I crashed eight months ago and hit my head.
I want to preface this article by including a massive caveat, which is that it's nearly impossible for me to compare this helmet to any other helmet in the world. I'll never test any product, especially (thankfully) any helmet, to the same limit as this one. (Hey readers, do you see how far I'm taking this whole testing thing? That's dedication. Or something.) I actually reviewed this helmet last year after the normal amount of testing - wearing it for a while until I could write about how it feels to wear it - but then I did exactly the thing this helmet is designed to protect against - crashed and hit my head - so I figure it's worth writing an addendum to the original review.
I want to preface this article by including a massive caveat, which is that it's nearly impossible for me to compare this helmet to any other helmet in the world. I'll never test any product, especially (thankfully) any helmet, to the same limit as this one. (Hey readers, do you see how far I'm taking this whole testing thing? That's dedication. Or something.) I actually reviewed this helmet last year after the normal amount of testing - wearing it for a while until I could write about how it feels to wear it - but then I did exactly the thing this helmet is designed to protect against - crashed and hit my head - so I figure it's worth writing an addendum to the original review.
Legit Carbon Details
• Carbon outer shell with EPS liner
• MIPS
• Varizorb EPS Liner
• Safety-release, flexible, anti-twist visor
• 15 vents
• Weight: 1100g (medium)
• Sizes: X-Small, Small, Medium, Large, X-Large
• CE, AS/NZS, ASTM standards
• MSRP: $549 USD
• www.met-helmets.com
• Carbon outer shell with EPS liner
• MIPS
• Varizorb EPS Liner
• Safety-release, flexible, anti-twist visor
• 15 vents
• Weight: 1100g (medium)
• Sizes: X-Small, Small, Medium, Large, X-Large
• CE, AS/NZS, ASTM standards
• MSRP: $549 USD
• www.met-helmets.com
Last September, I was riding jumps at the Hangtime Jump Jam in Bellingham, WA. I was incredibly honored to have the opportunity to ride there and excited to spend time with other strong female riders who would spend two days hyping each other up, working together on sessioning the line, and having a good time. Most of the first day did play out that way, but that evening, I crashed hard. I don't know exactly what I did, and even the people who saw it happen say something like, "I don't know, you were riding and overshot the jump and didn't stay on your bike."
Somehow, my spatial orientation changed pretty dramatically so that I landed with my head on the ground instead of my tires. From there, I was evacuated to the hospital, spent some time in a coma, eventually started recognizing my family members again, was moved after a few weeks to another hospital that specializes in treating brain injuries, started to regain some memory another few weeks later, and left the hospitals after a little over two months.
Now, I've done my fair share of outpatient therapy, have just barely started to (slowly and with very bad balance and coordination) trail ride again, and have what looks like a relatively "normal" life ahead of me again. My injury was undoubtedly bad. Like, I recently saw in some medical notes that I was in a "state of impending death" for the first nine days, which seems like a while. I've always been painfully indecisive, but come on - between life and death for that long seems a little excessive. (If you're curious to learn more about the crash and recovery, here's an article and here's a podcast episode.)
All of that said, things would have been much, much worse if I had not been wearing a helmet, of course. I'm here, I can string words together enough to write an article about the helmet I was wearing, and I have a decent enough recovery ahead of me. For all of that, I'm thankful beyond what I can express.
I really like that Bluegrass opted for classic design on the straps, rather than anything too new-agey. The cover can be removed and washed.
Details
The Legit Carbon is meant to be the top-tier offering from Bluegrass, the gravity-oriented subsidiary of MET Helmets. I also appreciate that Bluegrass seems to have put real thought into including only the details that matter: the chin stap uses a simple D-ring closure and a lot of the design feels very traditional, but it also uses MIPS and minimizes weight.
The helmet meets or exceeds European, Australian and New Zealand, US, and more stringent US standards for helmet safety testing, so there's more backing up its effectiveness than my "it seems to work" opinion, or my experience of still being alive.
The back still looks relatively unharmed. I still think the styling is clean and really nice.
Ride Impressions
I really like this helmet. I wore it for most of my bike park days last summer and of course wore it again for my last big hurrah of the season, the jump jam. This helmet was always comfortable for me, and I like the way it looks. The D-ring closure makes more sense to me than any other more complicated, more modern system, and while that doesn't make or break a helmet's appeal, it makes me appreciate this one more.
In my actual review of this helmet, I wrote but will reiterate that the helmet worked flawlessly, with easy goggle integration and no movement, even over rough stuff. It stayed comfortable, too, the right amount of snug. The vents seem effective enough that I never felt overly hot, though I opted for a purpose-built helmet whenever I'd be pedaling and wanted an ultralight full face.
The main new piece of my testing of this helmet is that it was also user-friendly when I crashed, friendly both to me by protecting my head and to my rescuers who presumably were able to remove it. I don't know whether they removed the cheek pads before taking the helmet off. When I found the helmet again, the chin strap was undone so presumably my rescuers figured that part out, but the cheek pads were in their usual spots. (I don't actually remember the experience as I was very unconscious, so this is mostly guesswork.)
I was not wearing a neck brace when I crashed. (I don't know exactly how that's relevant since I don't have neck or back injuries, but people keep asking me.) I don't think I had goggles on either, but I could be wrong about that.
The main damage sites. I don't think I've ever seen a more compelling argument for wearing a full face helmet. My face was relatively okay. The forehead EPS is also cracked inside.
The most structural damage visible from the outside is this crack in the chin bar. Again, I'm glad that was between the ground and my chin.
Alicia's Take
 | The last time I wrote about this helmet, I wrote that it checks all the right boxes, but comes with a high price tag. I still fully stand behind that, I'll just add that I'm alive when I wasn't expected to be, which seems like a pretty big plus for this helmet. (Though, once again, I have no comparison to any other fully certified, thoroughly tested helmets.) Life is going to be different now: I probably won't get my right-side hearing back, I may not get all my vision back, I may never feel as grounded and oriented as I used to. Still, that all feels small-scale compared to the fact that I get to see the people I love, do the things I care about, even go mountain biking again. I'm a little bit sad that this helmet is damaged and I won't get to wear it anymore, because I still think it's comfortable and thoughtfully designed and stylish, plus there's some sentimental value there now. |
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
But, I love that this review happened (that Alicia is able to write coherent thoughts, and chose this writing style to talk about it).
Welcome back.
Pinkbike commentators have some pretty interesting takes.
You don't get to have it both ways - Chinese companies making catalogue helmets bad, big players aren't doing any research, there's no helmet development, AND Virginia tech ratings showing clear signs of development and significant safety improvements being made being used to judge if a helmet is good or not...
These companies aren't just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. There's a reason its the same players over and over coming out with new, better helmets.
I agree though that helmet rating systems are pretty outdated. The fact that the US is leading the pack as far as certifications go is frankly insane, especially since the rating system was developed before we knew how rotational impacts played a part in concussions.
Another hot take right now would be to consider that buying a light dirtbike helmet that pass ECE 22.06 is safer than buying a full face MTB helmet. Unless VT start testing a lot more full face helmets I think this might be a better indicator that you are getting what you are paying for rather than PR fluff.
Interesting that they were all profitable but corporate leaders needed more?
Would like to see the internal damage to the helmet;
• Was the EPS fractured or dented?
• Did the MIPS rubber bands come dislodged or stay in tact, and did MIPS liner get hung up on edges of EPS?
I have ridden in this helmet model before, It fit my head well and was comfortable and a decent weight.
Wishing you continued healing and progress from this big one you had, but glad the helmet kept you alive. Thanks for writing this.
I was interested to hear about how the MIPS held up as well. Your storey inspired me to up my helmet game. I’m now rocking a Lazer Cage, the first full face to receive 5 stars from the Virginia Tech rating system.
It would be great if PB could give us an article of how their testing works and the rating system. I feel like a lot of us pick our helmets for aesthetics and comfort, but your story is a reminder that safety should be a top priority.
As for the article about helmet safety standards, that's actually on my list of articles I want to write! I'm not promising anything, especially since I'm currently working part-time and not exactly getting things done quickly, but since head injuries are now a special interest of mine, I'd really like to try to make that article happen sometime. This industry could definitely use more conversation around head injuries and risks and balancing the things we want to do with the ways our lives might change.
We've seen before that sometimes destruction testing gets a good rap on PB (e.g. aluminum versus carbon Santa Cruz frames).
We don't expect that helmets will save everyone from every accident. I don't think anyone is not going to buy Bluegrass after this, most likely the opposite.
I feel for you Alicia. My sense of taste took a year or two to gradually come back after concussion. I still don't know if chocolate tastes like it used to or just how I am now used to tasting it. Beer tastes terrible to me now, but it tasted terrible to me before that accident so, all good there. I wish you continual improvement.
Reece Wilson and the RAAW Gravity team are working with a company to gather head injury impact data for the 2023 season. Should be interesting to see the results of this.
www.pinkbike.com/news/british-cycling-reveals-concussion-protocols-and-powers-to-withdraw-concussed-riders-from-events.html (search for @hustht in the comments)
www.hitrecognition.co.uk
I'm not a structural engineer, not sure that these are mutually exclusive issues.
Either way, out of the serious helmet brands, I think it is super hard to tell which is the best. Somehow I've got the feeling that Kali is great because Rogatkin got away quite well from his Rampage tumble and they're quite transparent about what they do and why. But that doesn't necessarily mean other helmets are so much worse. At the end of the day it is like a life guard. You can be happy that your protection gear is saving you when it does, but you can't blame it when you still get injured worse than you were expecting.
Your comments about the standards this helmet meets, and how that compares to your n=1 sample size, brings up an interesting point. We don't know nearly enough about how brain injuries happen - what kind of impacts, rotational forces, etc. cause what kind of problems in what kind of scenarios; how much do prior injuries exacerbate them, and so forth. There's a lot of informed guess work, but no real data.
I wonder sometimes whether it would be possible, with sufficient grant money, to develop a sensor kit that could be added to a significant number of helmets, not just for mountain bikers but others who are at risk for brain injuries - whitewater kayakers, skiers/snowboarders, skateboarders, what have you. Accelerometers are cheap enough to be included in all kinds of consumer gadgets; memory chips and batteries and basic circuits are cheap as well - and none of these things are big. Make the kits available with helmets at retail (please opt in - no cost, the industry hopes to gather data to make helmets safer...).
As much as we would wish that nobody had any more crashes and we never had anyone get hurt again... - some people continue to have crashes, and when they do, they send in their helmet (with sensors) for a crash replacement along with a short description of what effects the crash had on them (blessedly uninjured? mild concussion? full on TBI?). The manufacturers turn the data (and the user's narrative) over to researchers, and over time we get actual data that tells us what kinds of forces were experienced with which kinds of injuries. And that, in turn, informs how to evolve the standards for what helmets should protect against.
It would be an awfully big lift, and require coordination in industries incapable of working together for stuff as simple as standardizing bottom brackes, but man, there's an awful lot of misery caused by brain injuries, and in terms of fundraising for research dollars, this would probably be relatively minor, especially if you think about how universally useful that kind of data could be beyond just action sports.
It's great to share @alicialeggett experience but it doen't really say if another helmet would had a better or worst outcome.
I feel like there is a lot of form over function in current helmet design.. especially half shell...with all kind of gimmick like glasses holder instead of a focus on safety..
I don't own a 6D helmet but they are one brand that seems to focus on safety with larger and softer helmet. There is an interesting podcast with the 6D company owner explaining his thinking...
Was gonna order a couple before I found out
Next time I am in the market for a new lid, I will be giving MET/Bluegrass a try.
I hope your recovery journey progresses even more. All the best.
Honestly, had a few bad landings in the past and while going down, I was sure, that I will need a new face, teeth etc...
Fortunately, my face is still the same (ugly, but it was like that before the crash
So, as the author, I can recommend this helmet as a really good one!
open.spotify.com/episode/4HuvqzMvCzZwWQXEEiUA4M?si=a-ghW0OyQv2l_TnBV2H4nw
That said, it's amazing that Alicia has bounced back so well after this. To be able to confront those demons and get back on the bike, plus write about your experience with so much self-reflection, is quite awe-inspiring. I have no doubt that she still has more challenges to face, but she should be back to where she wants to be in no time.
I wear a Smith Mainline for more enduro type stuff and 100% Aircraft 2 for bike park days.
And to attempt a joke - who needs helmets? Simply don't crash. Dyh.
I smell a opportunity.