The latest Virginia Tech
helmet safety rankings have been released and it's Fox's Dropframe helmet,
released just under a year ago, that now sits in the number one spot with five stars and a safety score of 8.9.
In addition, MIPS equipped helmets have claimed the top seven spots. In fact, 27 of the top 30 helmets had MIPs in the latest rankings. The Bontrager Specter Wavecel, POC Tectal Race Spin and Bontrager Blaze WaveCel were the only non-MIPs helmets to make it into the top 30, with the Bontrager Specter Wavecel now being bumped to seventh.
Virginia Tech has now rated 99 helmets in collaboration with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Their impact tests evaluate a helmet's ability to reduce linear acceleration and rotational velocity of the head resulting from a range of impacts a cyclist might experience.
The latest rankings score Lazer's G1 MIPS road helmet in second place with a score of 9.2, Bontrager's Rally MIPS (the winner of the last round) in third place with a score of 9.3 and Troy Lee Designs' A2 MIPS Decoy in fourth place with a score of 10.
apps.es.vt.edu/onlinegiving/gift?giftDetail.supportAreaID=GTEN&giftDetail.fundCode=821082&giftDetail.fundName=Other&giftDetail.customFundName=Helmet%20Lab%20Research%20Account%20875399
If you drop them a note, they will usually reply too!
too according your statent. I won't buy it though because I like to move the visor all the way up.
I still think MIPS tests are are only valid for people who don’t have hair...
It says you have nothing but a gut feeling and no real proof for your opinion. Itsure jives with the current POTUS but is as baseless!
So, balls to the wall: what is your testing regimen and where are your results that show VTech‘s results are wrong or biased?
Please go to minute 2.40 in this video
youtu.be/aNuj9UQONzM
That's your test headform, see that the guy struggles to position the helmet on it and the sound it makes? Is because is a rubberized exterior, grippy as hell in any helmet, of course mips or any other system will make a difference in that headform.
Ignoring hair and scalp is such a major flaw in helmet testing.
Also, every high end helmet has mips nowadays, that doesn't mean is the mips what makes it safer; is the combination of high end features what makes them safer.
Anyhow, the Mips lawsuits are asinine for sure!
My wife is currently wanting a new helmet, and It’s actually hard to find a “high end” helmet that doesn’t have mips in it. And she doesn’t need an “am” style half shell, I’m thinking a giro fathom or other airy XC helmet...
Years ago when the options were leather nets, the BellV1 and the Protec Mirage (oh, and Specialized Sub6) it turned out that only the V1 did a damn thing. The polystyrene helmets were more dangerous than no helmet at all. This was due to the surface of the helmet (in the Protec example covered in spandex) would grip the road surface upon contact and then just break your neck
.
Fast forward a few years and the helmets were made to deflect an impact. They do this with the shell being as slippery as possible on impact and trying to create a glancing impact on the noggin. While the methodology of the tests is germane to the use of a bicycle helmet, they are not at all practical for 99.9999999% of cycling impacts to the helmet, and I have seen thousands. The entire premise of the "M" in MIPS is that there are multiple, critically sharp impacts in a rapid event. That just is not the case, again, generally. There would be one major impact (in the event of deflection) a final and possibly two additional far less severe impacts on the helmet. While a direct impact or an offset impact will add to the risk of concussion, this will not be altered, in general with a subsequent impact. Certainly, on a road where an impact with an automotive windshield and then the road surface are possible, that is not, in general, a common risk, nor even, more so with mountain bikes such as ours that tend to not be on a road.
Myself as an example, I ride MTN with road helmets. I am not exactly too worried about C1 and lower rear skull impacts as I ride XC, not downhill. The problem with these studies, and with the lawyers (more so in the US) is the whole idea of “usual” and expected impacts on a particular system for a particular use.
I find the MTN specific helmets to be far too heavy, far too limiting of airflow (thus too hot) and I find I have zero use for a visor. If I end up as that pariah and do have a basal fracture due to exposure to a rock or whatever, that is akin to losing the lotto by picking the right numbers. But, some moron will get hurt, go and sue Bell Sports (also owns Giro) and say “they knew they could have made the helmet safer”, then get a judgement from 12 idiots too stupid to get out of Jury duty (so they could sit in their trailer watching Judge Judy). So, for these helmets are getting heavier and heavier. None of us wins, none of us are really more safe (as DH people SHOULD be wearing a helmet with more coverage).
To me the obvious solution is to build a standarized slip plane into the headformh. Oh irony, mips is the one that seems more similar to scalp, with hability to move around but no shock absorption properties.
Any test conduced on a headform with a built in slip plane would be more relevant than the actual ones, where the helmet doesn't move a milimeter.
Genuine interest, maybe I'm missing something, what's the lack of correlation you mention?
It is almost pointless anyway. For the same weight and (lack of) ventilation one can get a helmet with a chinbar.
That might still be fine compared to helmets from a decade ago but the bar has been raised quite a lot in recent years. Ever tried one of the new POC helmets? Or an Abus Airbreaker? Thats a whole new level of ventilation.
A $18 Schwinn helmet ranks right between the Poc Tectal and $250 mips helmets from Giro and Scott.
Asuming that the helmet uses the cheapest most common materials available and zero extra features, that gives you an idea of:
-how important is the amount and placement of foam vs. how fancy the helmet is.
-how important mips is.
-how stupid we are buying helmets by the looks.
No where in the bontrager description is the super cool magnetically attached / break-away go-pro mount mentioned. This is super handy and means I can easily attach and remove my light with out leaving a stupid mount attached via straps to my helmet. And in the event of a crash, the light mount will separate and not negate the anti rotation provided by the MIPS. Unfortunately it's located too far forward on the helmet and not balanced over the centerpoint of your head when in the riding position. You can feel the weight of the light wanting to rotate your head forward. Also for my Niterider Lumina style lights, you can't aim the beam far enough forward. I had to modify the light attachment so it would project further out and not at the ground. Moving the light mount to the rear vent would solve both of these problems.
I have not figured out a way to stash sunglasses in the vents. Neither front or rear, or upside down glasses seems to work. This should be a standard helmet feature.
I sweat profusely from my head. No fault of the helmet (i think?). But when I lean forward and squeeze the helmet against my head to drain sweat from the pads, rather than a river of sweat dripping to the ground from the helmet, I get a river of sweat running down my nose to the ground. Which is grosser than the already gross river of sweat. This seams to be a function of the MIPS insert maybe? If I lean way, WAY forward I can get the river to separate from the helmet, but I can't do this while pedaling on the bike. Which is unfortunate and something I could do with my old helmet.
Just my 2 cents on last year's winner. The price is certainly right, apparently it's extra safe, and it's matchy matchy w/my kit!
I love the Dropframe, but I'd honestly choose something else if I lived in a warm climate.
If you want to look like a real cool guy just wear a really cool hat or maybe no helmet with some bad ass sunglasses when you ride. That will get you noticed.
www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/business/vw-wvu-diesel-volkswagen-west-virginia.html
www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/bicycle-helmet-ratings.html