Scooter Says: Wear a helmet
As a busy bike shop we see the results of many bike crashes, minor, serious and everything in between. Recently G & D Cycles Danny Bellis had a big off in the tour of Bright. See our home page for details. This again brought home the absolute need for a good helmet. The pictures below are all of Danny's helmet. The first one looks like there's nothing wrong with it. Until you turn it over and see the cracks that appeared in the front and back. The helmet worked exactly as it was intended and while Danny suffered horrendous injuries to the rest of his body, his head was saved by wearing this helmet.
A customer once refused to buy a helmet from us because it had a crash back warranty. In other words if you have an accident and your helmet cracked and or broke you would get a discount on a new one. This customer said they would not touch a helmet that would break. Good one, something has to give, better the helmet than your head. A good helmet is a crumple zone between your head and whatever it hits, bit like the crumple zone in a car.If you look closely you will see cracks in the helmet.
Do not reuse a cracked helmet, it has done its job.
We start good helmets at $40.00 (less than a tank of petrol) and as Bell helmets once said is your child (or you) wearing $100.00 shoes and a $10.00 helmet. Your choice I guess.
These pictures show the close up of one of the cracks in the back of the helmet. The white circles are where the cracks are in the back of the helmet. The front of the helmet has cracks in the same spots.