I've read that the more expensive helmets are better ventilated. I currently wear an almost as cheap as they come model from Canadian Tire. I don't want to spend twice the money or more to have a marginally cooler head. I'll spend the dough, but only for a markedly cooler head. Discuss, and thank you.
One other thing: I have invented a diet! I'm on it right now and have a "book" I'm writing based on it. It is typical RANTWICK style nonsense, but it may also actually work for me. If it doesn't, you'll not hear of it again. If it does, you'll be the first to know.
Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K 
13 comments:
If a more expensive helmet is cooler, I haven't spent enough yet.
I'll read your book when it comes out.
[tatin]
My thoughts, in more detail, are at:
http://dfwptp.blogspot.com/2009/10/helmet.html
It includes links to a safety article that suggests expensive helmets are more dangerous. While I'm now wearing my summer helmet, my winter one cost $15.
Don't expect not to sweat by lashing out more $, but I reckon there is a marked difference if you find the right one for you. Some of it may be rocket science, but most of it is common sense.
I'm one of those who hates spending any time choosing the right shirt, and shopping with my wife can be purgatory (Note: when you hear "Do you think this one is better?", "I can't tell the difference" is not the right answer) but when it comes to helmets I'd say spend some time and do some research, try a LOT. Like when you buy tyres for a car, the people selling them to you have NO IDEA of the real differences, so you have to work it out for yourself.
I prefer an MTB style helmet, I quite like the peak, I find it is a useful shade and can help a bit in the lashing rain. Also, the priority for road helmets is weight and aero, neither are my concern.
Most important thing is fit. All the salesmen will say things like "Oh but there are these little 2c foam pads that can make your $100 helmet fit properly." That's crap. Carry on trying until you find the one that fits your head WITHOUT pads. Hopefully you will find a preference for a make that will let you chose from their range.
Then, look at the darn thing. Some pudding basins are obviously hotter than others. Then decide if you want to pay that much.
The old farmers around here say that if you sweat, you are drinking too much beer (most of those guys are Methodists). I don't know if you have that in your diet book or not. Myself, well, I'm just going to sweat!
Don't know. I'm not going to try to argue that helmets are really comfy... but I have a fairly standard, relatively inexpensive Bell, and never once have I been riding along and thought "Gee, my head is hot!" I don't even notice the temperature of my cranium because I'm too busy thinking about other way more important things, like "Pothole!" I wouldn't think it would be worth the money.
The only time I had an expensive helmet was when the Bell rep gave them to the shop staff when we were running a fairly sizable weekly MTB ride in the 1990s. It was a Bell promotion. Since then I have bought whatever we had in stock that didn't look too ridiculous on top of my skinny neck. They're all better ventilated than either my original Bell turtle shell or the marginally more racy Brancale that followed it.
For the winter I tape over the front vents. When the thing finally rots to bits I look at a new one.
[sitabili] <-- should be for a comment on saddles.
You're wrapping your melon in styrofoam and vacu-formed plastic, there is no way to make that cooler without carving away bits that are meant to offer what is mockingly refereed to as protection...
Of course, if you want better ventilation you can always go with one of these: http://imgur.com/i52n5.jpg
My helmet smells
Mine doesn't. It has no nose.
[troullec]
I did once have a helmet that made my head too hot, but that was my own fault. I chose that helmet for looks, and at the time was just out of high school and thought that skateboard-style helmets were cool.
I was wrong. I struggled through roughly one and a half 30-mile round-trip commutes before I conveniently 'lost' that helmet so I could find a better one. That helmet did, in fact, make my head so hot that I lost sight of important obstacles like potholes and (heaven help us) roadkill. In Kentucky. In July. Oh, it was also black, which might have been part of the problem :)
My current helmet cost me about $20 and doesn't seem to overheat my head. It's faux carbon fiber-colored, which I never really realized until someone at work mentioned it (at which point my egotistical side immediately hoped that no Real Cyclists had noticed). The only drawback I can find to the thing is that it looks enormous on my head. It fits fine, it's just not as streamlined as some others (seriously, I look like a little kid in one of those weirdly ginormous little kid helmets in this thing).
That being said, if I could be assured that a slightly more expensive (say, $40 - $50 range) model might look a little less enormous on my noggin, but still feel cool and comfortable and protect me (insofar as a helmet can) if I suddenly feel the need to fall on my head, I am probably vain enough that I'd buy it.
I'm too cheap to try one of the really expensive helmets. I would be so afraid of breaking it that I'm quite certain that I might retire from riding. Seriously, if your helmet is approved by one of the two rating agencies (forgot what they are at this point), it keeps your noggin just as safe as the expensive ones. I'm convinced that the big bucks helmets are "cooler", but not necessarily cooler, but again I've not worn one yet.
I tend to go by the "a helmet is a helmet" mantra.
As always, thank you all for your comments. They mostly confirm what I suspected...
Big Oak - My diet does indeed include rules specific to beer consumption. Beer is totally allowed, with a couple of small caveats.
I'm still trying to find a comfortable helmet that offers enough protection that it's even worth bothering to wear it. At any cost really. I pay thousands of dollars for the protection I use playing goal in hockey, in comparison even the most expensive bike helmets are cheap.
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