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What's the Best Helmet to Buy? Consumer Reports has been picking Bell, Giro, Troxel (Pro Action) and
recently a Louis Garneau model designated as a Best Buy. I recommend
finding
a helmet that fits you well, is round and smooth on the outside, and
has at
least an ASTM or CPSC standards sticker inside.
Who makes the coolest helmet? Marketing hype aside, ventilation depends on the size of the front vents. Consumer Reports has rated some helmets on the market, but not many, and nobody else publishes coolness ratings. You can look at most helmets and see 90 percent of the ventilation story. Most riders will not need all the vents you see in the most expensive Giro and Bell models. What to pay for it? Local K-mart and other discount stores have smooth, round, helmets meeting the ASTM standard on sale regularly for $8 (regularly $10), and most discount stores are under $30. Local bike shops have some of the Consumer Reports picks for $35 to $125. Any helmet without a sticker saying it meets the new CPSC standard should be heavily discounted in 1999. Is a cheap helmet as safe as an expensive one? Almost. Maybe safer. Apart from the models Consumer Reports rates, there's no lab test data on all the helmets out there. Virtually all of them meet the ASTM standard, and all must meet the new US standard by law if manufactured after March, 1999. (Helmets made earlier will still be on sale, and should be cheap.) If money buys you a better fit, more stable on your head in a hard crash, then the more expensive helmet is worth it. If it buys you a spiffy-looking squared-off poorly-rounded exterior with points to snag, definitely not. What about helmet standards? Helmets are tested to standards for things you can't judge in a store: impact performance and strap strength. Until this year ASTM was the benchmark standard, Snell B-90 is similar, and Snell B-95 is a little better. (The old 1984 ANSI standard is dead.) In March the new US CPSC standard (similar to ASTM) took effect for all helmets manufactured after March 10, 1999. It is similar to ASTM, but requires a few millimeters more coverage. It has replaced ASTM as the new benchmark. Any helmet not meeting it should be really cheap at this point. Kid's helmets? There are lots of helmets for kids from one to five. There are no tiny helmets on the market because nobody recommends taking a very young infant on a bicycle. Kids appreciate vents, and most toddler helmets have sets of fit pads of different thickness to adjust for growth. Where can I find a helmet for my big head? Several manufacturers have extra large helmets, but Bell has the largest, its Kinghead model fitting up to 8 1/4 heads. Your local bike store can order it. How can I tell if my helmet is on backwards? On some helmets it isn't easy. Some helmets have a "Front" sticker. The brand is normally on the front, the nape straps go toward the back. When do I need to replace a helmet? Did you crash it? Replace! Is it from the 1970's? Replace. Is the outside just foam or cloth instead of plastic? Replace. Does it lack a CPSC, ASTM or Snell sticker? Replace. Can you not make it fit correctly? Replace! Do you hate it? Replace. What other activities can a bike helmet be used for? The ASTM Inline Skating standard is identical to the bicycle helmet standard. Inline skaters asked to have it that way after using bike helmets for a decade and finding them completely adequate for skating protection. For other activities you are on your own with a bicycling-only helmet. There are multi-purpose helmets on the market that meet Snell's N-96 multi-purpose standard. Who has mandatory helmet laws? Fifteen states and more than 55 localities in the US. All of Australia, parts of Canada, some others probably coming. How well do helmets work? Very well indeed, as long as they are fitted securely and buckled when you crash. They can prevent up to 88 per cent of cyclists' brain injuries. Ask any club cyclist, whose shared experience with other cyclists has shown them the pattern clearly. The down side is that many helmet users are not securing their helmets level on the head and adjusting the straps carefully. Those cute kids with helmets tilted back have their big, vulnerable foreheads right out there ready to crack. Stephanie Oakes is a fitness correspondent for Discovery Health Channel, a contributing editor for USA Weekend Magazine and the LA Times, and appears on NBC's 'Today in New York'. She can be reached at soakes@beststuff.com. [] 
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