So I started biking recently and was hunting for helmets.
And turns out Virgina Tech does a bunch of helmet impact testing and maintains a ranking list https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/. The latest helmets have a releasable layer that absorbs (converts rotational energy?) more impact.
This HUD is pretty slick. In a way, it's more preventative (avoiding accidents) vs. reactive (absorbing impact in an accident) safety which sounds nice.
99% of bike fatalities involve car crashes. There is no styrofoam helmet which will protect against that, and the VaTech test notably does not model that type of crash.
To my knowledge, the only group that tried to test bike helmets against a car is Volvo -- and all helmets failed.
I'm pretty convinced mips is just marketing. Hair will do the same thing. That's why in rock climbing world, petzl hasn't even bothered with it when they're usually very forward thinking about their designs (first company to do side impact testing).
Exactly. Hair and scalp. Evolution already made a MIPS system. The thing lacking it was the test dummies that Virginia Tech uses, so now they recommend we put it in helmets too.
If ruling out risks by a priori is a solution, why wear a helmet at all? Maybe you won't hit your head when you fall. Maybe you'll land in water or on a satin pillow (low friction).
> MIPS’ benefits will be poorer than portrayed in the lab in many realistic situations
How are they testing it in the lab? How do concussions work in realistic situations (is there one way?)? What is the distribution of realistic situations?
Maybe the benefits are better in realistic situations; maybe the lab tests are more aggressive than reality or the results are interpreted conservatively (because scientists spending years on something might have thought of a 30-second hot take), ...
Last I knew, several years ago, Virginia Tech tested for concussion prevention and the layer that 'slips' on impact was called the MIPS layer. (Please correct me if that's changed.)
That is important and useful, and is best used in combination with other testing: Bicycling also has many other and more serious risks to cyclist head, including skull fractures, brain damage, and death.
Consumer Reports is another great source (better one IMHO); in their labs they do empirical testing for other outcomes of ~150 helmets, and provide a comprehensive guide to buying helmets:
In Consumer Reports’ tests, we strap helmets onto “head forms” that simulate the size of a human head, then drop them 14 mph onto a flat anvil to find out how well they withstand impact. An electronic sensor inside the head form monitors the force that would be transmitted to a rider’s skull in an accident.
To ensure the helmet will stay in place during an accident, we test the strength of the chinstraps, attachment points, and buckles by dropping a weight that’s 8¾ pounds and 2 feet so that it yanks on the straps to simulate the force of a crash.
Our testers also evaluate each helmet for ventilation, fit adjustments, ease of use, and other features.
MIPS is great but every layer is a tradeoff with venting. without MIPS the vents allow air onto your scalp. with MIPS you effectively have a plastic shower cap over your head, beneath the EVA foam insulator.
There are multiple MIPS systems. The early ones were like you described, with a distinct feeling of too much plastic. Newer ones (e.g. Integra) are much more seamless. There are also other companies doing different types of rotational tech, like Lazer with an integral foam-based shearing design.
If you have only tried first-gen MIPS, I recommend giving it another shot.
No mention of a built in camera makes this a total non starter for me. If I'm going all in on an AI helmet it better be able to record front and back so my next of kin can get a payout from whatever pavement princess flattened me in the unprotected bike lane.
Its part of a whole prototype system, the cameras would be on the bike, it also mentions radar and all kinds of things. Basically just building a whole sensor suite into a bike platform. Idk how serious they are about it. https://media-centre.canyon.com/en-INT/266864-futuristic-pro...
I'm not sure who this is for. It's a time trial style helmet, but isn't very useful for time trialing. And it's not a commuter helmet. And it's not a road riding helmet, as it has no breathability. Is this a defensive patent thing?
But if you really like your old helmet—and it’s in good condition—one scientific study tested older helmets and showed that holding on to one for longer won’t necessarily put you at significant risk. Randy Swart, executive director of the nonprofit Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute and former vice chair of the helmet and headgear subcommittee for ASTM International, a nonprofit, voluntary standards-setting organization, says that his own helmet is “much older than that,” though he adds that there may be other good reasons to get a new helmet, such as more protective technology included in some newer models.
I’m so done with technology’s “answer to a question nobody asked.” Like bluetooth derailleurs. Utter garbage. The only down side is that this wave of technocrap wipes out shelf space for analog cyclists. Hard enough to find a decent triple front derailleur, let alone 48-spoke hubs with a cartridge. Now this crap.
I'm sure I'm just being a crotchety old graybeard but I ride my bikes to get away from this crap. I do use Strava to track my rides on my watch but I don't even look at it until the ride is over.
I don't have strava or anything. I don't even know how long my rides are, my best times, my altitude. I just go for a ride; successfully capturing the exact feeling of riding since I was a teenager.
Kind of surprising this stuff still is little more than a concept. 12 years after google launched and scrapped it's glasses there are still no well established alternatives for cycling, which is such an obvious market. Everyone is wearing glasses, everyone has a computer mounted to their handlebar, let's integrate them together already.
It might make more sense to put this in the glasses than attached to the helmet, which is ultimately a consumable. But I basically agree with sibling comment that no one really wants this. (I race bikes and know a lot of other racers.)
With UCI ruling on bike computer sizes in the name of reducing rider distractions, I bet that HUD glasses would be outlawed with post hast if they became a thing in the pro peloton.
That's a solution in search of a problem that does not exist. This would, at best, be useful for someone doing a time trial. I don't see road racers using it in any other context.
The title is a bit confusing imho, it seems it fits more for time trialing rather than general road riding? I can't see no vents whatsoever, my incredibly sweaty noggin would soak tons of sweat into that thing
This really seems like a solution in search of a problem. Maybe it would be useful for pro tour riders, but I would guess it'll be banned as not in the spirit of cycle racing. Recumbents would really change the game in the pro tour for speed but the UCI doesn't allow them for the same reason.
The target market is more likely to be affluent amateurs rather that pros. The pros will typically have a team car or radio for navigation, and aren't as dependent on metrics like power or heart rate for training.
Recumbent bikes might be fun to watch in time trial races but would be ridiculously dangerous in a peloton. Visibility is bad enough on a regular bike when you're at the back of a group, and the lower perspective on a recumbent would make mass crashes even more likely. Yikes.
As someone who commutes in traffic daily, this is not what I need or want. First up, it looks heavy and badly-ventilated, and then there's the potential for distracting info blocking my view of the actual road in front of me. Even if it was really good info (which would take really good sensors, plus a lot of compute to cram onboard), I am skeptical it'd be better than, you know, paying attention to your surroundings. I like ADAS functionality in modern cars just fine, but it seems like a stretch to try and bring it to bikes. What we all could use is some kind of ad hoc network between all road users, so the car that was thinking about turning in front of me could ping my helmet / bike and understand that it should wait and turn behind me instead.
I also did many miles commuting and riding in the city. A key, absolute rule after too many close calls was to never cross in front of a car about to enter or cross-over the road I was on unless I could see the driver looking at me. No matter how clear my right-of-way was or how obvious I thought I was. One close call about every 10K miles or so was enough for me to realize only purely defensive riding in the city would keep me uninjured (or worse). Sure a lot of riders rail at bad drivers, but that doesn't help in the end if you get t-boned. Hope this helmet helps with that.
What information would your bike send to the car in this example that would help?
We're closer to having lidar in all new cars than this mesh network, so "There's a bike behind you travelling approximately X speed" is something the car already knows. "The cyclist requested you not to turn in front of him" - why would anyone ever send anything else?
Perhaps the car can send you a message instead "I'm going to cut you off and there's nothing you can do about it" but even if that might actually improve safety I don't think it's the change you'd want to see.
I use a Garmin edge bike computer and a Garmin tail light with lidar that shows cars as they come up from behind on you on the computer screen and give audio alert as well.
That works well enough for most road riding. I wonder if having a reverse view mapped onto my glasses would be an improvement or take away from my focus.
I use a [mirror](https://takealookactive.com/), it adds so much more confidence and safety that I'll refuse to ride without it. Helps me make left turns, avoid aggressive cars, and make sure I'm not dropping my friends. No fancy electronics, no battery to charge, and it's inexpensive to replace.
So about the lidar: what does that actually do for you? Or I should say, what do you do in response to it? Do you yield more road space if it tells you a car is approaching? I've been trying to understand what good such an alert actually does for an otherwise attentive rider.
- what speed they are coming up on me by way of animation
To answer your question about what to do, mostly yes, yield the road if I'm on a country road and get over to the shoulder if there is a good paved one.
It's a valid question if you've never ridden on a country road with cars. You want all the notification you can get if someone is coming up behind you so you can plan what to do
ah but maybe it could be mandated, and have a feature that constantly flashes "wrong way" when they start salmoning in the bike lane (and probably through a red light)
There have been a few attempts at devices like this before such the Everysight Raptor and Garmin Varia Vision but none of them ever found mainstream adoption. In principle a HUD with navigation cues and key cycling metrics would be nice to have. But the devices have always had problems such as poor integration with bike computers or discomfort on long rides or incompatibility with prescription lenses or just looking goofy. Road cyclists aren't necessarily shy about wearing stupid looking kit but there are limits, and this new Canyon helmet looks like you're cosplaying as a stormtrooper.
I didn't see anything in the press release about notifying riders that they're not a quantum superposition of vehicle and pedestrian that can collapse into whatever legal domain they feel is most convenient.
What will protect is taking bicycles off motor vehicle roadways, and laying down new, much narrower bicycle-exclusive roads all over instead. It doesn't make sense to mix the slower and vulnerable bicycle traffic with the faster and safer motor vehicles!
We could also slow down the motor vehicles to the speeds where drivers can react to pedestrians and cyclists.
And improve education all around for road users, including pedestrians, to widen the understanding of how individual decisions affect the community. For example, starting to cross the road at the end of the crosswalk signal leads to fewer cars able to turn right, which leads to more congestion, etc. Trying to make it across the intersection when traffic is moving slowly and blocking crosswalks and cross traffic. Opening the driver's side door with your opposite hand to look in the side view mirror or blind spot for cyclists.
And turns out Virgina Tech does a bunch of helmet impact testing and maintains a ranking list https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/. The latest helmets have a releasable layer that absorbs (converts rotational energy?) more impact.
This HUD is pretty slick. In a way, it's more preventative (avoiding accidents) vs. reactive (absorbing impact in an accident) safety which sounds nice.
To my knowledge, the only group that tried to test bike helmets against a car is Volvo -- and all helmets failed.
Thanks for sharing. Interesting to see my Giro (with MIPS) has... 3 stars. Hmmm.
A crappy helmet with MIPS is a slightly less crappy helmet that may still be worse than a great non-MIPS helmet.
Like upgrading a 1960 motor vehicle death trap’s 2 point seat belts to 3 point. It’ll help, but it’s still a death trap.
Sure, buy all the safety equipment you can afford that has any possible benefit.
What’s better: a $15 more expensive bike light or a $15 more expensive helmet with MIPS?
How are they testing it in the lab? How do concussions work in realistic situations (is there one way?)? What is the distribution of realistic situations?
Maybe the benefits are better in realistic situations; maybe the lab tests are more aggressive than reality or the results are interpreted conservatively (because scientists spending years on something might have thought of a 30-second hot take), ...
VA Tech (and others, IIRC) has years of empirical tests that show otherwise. What is your comment based on?
Edit: In fact, if I understand your analysis, humans won't get concussions at all.
That is important and useful, and is best used in combination with other testing: Bicycling also has many other and more serious risks to cyclist head, including skull fractures, brain damage, and death.
Consumer Reports is another great source (better one IMHO); in their labs they do empirical testing for other outcomes of ~150 helmets, and provide a comprehensive guide to buying helmets:
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/bike-helmets/
In Consumer Reports’ tests, we strap helmets onto “head forms” that simulate the size of a human head, then drop them 14 mph onto a flat anvil to find out how well they withstand impact. An electronic sensor inside the head form monitors the force that would be transmitted to a rider’s skull in an accident.
To ensure the helmet will stay in place during an accident, we test the strength of the chinstraps, attachment points, and buckles by dropping a weight that’s 8¾ pounds and 2 feet so that it yanks on the straps to simulate the force of a crash.
Our testers also evaluate each helmet for ventilation, fit adjustments, ease of use, and other features.
I'm anti MIPS
If you have only tried first-gen MIPS, I recommend giving it another shot.
Also, helmets are meant to be replaced every couple of years as the materials deteriorate (UV/heat) and the protection dissipates.
As we like to say, dentist helmet.
Not necessarily:
But if you really like your old helmet—and it’s in good condition—one scientific study tested older helmets and showed that holding on to one for longer won’t necessarily put you at significant risk. Randy Swart, executive director of the nonprofit Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute and former vice chair of the helmet and headgear subcommittee for ASTM International, a nonprofit, voluntary standards-setting organization, says that his own helmet is “much older than that,” though he adds that there may be other good reasons to get a new helmet, such as more protective technology included in some newer models.
How can I get people to stop laughing at me for tinfoiling my helmet?
Do my fellow hacker news readers recommend some useful tech for bikes?
Don't apologize for being a human being. The world needs more of them.
Pogies are great but don’t do you any good off of your bike.
yeah idk I can just use my ears and shoulder check to hear cars coming, I will stick with my specialized prevail...
Recumbent bikes might be fun to watch in time trial races but would be ridiculously dangerous in a peloton. Visibility is bad enough on a regular bike when you're at the back of a group, and the lower perspective on a recumbent would make mass crashes even more likely. Yikes.
We're closer to having lidar in all new cars than this mesh network, so "There's a bike behind you travelling approximately X speed" is something the car already knows. "The cyclist requested you not to turn in front of him" - why would anyone ever send anything else?
Perhaps the car can send you a message instead "I'm going to cut you off and there's nothing you can do about it" but even if that might actually improve safety I don't think it's the change you'd want to see.
That works well enough for most road riding. I wonder if having a reverse view mapped onto my glasses would be an improvement or take away from my focus.
- if a car is behind me
- how many cars( I think up to 8) are behind me
- what speed they are coming up on me by way of animation
To answer your question about what to do, mostly yes, yield the road if I'm on a country road and get over to the shoulder if there is a good paved one.
It's a valid question if you've never ridden on a country road with cars. You want all the notification you can get if someone is coming up behind you so you can plan what to do
And improve education all around for road users, including pedestrians, to widen the understanding of how individual decisions affect the community. For example, starting to cross the road at the end of the crosswalk signal leads to fewer cars able to turn right, which leads to more congestion, etc. Trying to make it across the intersection when traffic is moving slowly and blocking crosswalks and cross traffic. Opening the driver's side door with your opposite hand to look in the side view mirror or blind spot for cyclists.