Best cycle helmet for under £10?

The title says it all, any recommendations?

Cheers.

The title says it all, any recommendations?

Argos (the catalogue) sell 'em for as little as £7.99.

The best, most comfortable helmet is one that fits perfectly. It'll also
work better too. Best to go somewhere where you can try 'em all on, but
that doesn't really square with the Under £10 bit :-)

Thankfully helmets have to meet a minimum standard. The difference between
very expensive and cheap helmets seems to be how light they are and how
many vents they have. Apparently there's little difference in their
protective qualities, although if you can find one with Snell written in it
that's good, as it's a bit tougher than the curent standard.

Brian D'Amarge. vaguely muttered something like ...
The title says it all, any recommendations?

Price doesn't matter, get one that fits correctly, and doesn't flop about in
use. If you're buying it as a present, then I'd say don't .. unless it's
not a surprise present and you take the recipient for fitting.

--
Paul ...
(8(|) Homer Rules !!!
http://www.4x4prejudice.org/index.php
"A tosser is a tosser, no matter what mode of transport they're using."

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:19:00 +0000, Mark Thompson wrote:

The title says it all, any recommendations?

Argos (the catalogue) sell 'em for as little as £7.99.

The best, most comfortable helmet is one that fits perfectly. It'll also
work better too. Best to go somewhere where you can try 'em all on, but
that doesn't really square with the Under £10 bit :-)

Thankfully helmets have to meet a minimum standard. The difference between
very expensive and cheap helmets seems to be how light they are and how
many vents they have. Apparently there's little difference in their
protective qualities, although if you can find one with Snell written in it
that's good, as it's a bit tougher than the curent standard.

I think that the cheap helmets with smooth shells and few vents provide
better protection than expensive helmets which are made primarily for
comfort and ventilation; removing thereby up to 50% of the styrofoam which
could otherwise provide added protection.

Peter

--
If you are careful enough in life, nothing bad -- or
good -- will ever happen to you.

Peter Keller wrote:
On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:19:00 +0000, Mark Thompson wrote:


The title says it all, any recommendations?

Argos (the catalogue) sell 'em for as little as £7.99.

The best, most comfortable helmet is one that fits perfectly. It'll also
work better too. Best to go somewhere where you can try 'em all on, but
that doesn't really square with the Under £10 bit :-)

Thankfully helmets have to meet a minimum standard. The difference between
very expensive and cheap helmets seems to be how light they are and how
many vents they have. Apparently there's little difference in their
protective qualities, although if you can find one with Snell written in it
that's good, as it's a bit tougher than the curent standard.


I think that the cheap helmets with smooth shells and few vents provide
better protection than expensive helmets which are made primarily for
comfort and ventilation; removing thereby up to 50% of the styrofoam which
could otherwise provide added protection.

Peter

I don't think any helmet is made primarily for comfort and ventiliation,
a cyclist will get far more comfort and ventilation with no helmet. Lets
be realistic here for most of the life of most helmets they will not be
protecting you as they were designed for, even when you use one, they
will be sat of your head waiting to be put to use which for the vast
majoity of them will never happen.

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 09:11:17 +0000, MSeries wrote:

Peter Keller wrote:
On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:19:00 +0000, Mark Thompson wrote:


The title says it all, any recommendations?

Argos (the catalogue) sell 'em for as little as £7.99.

The best, most comfortable helmet is one that fits perfectly. It'll also
work better too. Best to go somewhere where you can try 'em all on, but
that doesn't really square with the Under £10 bit :-)

Thankfully helmets have to meet a minimum standard. The difference between
very expensive and cheap helmets seems to be how light they are and how
many vents they have. Apparently there's little difference in their
protective qualities, although if you can find one with Snell written in it
that's good, as it's a bit tougher than the curent standard.


I think that the cheap helmets with smooth shells and few vents provide
better protection than expensive helmets which are made primarily for
comfort and ventilation; removing thereby up to 50% of the styrofoam which
could otherwise provide added protection.

Peter

I don't think any helmet is made primarily for comfort and ventiliation,
a cyclist will get far more comfort and ventilation with no helmet. Lets
be realistic here for most of the life of most helmets they will not be
protecting you as they were designed for, even when you use one, they
will be sat of your head waiting to be put to use which for the vast
majoity of them will never happen.

I agree.
Note I said "better" protection, not "better than good" protection.
Better than awful protection is still awful protection, and if a bicyclist
really wants to be as safe as possible s/he should look to other ways of
minimising or avoiding injuries.

Peter

--
If you are careful enough in life, nothing bad -- or
good -- will ever happen to you.

"Brian D'Amarge." wrote:

The title says it all, any recommendations?

There are some excellent bargains at the Hampshire County Council Shop.
They are well-made and at good prices as I understand the HCC does not
add any mark-up.

http://www.shopcreator.com/mall/Road...pic-7954-1.stm

How _you_ determine what is "best" will of course depend on the use you
have in mind for it.
I've heard that helmets, amongst other uses, can protect against attack
from birds of prey or can make good hanging baskets ;-)

John B
http://www.hampshirecycletraining.org.uk/

Peter Keller wrote:

I think that the cheap helmets with smooth shells and few vents provide
better protection than expensive helmets which are made primarily for
comfort and ventilation; removing thereby up to 50% of the styrofoam which
could otherwise provide added protection.

In practice, AFAICT, helmets are built /down/ to a standard. This means
that any hat that says it fulfils Standard Specification X is likely to
do that and /not much more/. The more expensive helmets have a harder
job doing this because of the venting, so I think they use better
materials and more complex construction to achieve the standard (hence
the higher cost), but in terms of what the standard is the "solid" hat
won't do much better, if any, than the vented one.
OTOH, stuff like a tree branch getting stuck through a vent and giving
you an unpleasant poke is more likely on a vented lid, and that sort of
thing isn't accounted for by the standards.

As MSeries pointed out, no helmet is primarily about comfort. The point
of extra vents is to give more comfort while affording roughly the same
level of protection, that level defined by the standard and the testing
required in order to be verified at that standard (which may or may not
have relevance to the sort of accident you have to test it for real...)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 00:39:58 -0000, "Brian D'Amarge."
wrote:

The title says it all, any recommendations?

Check the Snell Memorial Foundation website and look for B95A

http://www.smf.org/certlist/std_B-90...90C_B-95C.html

Some of these are Chinese / Taiwanese brands - likely to be very
cheap.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

"Brian D'Amarge." wrote in message
...

The title says it all, any recommendations?

Cheers.


Is that your real name?

Tom