Bern Helmets?

Having ridden for a year in a Bern Macon EPS for a year before it at least contributed to saving my life last week, I'm inclined to drop in mis dos centavos.

Neither model you're looking at uses the same impact tech. as the "EPS" helmets (Macon, Watts, Brighton). Regardless, it's important to understand that Bern helmets aren't designed to break apart on impact. The Brighton got bad marks from Consumer Reports for poor impact absorption. I imagine the Zipmold helmets would test better, but probably provide less protection in a high energy collision.

I knew the trade-off when I bought the Macon EPS. From my personal experience, I decided to hedge on the side of high energy protection. But last week, it performed very well in a low energy scenario. I crashed at 14 mph, and all 165lbs of me went right down to the asphalt. I'm not sure if my shoulder or head made first contact. Given some symptoms & sensations, I thought I had a head injury. The hard EPS foam was dented but otherwise the helmet was totally intact. It seems that the helmet absorbed some energy and distributed the rest on a much larger area of my skull than the point of impact.

Superficial contusions or lacerations are more favorable than severe TBIs, but I'm damn glad my head didn't take the beating that my shoulder did. CT scans showed no evidence of concussion or neck injury. All other symptoms & injuries were caused by other event phenomena.

I rode in >100 F Texas sun beating down on that helmet. Yeah, you're gonna sweat, but you're gonna sweat anyhow. The only reason I won't be immediately getting another Bern is that I'm logging long rides & need something more performance oriented. I'm sure going to miss the Macon for bombing around town, though.

You might want to consider one of the EPS models. They're rated for alpine ski and other snow sports, skate (although apparently there's not really much of an established standard for skate helmets), and cycling. They offer, I think, substantially more protection against cranial injury in a high energy event.

/r/FixedGearBicycle Thread