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Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
Volunteer staff - - - 100% Consumer-fundedCENTER
Helmets for 2011
Quick answers
Helmets
Helmet Design
Teachers
Promoting Helmets
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Helmets for 2011.
Should I wear a helmet?
Danish iconoclast deplores helmets
BHSI's program for 2011
Quick Answers
Quick Answers!
Fast info for Frequently Asked Questions.
Buying a helmet?
Our Buyer's Guide to Bicycle Helmets
Helmets for 2010
Our report on this year's helmets.
Cheap vs. Expensive Helmets
Lab tests showed no difference in impact protection.
How to fit a helmet
How to get all the protection you paid for.
Toolkit for helmet programs and teachers
Resources, statistics, pamphlets, videos, more.
The Media Room
Quote of the Day and how to quote our other text
Teachers and student teachers
Classroom materials
Helmets Made Simple
If our pages seem hard to read, try this.
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New Stuff
Should I wear a helmet?
Would you believe our advice?
Testing substances that attack helmets
BHSI is testing hair products, sunscreens, repellants.
Free helmet offer is bogus!
BHSI did not call you and offer helmets!
Danish iconoclast deplores helmets
Video paints helmet promotion as evil.
Shared bicycle programs/cycle hire schemes.
Rentals always pose helmet questions.
Hövding airbag headgear
Not a real helmet, too early to tella
Kids in Dublin Ohio mount bike safety campaign.
Lots of energy, new ideas as kids conduct their own program.
NYU study does not expose hidden danger in foams.
Another university PR department gets headline wrong.
Newsletter: Mackinac Island Community Helmet project
A unique approach to community helmet promotion.
The Consumer Reports blog featured us.
A nice article on our founder, Randy Swart.
Response to British Study on passing clearance.
British study on how close cars in UK pass helmeted cyclists
What's New
What we have added or modified recently.
Briefs on recent developments
News about helmets and the helmet industry.
Our latest email newsletter
The Helmet Updatea.
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Helmets
Helmets for the 2011 season
Our report on helmets for the current year.
Cheap vs. Expensive Helmets
Lab tests showed no difference in impact protection.
Consumer Reports has a page up on Kid's helmets.
Most are rated Good for impact protection.
Helmet recalls
All CPSC helmet compliance actions since 1995.
Types of helmets
Road, mountain, downhill, skate, chrono
Helmet terms and definitions
Meanings for the helmet terms we use.
Plastics in your helmet?
Helmet plastics are probably not a cause for concern.
Cheap helmets!
Sources of helmets for promotion campaigns.
Yard sale helmets
Should I buy a used helmet at a yard sale?
Full Face helmets
Do you want facial protection?
Very large helmets
Our advice for riders with very large heads.
Very small helmets
Why can't I find a helmet small enough?
Hairstyles and baseball caps
Baseball caps, pony tails, beads, braids, "helmet hair"
Do-rags and head covers under helmets
Does a head cover affect helmet fit?
One-size-fits-all helmets
Can ring fit systems fit your head?
Vents and squared-off lines
You can have too many vents in your helmet!
Visors: good and bad experience
How to report shattered or snagged visors
The helmet industry
Industry news on a few of the manufacturers.
Bell's True Fit system is worth a look
System simplifies the fitting process.
How to Fit a Helmet
How to fit a helmet for best protection.
Helmet fit checklist
How to make sure your fitting worked.
Helmet sizing
How to measure your head for a helmet.
Winter helmets
Warm headgear for winter commuting and riding.
Reflective helmets
Should you add reflective tape to your helmet?
Other helmets
Ski, soccer, skating, equestrian and more.
Multi-purpose helmets
Can't I just use the same helmet for everything?
Helmets for motorbikes and scooters
Why a bicycle helmet is not ok for motor vehicles.
Crash stories
Stories where the helmet worked.
Other crashes
Helmet, no helmet or non-bicycle. These are downers.
When can I ride again?
Ask your doctor before riding after a crash.
Response to "truck ran over cyclist's head"
A helmet can help, but will crush if squarely run over.
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Children
Consumer Reports has a page up on Kid's helmets.
Most are rated Good for impact protection.
Getting My Child to Wear A Helmet
Ten ideas for encouraging your kids to use helmets.
Why kids don't like to wear helmets.
Reasons the kids give when asked.
Warning: No helmets on playgrounds!
Advice after deaths of two helmeted children.
Helmets for poor kids
Factors affecting promotion in poor neighborhoods
What size is my child's head?
How to measure.
Very large toddler helmets
Helmets for toddlers with very large heads.
Very small toddler helmets
Helmets for toddlers with very small heads.
Taking your child along?
Helmets, trailers, childseats and shaken babies.
Hairstyles and baseball caps
Baseball caps, pony tails, beads, braids, "helmet hair"
Lice! Headlice can be a problem
Cleaning helmets for rentals and schools
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Special Helmets
Helmets for teens
"My teen won't wear a helmet!"
Helmets on campus
Is a college brain worth protecting?
Helmets for seniors
Does an older brain need different protection?
Helmets with Hearing Aids
Where to put a hearing aid and how to deal with sweat
Helmets for special needs
Suggestions for developmental disabilities and seizures
Helmets for head injured riders
What to wear if you have a previous injury.
Helmets for bald riders
Avoiding tan lines and other tips.
Helmets for very small adult heads
Why look like a mushroom?
Helmets for police
Helmets for police officers, with police graphics
Helmets for bicycle polo
What you need to protect your head in cycle polo
Helmets for time trialing
Chrono helmets with extreme aero shapes
Helmets for shared bicycle programs
Cycle hire schemes pose particular helmet problems.
Rental helmets
Rentals need easy fit, sanitization and damage indicators
Helmets and turbans
How can a Sikh wear a bicycle helmet?
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Standards
Standards for bicycle helmets
ASTM, ANSI, Snell, CPSC, CEN and others.
The ideal helmet standard
Our idea of the perfect bicycle helmet standard.
Making progress in standards
What is needed for further standards improvement.
Helmet performance limits
How much a helmet can take and keep on protecting.
Helmet testing
How helmets are tested in the lab.
Helmet test labs
Labs who test helmets or supply test equipment.
ASTM headgear subcommittee section
Materials from ASTM F8.53 subcommittee.
ANSI Z90.4 Committee - Inactive list.
ANSI replaced the Z90.4 standard with the ASTM standard.
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Maintenance and Repairs
How to inspect a helmet
The points to check, and a checklist.
Replacing a helmet
Our advice on when to replace your helmet.
Repairing a helmet
How to fix your helmet when it comes unglued.
Replacing a buckle
Can you find a replacement buckle? Maybe!
Threading straps through a buckle
Illustrations and photos to help you rethread.
Recycling helmets
What to do with your faithful old helmet.
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Construction and Design
How Helmets Work
Basics on construction and testing standards
How bicycle helmets are made
A summary of manufacturing steps
Bicycle helmet foams
Info on EPS, EPP, EPU and more.
Molded-in-the-shell helmets
It can make better helmets, but not necessarily.
Buckles
Most are one basic design, but there are others.
Sliding resistance
Rounder helmets help you slide on impact
Helmet Cooling
Info on ventilation and cooler riding.
Helmet Designers
Our short list of indepedent helmet designers.
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Statistics and Research
Helmet and Injury statistics
They don't agree, so take your pick!
New York City data on bicycle deaths
NYC found 97% of dead cyclists had no helmet.a
Helmet documents
Materials we have scanned in or downloaded.
Helmet construction and materials
Helmet design for students and researchers.
Researchers' page
Info for a thesis or a science project.
Term papers on bike helmets
Where to find the info to write a term paper
A workshop on bike helmets
Points to cover when you do a workshop.
Helmet Patents
Some significant patents and how to find others.
Advice for Inventors
We are interested in new helmet technology.
The cost of making a bike helmet
Our guesses on manufacturing and sales costs.
The total market for bike helmets
How many helmets are sold each year?
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Helmet Laws
Mandatory helmet laws
States, counties, cities, positions, opponents.
Australian paper on helmet laws is misleading
Helmet laws normally do not reduce cycling here.
Issues from the usenet "helmet
wars"
Our slant on the endless helmet law arguments.
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Media
The Media Room
Quote of the Day and how to quote our other text
Washington Post article based on faulty study.
Reporters can't find a real helmet issue, so . . .
Examiner article perhaps the worst ever?
What we do when we see one of those.
New York Times Article
"Head Injuries Piling Up?" Times' reputation sinking?
Media coverage with unsafe riders
Messages to the media from the outraged.
Crash!
NYU study does not expose hidden danger in foams.
Another university PR department gets headline wrong.
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Beyond Helmets: essential safety stuff
National Strategies for Bicycle Safety.
An attempt to fix all of the problems!
Rider education
Our pamphlet on teaching kids, plus links.
Lights on Helmets
Headlights and taillights mounted on helmets can be useful.
Other bike safety equipment
Gloves, mouthguards, lights, flags, tires, more.
Bike Safety Month
When is bike safety day, week or month.
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Who We Are
CENTERFONT
Welcome! We are the helmet advocacy program of the Washington
Area Bicyclist Association. We are a small, active, non-profit consumer-funded program providing bicycle helmet information. We try to explain the technology of helmets to consumers, and promote better helmets through improved standards. Last year we served 3.1 million pages to more than 975,000 distinct users. Our volunteers serve on the ASTM helmet standards committee and are active in commenting on actions of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We are members of the National Bicycle Safety Network. We provide a Toolkit of materials for helmet programs and a periodic email helmet newsletter, both free. We are all volunteers, funded entirely by consumer donations. We maintain our independence by never accepting funds from the industry. As much as we believe in helmets we still consider them a secondary safety measure and urge that primary measures such as safer roads and education programs for riders and drivers not be neglected. This is our 21st year, and our 15th year on the Web.

Our FAQ: can you trust this site?
Where we came from, what we do and how.
Some nice words from Consumer Reports
BHSI's founder named Safety Crusader.
ASTM's Hulse Memorial Award
Recognition for BHSI's work on helmet standards.
Our Program
What we hope to accomplish this year.
How to support our work!
We are funded 100% by consumer donations.
What we need today
Graphics, crossword or teaching skills?
How we run our site
Our philosophy, design, page hits and more.
Promises, promises
What we hope to add to our site some day.
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What We Can Do For You
Our publications
Newsletter, pamphlets, list of laws, more.
Our email newsletter
The Helmet Update, our periodic free newsletter.
Between news events, check our Briefs.
Media guidance
Quotes and a few rules on quoting our site.
Webmaster guidance
You can quote us but not use our pages.
Access to our data
Web, email, telephone, postal mail.
Teachers, educators, scout leaders, workshops, rodeos.
Check out our resources, including lesson plans.
Bike shop owners - We encourage you to use our pamphlets.
We provide free duplicating masters.
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Search our Site
Search our site.
Finds anything on our site.
A Map of our site.
A page by page map in outline form.
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Links
Helmet links
Links to other helmet-related pages.
Head Injury Survivors
Links to people who have survived a head injury.
Graphical pages for young riders
Want graphics? Comics? Superheroes?
Our links policy
When we add a non-helmet bicycle link.
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Translate Our Pages
Ahora traduzca este sitio! - - Español
Traduisez ce site maintenant! - - Français
Übersetzen Sie diese Site jetzt! - - Deutsch
Ora tradurre questo luogo! - - Italiano
a
Traduza este local agora! - - Portuguese
Canadian, Eh!
Feedback
Problems With Our Site?A
Here is a page of tips on problems.
We care about making our content accessible!
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Virus or spam message apparently from BHSI?A
Here is how a spoofer sent you that message.
Virus-bearing messages do not originate here! We never send anything to anyone from "info@helmets".
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Please use this link for comments or questions
We like to hear about what you wanted to find here.
Our contact info:Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
4611 Seventh Street South
Arlington, VA 22204-1419 USA
Voice and fax: (703) 486-0100
email: please use this link.
UL
copy; All pages on this site are copyrighted by the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, 1989-2011. Reproduction for non-profit use is encouraged, but on the Web please link to our pages rather than reproducing them--we update frequently and a copy will be quickly outdated. Webmasters please see this page.
This page was last revised on: February 21, 2011.

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