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On Saturday I crashed my MTB landing hard resulting in concussion and fractured vertebrae. I was wearing a Bontrager Blaze equipped with WaveCel which is designed to ‘flex, crumple and glide’ on impact. After such a significant impact the outside of the helmet is marked but I am staggered not to be able to see or measure any crumpling or permanent deformation of the WaveCel. It makes me wonder if the WaveCel did anything and how much more of an impact would be needed to see some permanent deformation. There was some ‘gliding’ when the helmet slid and scratched my scalp.
The question in my mind is what type of replacement helmet to get next? There seem to be 4 choices; an EPS helmet fitted with MIPS, a helmet that uses Koroyd, a helmet with Koroyd plus MIPS or another WaveCel helmet.
What is your advice and experience?
Buy whatever fits well, and don't overthink it.
Do they do a crash replacement policy; Giro certainly had one - I used it once or twice?
Bontrager/Trek do have a crash replacement scheme.... if memory serves it's free for the first year
If you're not pleased with the level of protection or injury mitigation from the helmet you had, then the best choice is probably something different?
No one needs to be riding around doubting their helmets performance.
But as above, fit is a priority.
Bontrager have declined the opportunity to replace the helmet as they did this about a year ago when a tree branch got stuck in an air vent and put a rip in the outer. So I’m clear to try any design of replacement helmet.
Planet X do some very good helmets that are £20 or so
or is that not speedy enough for you ?
Well fwiw, Virginia Tech's helmet tests for force transferred to head and rotational force scored the older Bonty mips helmets better than the wavecel ones.
So looks like they hit peak helmet (tada!) with the Rally mips.
I recently took a bump with an ill fitting helmet which resulted in two cuts and a couple of lumps on my head. The new helmet I got fits much better and I'm fairly certain would have resulted in no injuries had I been wearing it. I didn't realise the fit was so poor until I put the new helmet on, I'd definitely agree with above that whichever of the good quality helmets fits your head best. My problem is I'm a 59cm which is usually just above a medium and the bottom of a large, so my previous helmet was a 59-62cm or something and was loose on my head, I found that Troy Lee Mediums fit a 59cm and the A3 is snug as on my head.
On the Planet X helmet front I have one for my road bike - really cheap and hits the minimum standards required. Actually lighter and ‘airier’ then I expected, but the straps / adjustment mechanism on the back feels cheap and clunky. So you can see they’ve looked to build it down to a cost.
At some point I’ll probably replace it with a mid range sort of road helmet that feels a bit nicer - but still only £60 or £70.
On wave cell I’ve seen it and ruled it out based on cost - but my mtb helmet does have mips and it’s a more enduro type coverage one. Will probably go similar again when I replace it (Giro Chronicle).
Go to a shop, try them on, buy which ever fits your head and budget.
I think getting a helmet that fits is a key piece of advice we all should follow and all helmets seem to have a degree of adjustment built in.
What concerns me is performance in a crash. MIPS liners seem relatively easy to move with your fingers to cope with rotational impact. The WaveCel material flexes, crumples and then glides to account for rotational impact and by comparison feels very stiff. I am struggling to see both doing the same job.