Is MIPS necessary?

Note on the VA Tech ratings…the difference between 4 and 5 stars is slight and both levels recommended.
I’ve heard it’s recommended to replace helmets periodically (3yrs?). Maybe its time…that Smith looks good…thanks
 
Note on the VA Tech ratings…the difference between 4 and 5 stars is slight and both levels recommended.
I’ve heard it’s recommended to replace helmets periodically (3yrs?). Maybe its time…that Smith looks good…thanks
It's comfy, adjustable, and has good ventilation.
I bought it after bashing my last one on the pavement (with my head in it), which of course dented it and rendered it defective.
 
Weirdly, I embraced bike helmets before ski helmets.

What find me cross over from the dark side was, oddly, a random younger cat I met on the lift at Baldy here in So. Cal.

I was in my mid 50s-- I thought I was old, probably-- and it was a good day, good conditions, I was skiing very well on 195 Rossignol straight skis. This guy gets on the lift with me and is super friendly, like, "Wow-- you still ski like it's 1975! Cool style, is it as much fun as it looks like?"

"Oh, yeah, but I was you pass me on the way down, it's not as fast as the wider turns you guys do on the shaped skis, you were looking great..."

"Not much faster than you..."

And we're going on and on until he says, kind of out of nowhere, "Hey, I just gotta ask, though. What's with not wearing a helmet? Do you think you're Superman or something?" I can't replicate his tone or the context, but it was goofy, playful, funny, not aggressive. And we were both in a great mood, so I said to him, "You know what? You got a point, and my wife's been bugging me about that for the last few years. This will be my last day skiing without a helmet, I'll get one next week. And I thank you for that." And I shook his hand, and he grinned, and we got off the lift.

I think it was the fact that he was a young, very experienced skier, one of the fastest guys on the mountain that day, and the fact that he approached me with such respect that made the message get through to me.

--> What about replacing a helmet every few years? I know that serious skiers, or racers, replace their helmets EVERY year. But is that because ski helmets are exposed to harsher conditions? How often ARE we supposed to replace our bike helmets, assuming a few short fitness rides every week, and a handful of longer rides a year?

Dang. I really like my bike helmet, and my recent medical adventures have left me quite short on cash!
 
--> What about replacing a helmet every few years? I know that serious skiers, or racers, replace their helmets EVERY year. But is that because ski helmets are exposed to harsher conditions? How often ARE we supposed to replace our bike helmets, assuming a few short fitness rides every week, and a handful of longer rides a year?

Dang. I really like my bike helmet, and my recent medical adventures have left me quite short on cash!
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Look, hopefully you'll never need it and yeah if heaven forbid it's a collision with a car or a truck a helmet alone is not going to save you. But a good helmet does protect your head/brain if and when the road, a kerb, even a bollard makes impact with your skull. MIPS seem to be good, I have 2 but also I got great deals and the prices have come down.

I don't disagree, I have used a helmet from day one so have my sons, it is all a matter of where, when, how and what. There was a good YouTube video where a cyclist/motorbike rider was saying how you would never see (other than morons) riding a motobike without a proper helmet yet you get cyclist going as fast, 35mph and more in a cycle helmet, but where do you stop, "leathers" :rolleyes:
 
Real event.

In Tavistock, Devon years back a woman was killed came off her bike, head hit the kerb, she had no helmet on, ironically as she was local and just cycling round the SMALL town she had it on the handlebars.
 
Driving a schoobus in 1970, I saw a 90 cc motorcyclist try to pass a car in the middle. He went horizontal 3 feet off the ground, spun like a maple seed, and bashed his head against the fender of a car in the opposite lane. A good example of why helmets are important. But I did not buy one until 12 years later. Helmets weren't stocked in the sporting goods store where I bought my AMF Hercules 3 speed in 1966. I found a helmet in the PX finally.
 
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