What do you wear when e-biking?

[treal512]

The shorts and sandals option was kind of a joke, I'm glad no one picked it .

I was walking on the road the other day and had traffic passing me at 25-30mph, really hit home how fast I'm going on the bike. You can get used to any speed if your platform is stable, but kinectic energy (and thus impact energy if you have an accident) increases by the square of velocity.

Example: If my bike and I weigh 250lbs, this is our kinetic energy at various speeds:

15mph - 2549 Joules
20mph - 4532 Joules
25mph - 7,082 Joules
30mph - 10,198 Joules

As you can see, twice the speed, 4 times as much energy! Standard off the rack helmets just aren't made for these speeds. Even Virginia Tech's helmet testing method has a maximum speed of 16mph. (Link Removed - No Longer Exists)

Yikes, a normal bicycle helmet not being sufficient on an e-bike is one of my fears as well.

 

[Justin Fischer]

Yikes, a normal bicycle helmet not being sufficient on an e-bike is one of my fears as well.

Exactly. I thought my Giro Savant MIPS was sufficient, but doing more research, a DH certified full helmet MIPS is my next upgrade. Too bad they're pricey, about $250-300. The most injured part of a cyclist is the jaw, some people lose all of their top teeth in the front in a crash. And that's at 15-20mph, which we can see is half to a quarter as much energy as 30mph.