>>Personally, I have been running my helmet into large tree limbs with my
>>head in it with frightening regularity lately. Gotta be more careful.
>>Any other helmet buffs have this problem? Or as Maryben would say "You
>>know, that horse has a steering wheel... "
>Yes, my helmet has saved me several times from tree limb injuries. The
>trails that I train on are overgrown in places, and a couple of times I
>didn't duck down far enough. Also, on the American River Ride I was
>watching the rocks we were trotting through and didn't see the jagged broken
>end of a branch at head level--WHAM! No injuries, but without the helmet
>the ride would have been over for me. Inattention on my part, to be sure,
>but I figure the helmet paid for itself that day.
Don't forget that helmets absorb shock by the foam liner compressing
.. and it doesn't de-compress afterwards. If your helmet gets enough
impact to compress the liner, the helmet has lost some of its
protective ability. If in doubt, have a reliable dealer check the
helmet, or replace it.
--Joe Long jlong@hiwaay.net