rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (05/16/84)
<> >The Joe Bike helmet usefulness test is this: > > Take a piece of your helmet material. Hit it with a big hammer. > See how far the hammer bounces. The less the better. If you > can't figure out why, you don't need to wear a helmet. This is a decent test - unfortunately, it's what we call "destructive testing". That means that after you try the test and find that the helmet passes, you should go out and buy another helmet to use. Yes, even if you don't SEE any damage. Repeating something I already said in another posting: Helmets absorb impact by deforming and maybe even cracking. These little critters give their lives that you may live on. Once you've taken a fall that scrapes or smacks the helmet hard, you may have done enough damage that a second fall will cause it to fail prematurely. Don't expect it to survive a second impact (even if you did the first one with a hammer). -- ...A friend of the devil is a friend of mine. Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303) 444-5710 x3086