Cyril Haearn wrote:Whatabout helmets made for other purposes? I imagine many firefighters and divers are big people with big heads
If you want to cycle in a fire service helmet then go ahead... but cycling helmets tend to be light and well ventilated for a reason...
I have helmets for caving, climbing and paddling, and I wouldn't fancy any of them on a bike. The caving and climbing wouldn't be too uncomfy but the wind noise would be pretty boring at anything above a pootle, I'd guess, and much of the engineering is about rocks falling on your head from vertically above (part of why the crown is so much higher, to give deformation space) so not necessarily as relevant to the sort of prang that's likely.
(A pal who has trouble getting big enough lids for all sorts has a Bell (I think!) that fits her okay, and they do claim to do large models.)
But it's true that anyone who has problems with helmet size for cycling will have the same in other contexts. If I had £1 for every climbing instructor who has said, "Of course we have a helmet for you... oh!" and then told me that I'll have to watch my Scouts from outside the "cage", as I'm not allowed near the wall without one, I'd be a rich man.
Cyril Haearn wrote:Whatabout helmets made for other purposes? I imagine many firefighters and divers are big people with big heads
If you want to cycle in a fire service helmet then go ahead... but cycling helmets tend to be light and well ventilated for a reason...
I have helmets for caving, climbing and paddling, and I wouldn't fancy any of them on a bike. The caving and climbing wouldn't be too uncomfy but the wind noise would be pretty boring at anything above a pootle, I'd guess, and much of the engineering is about rocks falling on your head from vertically above (part of why the crown is so much higher, to give deformation space) so not necessarily as relevant to the sort of prang that's likely.
Yes, I couldn't think of any current designs for "firefighters and divers" that would be suitable for cycling.
I'm not sure that head size is particularly linked to body size...
Regardless, such helmets are designed to mitigate acute impacts of low mass objects into a stationary head. A cycle helmet is meant to reduce the deceleration rate of a higher mass object (the person) colliding with an stationary object. The hard shell of a fireman/builder helmet will do nothing for that.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
I was able to nominate drossall as the expert because I've a large bonce, although not in his league, so I've always been interested by his experiences in this regard.
I'd strongly agree with the comment about the need to try. A helmet has none of the flexibility of caps/ hats so shape is nearly as important as size.
Just a thought on WHY there is really no availability of extra X large helmets. No Profits!
Back in the late 70s to early 80s Maggie Thatcher decided to buy Riot hats for English coppers, the first ones were green (NI Army Issue) but with the flexible neck guard replaced with a cheapo peak and painted dark blue the Police Riot helmet was born. As a lad I had size 64 titfer helmets at work so knew I was on the Bigedd side, but by wearing open face could get XXL Bell motorbike hats on. About the same time I was being measured for a Police full face motorcycle helmet, as some H&S type had decided our comfy open face helmets were no good anymore. The reason all this swinging the blue lamp is relevant is that I couldn't get the provided full face biker helmet to fit, nor could I get an "open" face riot hat that fitted. At the time the demographic was for larger men in the Police, to join the job there was a minimum height and weight requirement so the target audience did not need many small sized lids. The stores manager at WMP told me they had initially ordered several thousand Riot hats, in sizes 1 to 4, and FIVE hats in size 5. I was very lucky and got one of those five, but in a commercial venture no-one was going to sell or stock a one in ten thousand size. The motorcycle lids were sorted more pragmatically. Those of us with "abnormal" heads were sent out to find full face lids that fitted, in white, on the basis we all had our own bikes and helmets, and the job paid for whatever we chose and stuck the badges etc on. My biker lid ended up as an Arai, labelled as size 64, and despite the recommended 2 year service life I still have it to this day. It IS comfy. In the early 2000s by chance I worked for a short time in a small team with two chaps (one known as GBH - harking back to earlier times) with exceptionally large heads, sizes 67 and a 68 if memory serves, who threatened to take action for discrimination at work as they were not afforded the chance to be riot trained as the available helmets didn't fit, not even my size 5. Eventually they were sent off to the helmet manufacturer for custom fitting, which involved a lot less padding inside the same outer shell, so less safe and at a cost, although a cost of several thousand each for riot helmets was we were told cheaper to the job than the cost of losing two discrimination cases.
So with a personal fitting and several grand in your pocket you can always get a helmet that fits, if not wear suncream!
I've already mentioned my late father's experience on joining the Army for National Service, and also my cycling club's approach to custom fitting of cycle helmets. I've been a Scout leader for some time, back to the days when we also wore berets. I had two of those custom made then. They didn't even have size labels that large, and had to hand-write them. Annoyingly, after all that trouble, it was only a few years later that the beret was withdrawn from uniform
drossall wrote:I've already mentioned my late father's experience on joining the Army for National Service, and also my cycling club's approach to custom fitting of cycle helmets. I've been a Scout leader for some time, back to the days when we also wore berets. I had two of those custom made then. They didn't even have size labels that large, and had to hand-write them. Annoyingly, after all that trouble, it was only a few years later that the beret was withdrawn from uniform
The troop I was in (from late 70s) was run by young leaders with more interest in pragmatism and doing good stuff than uniform tradition, and they declared the troop wouldn't wear them. Number of complaints from Scouts (and as far as I'm aware any of their parents): zero.
I was in a Venture Scout/Ranger Guide joint unit in the mid 70s. The Executive Committee (i.e. the elected group of members running the Unit, not the Group Executive) decided that berets would not be worn. I pointed out that varying the national uniform was not within the competence of a local Executive Committee