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Dawny86
Butterfly
Butterfly

Joined: 24 May 2019
Gender: Female
Posts: 13
Location: Scotland

17 Oct 2022, 3:05 pm

Hi,
Looking for advice, my son who is 4 and we’re looking to get him a bike from Santa, the only issue is he has had sensory issues with hats and I’m thinking helmets will be an issue, but don’t want him to go a bike without a helmet.
Any suggestions or tips to overcome this?



Mountain Goat
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 13 May 2019
Gender: Male
Posts: 14,738
Location: .

17 Oct 2022, 4:54 pm

I will give one bit of advice and this is from a helmet wearer when I have been cycling and someone who has been in the bicycle trade. Helmets can save lives if used correctly. Most casual occasional cyclists tend to have wrongly adjusted helmet straps so the helmets they wear can be more dangerous than if they had no helmet, because the helmet can push backwards on impact and cause the helmet straps to strangle the unconcious cyclist.
So my caution here is to ensure that one either wears a correctly adjusted helmet, or one goes without.

The right helmet is the comfortable one that when adjusted does not rock back and fore. The helmet approximate age group is complete fabrication as in reality I have fitted very young children in large size helmets designed for adults, and found some adults with small heads to need young childs helmets. Head sizes really do vary a lot at all ages.
Another falacy is that one should buy an expensive helmet. No. One should buy the one that has the best fit, as though an expensive helmet in theory may have some extra design to protect, in reality if the helmet does not fit correctly and the budget one does fit correctly, the budget helmet will be the one to protect.

Helmets feel cooler on ones head than hats if one has a light ventilated type so may find them less of an issue to wear. Hats make ones head itchy due to sudden heat when one puts them on. I know I had this issue as a child, especially wooly hats.

Is when one is a teenager or an adult where one is reaching 30mph + speeds is where helmets really need to be worn, but few people realize that if one comes off the bike, the first thing that nearly always hits the ground first is ones hands, which is why seasoned cyclists will wear gloves, asin a spill, it is ones hands that absorb the energy of a fall, so gloves are actually the most used form of protection in racing. I used to do mountain bike racing, and we all wore helmets years before road racing cyclists used them, but I never did crash and hit my head. It was always my hands and arms that took the force. (Why I never rode with a sleeveless cycling jersey).