if I rode a motorcycle, I'd buy the very best helmet I could get, way back when it was Bell and not much else weren't a lot of choices.
Glad there are more now. I understand the freedom aspect, but riding a bike without a helmet is just nuts from a safety standpoint.
There are a LOT of choices in helmets these days, Drew, an almost dizzying number. There are also more standards than ever before in addition to the old DOT and SNELL. And thank goodness, more research into the effects of impact on the head and brain. One of the startling things to come out is that most impacts also impart a spin to the head, and that spin can injure the brain as it attempts to remain in still inside the spinning skull. So the latest and greatest are helmets that have a little bit if give between the shell and the foam liner to allow some slip there so less spin is transferred to the head. Then there are some studies that show the SNELL standard may be too stringent in prescribing how the shell should withstand multiple impacts. In doing so, more of that initial impact energy must be transmitted to the head if the shell is to survive another blow. The Euro standards recognize this, and helmets built to it do not pass the SNELL tests.
But you're right; if you've got a ten dollar head, buy a ten dollar helmet. Good ones these days cost fifty, sixty, seventy, and more times that.:shocked:
As I watch the repairs from the Camp Fire going around me, it's clear that many of them are being done to a higher standard than existed when the improvements were initially built. That was also true if the Oroville Dam spillway repair, which now is composed of solid concrete whereas before it was more of a bridge structure. All over the burn area, tons and tons of soil is being scraped away because it supposedly contains harmful contaminants from the fire, especially in and around home foundations. And since the stuff is environmentally damned as well, it has to be bagged or covered during transit to some far away specially prepared final resting place. The a bunch of white suited specialists come in and take swabs all over the place to ensure nothing was missed. And since building codes have become more stringent, the new structures cost a LOT more, a cost borne mostly by the insurance companies. That's not a bad thing when it comes to building a more fire safe dwelling, at least for those with insurance. Many folks had no or not enough insurance, and now they're applying for Small Business Administration construction loans or government grants to build again. And others are just moving somewhere else where they can buy a house in a more affordable area.
There, that should do it. First coat of color on today's last eve should be dry, time to cheat death up on the ladder one more time before lunch.
