When you’re riding a bike you’ll notice that your parents, the police, anyone to do with safety will tell you to wear a helmet. You’ll notice the pros are all wearing helmets because it’ll save you from some hideous injuries. I was told a story once of a friend’s friend who was involved in an accident, went over the bonnet of a car and smashed their head on the road. He’d be absolutely fine if he was wearing a helmet but he wasn’t. I won’t tell you the rest even though I reckon you can probably work out what happened. Safe to say he regrets not wearing that helmet.
Away from the negative thinking and back to the more positive ideas in the safety world as this new helmet looks pretty interesting. Two Swedish University students took to the drawing board and invented the Hövding. It’s a collar worn around the neck, that contains a folded airbag which will inflate when it senses ‘abnormal movement’. When this happens the gas generator inflates the helmet, similar to an airbag in a car, that inflates into a hood so it protects the whole of the rider’s head. They’ve invented it into a collar so that it looks stylish – basically it means more people would be wanting to wear it if it’s ‘stylish’.
It’s a great idea but what happens when you jerk your head back too quickly for some unknown reason that isn’t a car crash? I looked through their FAQ and it appears that once it’s gone off and potentially saved your life, you cannot re-use it. Much like an airbag in a car you’ll have to replace it which could prove to be a very expensive endeavour! You’re probably better off buying an actual helmet!
More info is on their site – www.hovding.com
What do you guys think?