How to Choose the Right Bicycle For You

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Eric from Spin City Cycling from Austin, Texas and I am talking to you on behalf of Expert Village. Today we are going to discuss helmets. A helmet is a critical piece of equipment that you should have when riding your bike. Different states, country have different laws about them. But in general if you are riding your bike, you should be wearing a helmet. It doesn't take very high speeds or rough terrains to cause an accident that could lead to a serious head injury so it is real important to have a good helmet. A lot of times people come in and ask what is the difference between a very expensive helmet and a inexpensive helmet and that is what I am going to talk about right now. First thing we will talk about is air flow, ventilation. You will notice on this helmet in my right hand you've got a lot of holes in the top there. Those holes allow air to flow through the helmet when you are riding and keeps you a little bit cooler especially in warmer climates. You will notice the helmet on my left also has a lot of holes but they are much bigger. There are actually more of them on this. What that does this makes a lighter weight helmet, it's going to be more comfortabe and it allows air to flow through. Another difference between inexpensive and expensive helmets are the sizing options that you have available to you. Most inexpensive helmets are going to be one size fits all. So you've got one side shell and all of your adjust ability is done using some mechanism here that tightens this head band area. More expensive helmets are generally come in different size shells. So you may have a small, medium or large shell. You've got your adjust ability with each of these sizes. So it's not a safety issue but these helmets meet the CPSC Safety requirements which is the governing body here in the United States. But a more expensive helmet is probably going to be a little more comfortable and fit a little better and going to be a little more breathable. One other thing I will talk about helmets is the life of the helmet. We see lots of helmets that people have been wearing for years and years and unfortunately, helmets don't have unlimited shelf life. They do wear out. They are made out of materials Styrofoam, glue that are susceptible to sweat, heat and things like that you encounter a lot when you are riding. So it is important to check out your helmet regularly if there are any cracks. If you ever take a fall on your helmet even if it doesn't look visibly damaged, it is a good idea to replace it because you may not be able to see the damage that happened. One rule of thumb is that if you take your helmet and squeeze it between your hands, I am squeezing this pretty hard, you shouldn't be able to hear any cracking or popping. If you hear cracking or popping, that means that the glue and the Styrofoam that holds all this together is starting to break down and it may be time to replace it. Hopefully you've learned a little bit about helmets. Thanks for watching. "