Summary: Seniors brains may require a "softer-landing" helmet.

A helmet and head injury researcher at Wayne State University named Voigt Hodgson--himself a senior at the time, now deceased--told us years ago that as your body ages everything in it becomes less flexible and more brittle, including your brain. He thought that a person over 65 could receive a concussion from an impact much less severe than that required for a younger brain. Some other medical people disagree, but we think he was probably right. To date we have not found confirmation one way or the other in medical journals, except for articles like this one on automotive injuries indicating that ageing bodies break more easily. But since the baby boomer generation is approaching seniorhood, we assume that there will be a lot more research on the subject soon. In addition, helmet researchers realize that today's helmets protect against severe brain injury, but do not protect well against less severe concussions, regardless of the age of the wearer.

The foam in today's bicycle helmets varies from firm up to really hard. Less expensive helmets generally have the firm variety. To open up big vents for the high-end helmets, designers have to make the reduced foam that remains much harder. So a senior looking for that softer landing should probably avoid the high-end helmets with the hard, hard foam. (You can get some idea of that hardness with your thumbnail, but pick an inconspicuous place and don't tell a bike store that we told you to do it!)

If the foam is really softer, you will find that the helmet tends to be a little thicker as well. That is because softer foam will crush more readily--giving you the softer landing--and you need more of it to ensure that it will not crush all the way down and "bottom out." We have noted that when we ask a lab tech why a certain helmet performed so well the usual answer is "well, that helmet has a lot of foam in it."

Over the years that they have been publishing articles on bike helmets, Consumer Reports has gotten better test results with the mid-level helmets rather than the priciest ones. If they tested more of the very cheap models we suspect that the same trend would appear. Manufacturers who do not want to use expensive construction techniques just compensate by reducing the vents and making the cheap helmets thicker and a little softer.

You do not give up impact protection by choosing a softer bike helmet. As long as the CPSC standards sticker is inside, the helmet will be designed to the same maximum impact standard as the other models in the store, and probably won't exceed it by a much wider margin than other helmets. No manufacturer can identify a helmet as appropriate for seniors, or softer-landing, because they are afraid of being sued by a senior who was injured in the helmet.

If you get too cheap, the fit systems are sometimes really poor. When we checked out the $7.14 helmets at Wal-Mart and Target we found that the buckles did not hold well, and the straps would loosen on the first ride. They can be sewn into place, but there is really no excuse for that. The same stores had $15 helmets that had better fitting systems, and still did not have extreme vents or super-hard foam.

We wish we had lab test data to make specific brand and model recommendations, but we don't, except for the periodic Consumer Reports articles. Those rate only a tiny fraction of what's on the market, but you can look at our report on the most recent article.

In short, we think that a senior should look at available models and find a good fit in a helmet that is round, smooth and not too hard. Avoid extreme vents. Price is not a guide. You need to think for yourself on this one, since nobody is doing it for you.

This page was last revised on: March 16, 2008.

Contact us.