I appreciate this review and think the questions it's asking about the tradeoff between mass and safety features, and about kid-optimized helmet design, are important ones. The more thoughtful discussion of helmet safety, the better.
To be clear, I've never even seen this helmet and I don't have any relevant professional expertise.
But my keyboard-warrior guess is that the Abus is protecting users against broken skulls from giant impacts, as reflected in its EN-1078 certification, and protecting teeth with its chinbar--but not much else. It appears to be a simple single-density EPS shell, making zero effort to manage smaller impacts or rotational forces. Yes, less mass (plus good coverage and a rounded form and the breakaway visor) probably does help to a degree. But, unlike others here, I'm very skeptical of the theory that a substantially lighter helmet with no concussion safety features--more or less a 90s helmet safety-wise--is better at reducing concussion risk than a good modern helmet that's trying to protect against smaller impacts and rotational forces.
If only it were that easy.
Feb. 20, 2023, 11:27 a.m. - OldManBike
I appreciate this review and think the questions it's asking about the tradeoff between mass and safety features, and about kid-optimized helmet design, are important ones. The more thoughtful discussion of helmet safety, the better. To be clear, I've never even seen this helmet and I don't have any relevant professional expertise. But my keyboard-warrior guess is that the Abus is protecting users against broken skulls from giant impacts, as reflected in its EN-1078 certification, and protecting teeth with its chinbar--but not much else. It appears to be a simple single-density EPS shell, making zero effort to manage smaller impacts or rotational forces. Yes, less mass (plus good coverage and a rounded form and the breakaway visor) probably does help to a degree. But, unlike others here, I'm very skeptical of the theory that a substantially lighter helmet with no concussion safety features--more or less a 90s helmet safety-wise--is better at reducing concussion risk than a good modern helmet that's trying to protect against smaller impacts and rotational forces. If only it were that easy.