oldmanbike profile

I'm a big believer in big winter shoes. Don't just size up enough to make up for the shoe's bulkier lining, and don't just size up enough to squeeze in thicker socks. After all that, you still want the end result to be a fit that's a bit less snug than your usual bike shoe fit. That looser fit lets blood get to your toes better. The benefit of being able to feel your toes easily outweighs the cost of the less-snug fit. Or so I've come to believe, anyhow.

I picked up a pair of Briskers sight-unseen, purely on your review. (Come to think of it, they replaced a pair of Pearl Izumi gloves that I got based on Cam's review.) I'm quite happy with them, and now half my crew has a pair for cold-not-frigid rides. So, thanks!

The Leatt gloves I've tried have never fit my (non-Trump-sized) hands. But I'll be on the lookout to try on a pair of the Windblocks.

William's comment captures my views exactly.

I'm a longtime nsmb fanboy despite having never set foot (set tire?) on the Shore. I'm not going anywhere either.

But, in my view, the decision to cover ebikes is a serious misjudgment. And, yes, it colors how I view the site as a whole. It limits my interest in participating and contributing more. None of the Pete's earnest book-length defenses are ever going to change that. Ebiking isn't my sport and it never will be.

I agree with your observations elsewhere here about the maddening opacity of helmet-safety research and about parenting & protection being lots of guesswork. Still so in the dark a decade after the Bicycling article on helmet safety. To me, the industry's failure to come up with an updated certification is simply indefensible.

Anyway, for what it's worth my own parenting/protection guesswork led me to Leatt's halfshell DBX 2 for my kid. She likes it a lot. Before that she had a Bell Super 3R MIPS with removable fullface, but she didn't like riding with the chinbar. She much prefers the lighter Leatt, and I believe in their 360 turbines more than I do regular mips.

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.

What a strange concept. An insightful review of stuff your readers might be interested in, instead of clickbait about stuff they're not. Don't you people know anything about mountain-bike journalism?

Quite a study in contrasts between this piece and PB's Rapha piece today.

Before this I owned a couple Kali helmets, and my wife and kid both have Leatts. I admire both companies' commitment to concussion safety a lot. But, speaking as a non-expert and non-insider, I came to believe that the basic spherical design was superior to theirs. If my head's hitting the deck, I'm not confident that one of the squishy bumper things is going to be in the right spot to do me any good. With spherical, the entire inner shell of the helmet in engaged. I believe that's a critical advantage.

I'm a fanatic about reducing concussion risk. My view that the Super Air was the best option available from that perspective was why I got one. I've used it, without a chinguard, as my trail helmet for the past couple years. I like it and if I were buying a trail helmet today it'd be a serious contender again. While I have little faith that regular MIPS provides a real-world concussion-risk-reduction benefit, I believe MIPS spherical is the most promising current option. I owned a Super DH before that but found it clunkier than I was willing to wear for trail use so used it only as a fullface DH helmet. By contrast, the Super Air works great as an everyday helmet. My biggest gripe is what Trevor mentioned about not being able to tighten or loosen the dial in the back while it's on; how on earth a company as experienced as Bell muffed that up I'll never understand. Also I find the purported sweat guide to be fairly useless. But for me those are niggles. Bottom line is it's a very comfortable, good-lookingish helmet that I believe maximizes my chances of walking away from a crash without damaging my brain, so for me it's a winner.

I have a hunch that most people here are clearing trail blockages, not removing fallen trees from the woods.

On battery chainsaws, I've flogged a 16" greenworks 40v without mercy for years now and it's still going strong. I've been pretty amazed with it. But just it's big/heavy enough to discourage me from riding with it, even with a Dakine builder pack. I wouldn't be surprised at all if a new brushless 12" 2x20v like that Dewalt was 95% as capable yet 300% as convenient.