I was at the Interbike tradeshow for the bike industry this past September and learned about a new bike helmet technology that reduces the force of common low speed impacts. With all of the recent news about how concussions and even sub-concussive level forces can impact brain function, I thought this might be worth sharing for all of you that ride bikes or have kids that ride bikes.
Both of my kids play club soccer and it's been REALLY eye-opening about how long kids with concussions are now required to abstain from activities posing potential risk of additional head impacts after an initial concussion. One of my son's soccer teammates sat out from playing after receiving a concussion for about 5 months on doctor's orders. What's particularly concerning to me is that repeated impacts of even a sub-concussive level may have long-term health effects (though the science on this is far from settled). One example of a study that came up with evidence of this was a study that found functional cognitive impairment in high school football players that had not experienced clinically-diagnosed concussions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20883154. In this study, researcher found that the players with the most impaired visual memory skills were actually not those that had experienced concussions but rather the players which, in the preceding week, had experienced a large number of subconcussive hits - around 150 hits - mostly in the 40 to 80 g range. The Purdue researchers suspect that these players experienced neurological trauma arising from repeated, sub-concussive head collision events, each of which likely produces sub-clinical stress on neural tissue in the brain.
Existing bicycle helmet crash tests focus mainly on reducing the risk of skull fractures from high speed impacts, but increasing the density of helmet foams to reduce the risk of skull fractures in higher speed crashes actually reduces effectiveness at reducing forces from lower speed crashes. The density of bike helmet foam necessary to meet current crash standards is more firm than ideal to adequately absorb the impact from lower speed crashes at a level that would cause concussions. Adding a softer helmet layer to existing bike helmet designs would be one way tohelp slow down the acceleration of the head in these lower speed crashes.
One of the new technologies that I was really excited to find at the Interbike bike industry trade show this past September was 6D Helmets' Omni-Directional Suspension (ODS) technology that helps reduce forces transmitted in low speed impacts. 6D's technology adds a layer of rubber bumpers between two foam layers to reduce impact speed and force (see attached picture). The NFL chose 6D and its ODS technology to beone of 5 finalists chosen out of 125 entries in the NFL's Head Health Challenge III (https://ninesights.ninesigma.com/web/head-health/challenge-3-winners) to discover, design & develop advanced materials that better absorb or dissipate impact. I was so impressed that I got a 6D bike helmet for myself and will get them for my family as well.
6D's Omni-Directional Suspension reduces and delays the force transmitted in low speed impacts.
Some great new components from Praxis Works. First up is their new 1x Wave chain ring. This has a Left-Right tooth orientation they claim will create less noise & drag than a standard narrow-wide ring. It comes in SRAM Direct Mount as well as 104 & 94 BCD sizes.
Also new from Praxis Works are their Lyft carbon cranks. The cranks weigh 454 grams with a Direct Mount chain ring. As we have come to expect from Praxis Works, their new crank will fit a wide range of bottom bracket standards including BSA Threaded, BB30, PF30, BB90, BB92 bottom brackets. The Lyft crankset will be available by December 2016.
Giro has introduced a new version of their Empire ACC and Republic LX shoes for road and casual use that are 100% reflective! These look to be a great option for road riding or commuting in night time or low light conditions.
Ergon have added a new version of their GE1 grip designed for wide handlebars. The new version has a softer rubber compound that is extra grippy in both wet & dry conditions. We'll look to get a pair to add to our current grips comparison test that also includes the ODI Ruffian, ODI Elite Pro, Chromag SquareWave & Ergon GA2 grips.
Ergon are also introducing their new IP3 Solestar insole intended to improve both comfort and power transfer. The IP3 uses a nylon structure to create a solid structure for the foot. The IP3 will be offered in 6 sizes.
New seatposts and drop bars from Thomson.
Kool-Stop showed new aluminum cooling fins with a replaceable brake pad design that allows standard Kool-Stop pads to be used as replacement.
So my visit with 6D was originally intended as a 5 minute social call as one of my customers had just ordered a 6D Helmet and they had emailed me asking me to fill out a dealer application to complete the sale. To make a long story short, two hours later in the 6D booth, not only did I buy the helmet for my customer, but I also decided to buy a 6D helmet for myself, three 6D helmets for my wife & kids, and a full line of 6D full-face and half-shell demo helmets for customer sizing.
There are two types of impact forces that can be mitigated in addition to the high speed impact forces that all certified bike helmets are designed to reduce.
The first is the rotational component of an impact. The well-publicized MIPS ( Multi-directional Impact Protection System) technology is focused on reducing this type of rotational force generated in crashes in which a helmet does not slide smoothly along the ground and rotates the head due to friction between the helmet liner and the head. Pointy aero road helmet designs certainly do have the potential to stick to the ground in crashes, but more rounded helmet shapes help to reduce sliding resistance. Also, the presence of hair reduces the stickiness of a helmet liner against a head. Providing some rotational freedom is probably not bad for a helmet to provide, but there is another type of impact force that has recently come to light that is well worth considering as well.
The other type of impact force that can cause brain injury are lower speed linear impact forces of a level that can cause either concussion or sub-concussive level impacts to the brain. Recent research (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995699/) has shown that long-term brain damage can occur due to concussion-level or repeated sub-concussive level impacts. This is what the NFL has now acknowledged after seeing chronic traumatic encephalopathy ('CTE') in 90 out of 94 deceased NFL players (http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/15/health/nfl-cte-link/) and what was seen in BMX legend Dave Mirra's brain after his death (http://www.espn.com/action/story/_/id/15614274/bmx-legend-dave-mirra-diagnosed-cte).
To date, bike helmet crash tests are still focused on mitigating the chance of skull fractures from higher speed impacts. To mitigate the higher impact forces mandated by crash tests, the EPS foam used in most helmets needs to be of a sufficiently high density. However, this higher density foam fails to provide much force reduction for lower speed impacts. Most bike helmets still do not do much to reduce the forces transmitted to the brain from lower speed impacts of the type that do happen frequently in mountain biking.
Low speed linear impact forces: ODS reduces the linear impact force transferred to the brain in lower speed crashes in a way that most standard EPS bike helmets do not.
Rotational Forces: Like MIPS, ODS's design absorbs some of the rotational force from an impact.
High speed linear impact forces: With 2 layers of EPS foam ODX still provides highly effective reduction of the forces transmitted to the brain from high speed impacts.
6D does this with their ODS technology by adding elastomer (essentially tuned rubber) dampers between two layers of EPS foam that reduce lower speed impact forces and absorb rotational forces without any compromise to the helmets' ability to reduce forces transmitted in higher speed crashes.
The SplitRail is a new hitch rack from RockyMounts that is a legitimate competitor to the Thule T2 Pro and Kuat NV hitch racks.
There have been some interesting articles in recent years on various chain lubes' ability to reduce drag.
Here's another review (http://biketestreviews.com/the-last-word-on-chain-lubrication/)that acknowledges that paraffin does indeed produce low friction for chains but not running a paraffin wax lubed chain in a straight line tends to shear the paraffin wax out from between the plates, pins and rollers fairly quickly so that all “lubrication” is gone, whereas a wet-lube will flow back into the chain once load and deflection have eased.
From my experience, I would agree with this assessment of paraffin especially for use in wet weather. It works great for a short amount of time, but requires extensive work frequently to resoak a chain in paraffin as paraffin lubed chains tend to get noisy pretty quickly. In terms of bike maintenance, I'm kind of a set-it-and-forget-it type of guy so using paraffin was far too fussy for me along with paraffin lubed chains easily getting rusty in wet weather.
I'm planning an upcoming test of chain lubes with a focus on durability. As chains on mountain bikes are subject to conditions that are often less than ideal (dirt, dust, water, etc.), my thought is that the durability of a chain lube is far more important than the absolute amount of friction reduction that it provides. Having the longest relube interval before a chain gets noisy might be one of the most important considerations for me.
In addition to what I think might be the two lubes with some of the best real-world effectiveness, perhaps adding motor oil might be also be a good inclusion to see if relatively cheap motor oil is a good substitute to far more expensive bike lube.
Thoughts? Interested in participating in the tests? Email me at jeff@dirtmerchantbikes.com.
I got the chance to ride the SR Suntour Auron fork. Though the length of my ride wasn’t conducive to a head-to-head comparison vs the Rock Shox Pike fork, my initial impression is that the Auron fork is quite stiff and is perhaps stiffer than a Rock Shox Pike fork, which is itself not a noodle of a fork.
The TRS+ Cassette is all about range. Using a 2 piece assembly, we were able to offer a 9 tooth cog on the high end, and a 44 tooth(11sp) or 42 tooth (10sp) on the low end. The back assembly is machined from aluminum and includes either three or two gears depending on which speed setup you’re using. This locks onto a SRAM XD driver body. The remaining eight gears lock on using a chain whip. The front cluster is the same between both the 10- and 11-speed cassettes though the back cluster changes. We use a smaller cluster made from heat-treated steel which is then machined to achieve the lightest weight possible. Regardless of how strong our alloy parts are, they’ll wear faster that your steel assembly. That’s why we’re offering the aluminum cogs separately, so you can replace what’s needed without wasting perfectly good steel and money. Plus, the steel parts are identical for 10 and 11speed cassettes, so if you decide to upgrade your drivetrain, all you need to do is swap the aluminum assembly.
Primary Uses: Enduro and freeride.
Range: 10 speed 9-42, 11 speed 9-44.
Required freehub: SRAM XD™ Driver.
Weight: 320g (10sp), 300g (11sp).