By the Skin of Your Helmet

I’m thinking you might be like me, an enthusiast of "R & D" (research and development) —on that assumption, the recent introduction of SuperSkin Lazer helmet will probably interest you. These new “helmets with skin” offer something that its inventors claim reduces risk of injury by nearly 70%!

Various studies on helmet safety have shown, that there’s one potentially lethal injury, rotational injury-also known as intracerebral shearing that we're still very challenged with. Now what’s that all mean? Well, during a mishap, our helmet makes contact with the road; its rigid shell grabs against the pavement causing the helmet to rapidly twist around. Our head twists with the helmet but this occurs so quickly that the brain doesn’t keep up-in fact the brain moves a few milliseconds after the skull it’s contained in! I never knew this either. This results in the shearing of blood vessels and nerves with the consequence of disabilities or in some cases death.
SuperSkin it’s called is an elastic membrane that covers the outside of the helmet. It has a gel lubricant underneath, to help it slide against the helmet’s hard shell. The way it works is when a SuperSkin helmet hits the road, its membrane is what will catch the pavement, twist around, and tear away. The helmet will obviously still move, but only once those initial milliseconds of energy have been absorbed by the membrane. It’s modelled after the way the scalp slides against the skull.

The British company Philips Helmets Limited spent 15 years developing the technology. Independent testing was done through the helmets they sent to the Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg who determined that they did reduce the risk of intracerebral shearing by 67.5%! Belgium’s Lazer Helmets licensed the technology, in fact won an award in 2009 for best innovative patent.

SuperSkin is offered on three of Lazer's standard models-- the Rider, the Solano and the SMX.

We know the importance of wearing a helmet for safety and for just plain old comfort against velocity and the elements. Even, I too have enjoyed destroying numerous helmets from over done corners, loss of grip, at speed while racing. Thanks to my helmet and gear I’m happily here sharing the next wave of technology with you!

Visit their website to view videos and read more testing stats!

*sourced Lazer Helmets

LAGERFELD’S’ FUR HELMET NOT REALLY WOMEN’S ANSWER TO STYLISH GEAR

If you’ve not heard, about a week or so again, during a Paris Winter Fashion 2010 preview, the ever entertaining Karl Lagerfeld, renowned designer for Chanel (my personal fav) and Fendi, debuted his new line of genuine mink fur covered scooter helmets—with built in iPod capability! Here’s the pic:

The helmet is of fine quality--covered with authentic, not faux, mink, you know, from those cute little creatures. The French luxury artisan helmet maker, “Les Ateliers Ruby” have created the helmet for Lagerfeld, for if you know of Ruby (article on MOTORESS shortly), you’ll be aware of its amazing high quality standard. Road ready, full carbon fibre shells with ultra soft burgundy Napa lambskin linings (poor little lambs). Apple also collaborated with Lagerfeld on this project ensuring the iPod hook up lets you pipe music directly to the inner earpieces.

Lagerfeld was quoted saying “Now everyone is on scooters, even chic women, so we had to do the helmet," he said.
Let me break it down for you:

• Fur is not aerodynamic or conducive to your riding comfort—prepare for major neck ache! You will experience great discomfort from wind force. Perhaps a huge windscreen would resolve.
• Mink will not hold its charm when you’re riding in a downpour
• Fur is not the choice of a modern day woman– we all opted for fun faux fur a few years ago to save the planets little critters!
• You’ll have a tough time removing insects from the fur that have collided with your helmet-do while riding. Perhaps purchasing a live mink that’ll do some instinctual preening and rid the dead or alive bugs collected.
• Lambskin lining instils a feeling of guilt.
• iPod should not be used when riding! A crazy notion--mobile phones, music nothing should be in your ears while riding except for of course, your ear-rings. You cannot afford distractions!
  

The only benefit I see for such a helmet might be when, say, hiding out in a forest where falling branches or say, dropping squirrels may be a hazard.
Then again, there is an added benefit of your head appearing to have quadrupled in size due to the added layers of fur--you’ll have a slightly better advantage of being seen in traffic.

No word yet on when the helmets will be available for sale or their price point. One thing that’s safe to say is they'll certain to be extremely expensive-in more ways than one!
Shame on Karl Lagerfeld for placing fur fashion before the real world of riding comfort & safety for women.