In the summer of 2017, I crashed, high speed and hard, on my mountain bike. I broke a few things including my helmet, but the concussion that I suffered was far worse than a few broken bones. It was over a month before I felt “normal”. I managed to follow that up with a low speed crash on my road bike the following spring, which landed me in ICU, once again with a few broken bones and once again with a broken helmet and concussion, so when TREK announced last week that they were releasing a new helmet technology that was 48 (yes, 48) times more effective in reducing concussions than standard foam helmets, they had my immediate attention.
This new technology called WaveCel is perhaps the biggest advancement to date in protecting against cycling concussions. It is a material that works like a crumple zone in your helmet that absorbs the force of an impact before it reaches your head/brain. It flexes, crumples and glides upon impact, all of which redirect energy away from your head. According to independent studies, the wave cell technology reduces your likelihood of concussion to under 2% as compared to a standard EPS Foam helmet at over 60%. Without question, any helmet is better than no helmet, a MIPS helmet is better than a standard foam helmet and WaveCel is far better than both. Check out the studies and results for the WaveCel, I think you will be impressed.
By the way, I have been wearing my WaveCel helmet for a week and I can report that it fits and feels like any good helmet should. The ventilation is fine and bees are less likely to crawl into it. I have the XXX model and don’t love the bright green WaveCel material, but the Specter and Blaze models have the same protection and the WaveCel material is black. They are also available in some cool colors like pink, purple and ORANGE. Stop by and check them out.
Pedal Well,
– Harry