If you live in an area where motorcycle helmets are not required, but you still think a little head protection would be a good thing, this could be an option. We mentioned flexible instant body armor before, it’s a soft and pliable plastic material that instantly hardens on impact. The molecules can slide around slowly but if you try to deform the material quickly it becomes hard. The special quality of the material is that it doesn’t deform like current armor, it is hard only on impact, returns to a pliable state then hardens again on the next hit. Nice.
Ribcap has licensed the material, made by d3o, for use in knit caps, the kind worn by skiers and snowboarders but a lot of bikers wear these beanie type caps, too. Ribcap inserts the armor into pockets within the cap creating a flexible helmet. Wouldn’t it be neat if you could stuff a motorcycle helmet in your jacket pocket? This material has been used by the U.S. Ski Team for their ski outfits but I can think of lots of uses for motorcyclists.
Jackets could use this material all over and it wouldn’t be as stiff as current armor and it might work well in a lot of areas where a little flexibility would be appreciated. Those leather aviator helmets that look cool would be a natural, too. Pants, gloves, I can’t imagine why this hasn’t been put into every possible motorcycle garment already. These caps will not take the place of a good hard shell helmet but they are a lot better than nothing at all and the more of this material you wear, the better your chances in an unscheduled get off.
Ribcap is a Swiss company with distributors popping up all over the world. They are available throughout Europe, in Canada and they are coming to the USA soon. Looks like a pretty neat idea.
Link: Ribcap via Cool Tools
Link: d3o
Related: Flexible Instant Body Armor
davidabl says
Will buy one immediately when they become available, but for construction work and bicycling on the worksite,not for motorcycling.
Hope they will make a hat with coolmax for summertime!
Erik says
This is too cool. I hope they start making replacement panels for riding suits as they’d add alot of comfort and mobility without sacrificing protection and that is a win-win!
Richard says
There are at least 3 critical aspects to helmet design: puncture resistance, abrasion resistance, and shock absorption. This will not fare well in at least 2 of these 3 areas, so I don’t think it’s a good idea for head protection.
kneeslider says
Richard, as I said, it does not come close to replacing a hard shell helmet but it is far better than hair flowing in the breeze which fails in all three areas you mention. Also, the main point here is the very high tech material itself which would do a great job in all sorts of protective clothing.
GenWaylaid says
It’s not a complete replacement for a helmet, but I suspect the d3o material would still make a useful replacement for the crushable foam component. The advantages are that it would probably be more compact, and unlike foam it comes out of every impact more or less as good as new. That would be convenient if your head happens to go dribbling across the pavement. Maybe only the helmet shell would have to be replaced, saving some money in the long run.
As a side note, putting this stuff in all the panels of a jacket would deflect not just road impact but perhaps even small-caliber fire. Yet another handy feature.
davidabl says
GenWaylaid had hit the nail on the head.
The most revolutionary aspect to the stuff is in the re-design of crash helmets and hardhats.
Eric says
Not my opinion of a helmet; but can you imagine having a body suit of this stuff under your riding gear. WOW
abenormal says
GenWaylaid has it backwards; it’s the crushable EPS in a helmet that cushions the blow to the head and prevents concussion. This stuff has no cushioning, it stiffens on impact. I’d argue that the EPS is the most important part of the helmet. Look at bicycle helmets, some of them are just EPS and forego a plastic shell entirely. Just a quick reminder… the human head can come to a sudden stop from less than 13 mph without suffering brain damage. Bounce your head off a curb or fender at 15 MPH and you’re looking at a torn brainstem and brain swelling, permanent brain damage and possible death… and that’s head speed, not the speed you were travelling. You can generate over 13 mph of head speed falling off a _parked_ bike.
From the looks of it and reading the material, a beanie made of this stuff would be worthless as a motorcycle helmet, and if it gave the wearer false hope of some kind of head protection it could actually be worse than wearing nothing at all.
It’s an interesting material with applications anywhere we currently wear hard plastic armor, but it’s not suited to helmets. There’s no benefit to a flexible shell over the crush liner instead of the hard shell we currently have. Unless it’s both lighter and more puncture resistant then I’ll stick with my kevlar/fiberglass or carbon shell, thanks.
gotminethanks says
Got mine now thanks to you guys for bringing this to my attention! I don’t plan on wearing it on my bike, but think its what all us snowboarders have been waiting for! I’ve taken a few tumbles and so far so good – even cracked my head off some ice and felt fine! Got it here if anyone else is looking: http://www.ribcap.ca/en/productsribcap.asp They got it to me in a week – really easy guys to deal with.