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news
Iain O'Brien HedkayseMeet Iain O’Brien - the former international cricketer who’s now pushing the Hedkayse multi-impact cycle helmet
Originally designed as a collapsible helmet, the real appeal of the Hedkayse is that it can withstand multiple impacts and still be safe to use. At this point we feel obliged to make some sort of reference to Iain O’Brien’s ability to withstand multiple impacts during his previous career as an international cricketer.
O’Brien played 36 matches for New Zealand and bizarrely there is a link that at least partly explains how he came to be co-managing director of a firm that will officially launch its multi-impact helmet in the spring.
A pace bowler who admits to having been “pretty bad with bat in hand,” O’Brien developed an understandable enthusiasm for protective equipment that led him to fashion his own chest guard using a Swiss army knife “and some MacGyver skills.”
“If I got hit, I wouldn't be able to bowl, and if I couldn't bowl, I couldn't work,” he told road.cc. “So I took protection seriously.”
He also developed and marketed underwear that would hold a cricket box in place better than any other and so give better protection from that kind of impact. “Personal experience drove demand,” he explained (road.cc decided against pressing him for further details on that one).
And so, somewhat indirectly, to cycle helmets.
O’Brien lives in Matlock, where his wife is from, and often heads out for rides in the Peak District – these days on an e-mountain bike.
“Black Rocks and surrounds is where I get mocked for having an engine on my bike and being so slow down the downhills,” he said.
Not so slow that he avoids crashing though, it seems.
“A cycling helmet that I can crash in, and not have to go and buy a new one – let alone worry about the ride home and having an unsafe helmet – absolutely made sense,” he told us.
“This was a situation that I had been in a couple of times – once just past halfway on a road bike ride and early in a day outing on my MTB.
“The rest of the ride I had a helmet that had a crack in it. That was of some concern. Especially as I am prone to falling off. And then the ‘why hasn't this been done yet?’ question hit me.”
After a bit of googling, O’Brien found out that not only had this been done, but he already knew one of the people involved – George Fox – who used to make his thigh pads for cricket.
O’Brien was at the time working for a major helmet manufacturer and he tried and failed to persuade Hedkayse to shift production to a factory he was involved with in China. They weren’t keen, but when that particular job came to an end, they asked him to run their sales and distribution and he jumped at the chance.
We first covered Hedkayse in 2015 at a time when the firm was looking for funding via Indiegogo and were interested to know whether the helmet has changed much since then?
It’s the same, but different, according to O’Brien.“After some serious testing, we realised that due to the ‘hot drop test’ (where the helmet is heated to 50 degrees and then dropped on a kerb) we would have to make some material changes.
“To do this the helmet blew out to 750grms. It looked good – good colours, good options for personalising – but when we were doing our beta testing we quickly realised it was too heavy and, thus uncomfortable to too many. It also didn't fold anywhere near as much as we wanted it to, so it was back to the fabric drawing board.
“Since then we've shed 300grms, improved its outer friction (reduced it – it's more slippy versus the ground), made it fit better, and have a 450grm foldable helmet which is almost indestructible.”
To demonstrate the helmet’s resilience, the firm has produced videos of the helmet being squashed by a car, thrown off a cliff and jumped on.
O’Brien says that plans to reduce the weight further are in the pipe line, “but this helmet isn't about marginal gains, it's about commuting, it's about urban riding, it's about hitting the hills and knowing you've got a safe helmet.”
Production of the Hedkayse One is now underway and it'll be available from the spring – you can place an order via the website. We’ll have a review up soon.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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22 comments
It's quite simple - if you want to wear a helmet, wear one. If you don't, then don't.
I wear one most of the time because, on the handful of times I've come off and hit my head, I've been quite glad of it and convinced it's saved my head from more serious injury, as evidenced by the damage to the helmet.
I know it won't save me in every situation, but I'm happy I at least gave myself a chance in some of them.
Now, that's just being far too reasonable and sensible for this forum. I can't see that attitude catching on in this forum?
Just forwarding this thread to Mrs Srchar in the vain hope that she stops mandating that I wear a helmet while commuting if I want her to talk to me when I get home.
I'm glad its not just Mrs Brooksby that does that
So you know what to do if you want a quiet night.
I used to assume helmets were essential for cycling, despite never having worn one as a kid. When I was first challenged on that, I was quite dogmatic about them being essential. But at least I had the decency and intelligence to look at the information I was pointed to.
I still tend to wear a helmet as part of the kit when on a Sunday ride, but I don't tend to wear a helmet when pottering around town.
I wouldn't claim they do nothing - but I will say I don't know what they do (i.e. how much difference they make). As far as I understand, the difference it makes is too small to be reliably measured and certainly far from the hysterical "helmet saved my life" tales that fill the internet.
Ironically, given your "anti vaxxer" comment, the Rivara, Thompson & Rivara analysis which still gets pointed to even now as evidence that helmets are essential is a statistical embarassment. It is to helmet wearing what Wakefield is to MMR.
I changed my stance on helmets as my attitude built on personal experience and "common sense" was challenged by the postings of others.
1. It really is enormously difficult to find compelling data for the effectiveness of helmets. The actual incidences of death through head trauma are very small and there is no clear correlation between wearing a helmet and surviving.
2. Wearing a helmet and other perceived safety equipment can lead to a false sense of security. I personally have destroyed 3 helmets in situations where I'm pretty sure they saved me from head injury. Each time I was doing something risky that I would not have done without a helmet.
3. At a population level, cycling is a healthy and safe activity with both personal and environmental benefits. Wearing a helmet and emphasis on other safety gear tells people otherwise. "Cycling is dangerous" is a common reason given not to cycle. This situation is not solved by getting people to wear a helmet.
4. At a personal level, there are studies that show drivers make less margin for safety around cyclists they perceive as being protected by a helmet.
5. If cycle helmets were effective at mitigating head injury then why are they not legal as PPE on building sites for example, or for use whilst riding a restricted moped?
6. Why the focus on helmets? Why not chest and back protectors? Many deaths and serious injuries are due to trauma of those area.
I'm not a believer that helmets are totally inefective in low energy impacts, falling off your bike, clouting a tree branch in the woods. My personal experiences confirm that. I'll be wearing one this morning as I go out on the club ride where I'll be in close proximity with other riders, but I no longer wear one for commuting in light urban traffic in the same way as I don't feel the need to wear one whilst driving, walking down stairs or sat in my office chair. All situations where I have actually hurt my head in the past.
Congratulations on being intelligent enough to change your mind when presented with the evidence; if only more people did that! I was the same as you, convinced that helmets had to work, until somebody suggested I check out the facts and I've never worn one since.
As you point out, many other common activities pose the same risk as cycling, walking for instance, but nobody is clamouring for helmets for them, no DfT campaigns, no road safety do-gooders telling people they are going to die if they walk without a helmet, no BBC propaganda campaign. Helmets are basically a way of suppressing cycling and making a few billion quid at the same time.
Like the lottery, they're a tax on gullibility.
This is a helmet article, where is he?
5611569122_11d41eb7b1_b.jpg
Behind it obviously.
I put the Helmets-don't-save-lives people, in the same box with the flat-earthers, alien-abduction and Pro-brexit camp.
ALL Loons- not worth wasting breath on.
Good luck to the company making our sport better.
And yet here you are. Pushing your one-true faith and damning the infidels.
The article says they're aiming it at MTBers and commuters. MTB maybe, but commuting isn't a sport (last time I checked).
I ride a bike; I'm not participating in a sport.
I can see that all those years of reading all those reports, studies and research was wasted. I should have done what you've done; arrive at a completely unshakable opinion without the necessity of looking at any of the evidence. It's such a timesaver.
Got any more fact-free, totally misinformed opinions you'd like to share?*
*Only joking; STFU until you've got the faintest idea what you're talking about.
Don't forget the Anti-vaxxers. The interesting thing is that some of the anti-helmet brigade say it is all about risk and that cycling shouldn't be risky, yet the same people claim to be fast riders/ex-racers. Have you seen those criterium videos?
You can do cycling to travel, but it is also a sport, wear a helmet or not, take your pick. But don't claim they do nothing.
I didn't realise I needed your permission!
A bit dishonest of you to pretend the preivous poster merely said 'it's also a sport' rather than just referring to it as a sport and nothing else.
As for your first non-point - it reather depends on conflating two entirely different groups of people as if they are a hive-mind. Even with that get-out clause of 'some' it doesn't work - if there's any overlap between promoters of utility-cycling and 'fast riders/ex-racers' it's irrerlevant as those are two diffent activities.
Helmet-fans are a bit like hard-core EU fans, only worse. Both pretend the issue is far simpler than it is, ignore all issues but one, and turn a complex pragmatic choice into a kind of a religion. In both cases pointing this out or showing any doubts makes you a kind of infidel (even though I voted remain and mostly wear a helmet when cycling). Both are fond of throwing abuse at anyone who doesn't share their absolutist faith.
I say 'worse' because I'm more pro-EU than pro-helmet, and I think we would be better off with 'remain and reform', even if it's only a start not a solution, whereas helmet -promotion is just a complete irrelevance and distraction.
Nice overanalysis, can't even get a comma in without somebody jumping down your throat. There are a group of half a dozen avidly anti-helmet commentators on this forum who shout louder than everyone else. You opinion is not the majority, you are just loud. No wonder people are invoking BTBS to appear, they like a good argument. But where is he? He probably fell off his bike and hit his head. I guess we will never know.
At least when choosing to wear or not to wear a helmet, you're not affecting the safety of other cyclists, only your own. So, not all like anti vaxxers (google herd immunity)
@burtthebike you've complained for years that helmets aren't effective because they're made of fragile materials that fall apart on impact. So can't you be at least happy for once that someone's trying to address this aspect!?
what? be reasonable?
Thats not likely is it, agendas have to be followed..
If you'd been paying attention, you'd have realised that although I have pointed out many times that helmets are not fit for purpose, that isn't my main argument, which is that anything which armours the victims instead of addressing the cause is doomed to failure. Do try to keep up, I hate having to repeat myself*.
Motorcycle helmets are much more robust than this new helmet, but they don't reduce the death rate of motorcyclists.
*not necessarily true.
I'll leave the wider criticism of helmets to others, but I'd like to make two points about this article:
how about making it clear in the headline that the guy is a director of the company first and and only coincidentally an ex-cricketer, and;
What kind of person does all that research and still doesn't know that helmets don't reduce risk.