I seem to remember that we featured Hövding’s unique, and rather bizarre, air bag style helmet a few years ago in one of our ‘Friday Randoms’ posts, and to be honest we haven’t really thought about them any more since, mainly because they aren’t really aimed at us mountain bikers. I thought they were more about style than substance, but I just spotted that they’ve released a new video that highlights how their unique take on head protection actually offers far more protection than a regular helmet. If what is claimed in the video is correct we’re not just talking about a small improvement either, we’re talking about a potentially life saving difference.
It might seem completely crazy now to think about wearing something like this for mountain biking, but at the same time you have to wonder if there might be something in this in idea. I mean if this air bag really does offer such increased protection then surely we’d almost be stupid not to at least consider the future potential. I sure as hell would feel weird riding along with nothing on my head though, physiologically it would be very strange indeed. And would it go off by accident whenever you did a drop off or something? The same goes for a backflip (not that I can even do one of them).
Anyway, watch the video below and see what you make of it. Can you ever see us lot wearing something like this? Can we afford to completely ignore the potential for massively increased head protection? And I’m not necessarily talking about this particular product as it stands, but could this kind of technology be integrated into a more conventional helmet for increased protection?
