Bicycle Helmet

A bicycle helmet is a type of helmet designed to lessen the impact to a cyclist's head in a crash while trying not to interfere with peripheral vision. Before it existed in its modern form, cyclists sometimes wore hairnet style helmets, open constructions of leather covered rubber bars that gave little real protection. The modern bicycle helmet grew out of the American cycling boom of the 1970s, when manufacturers Mountain Safety Research and Bell Sports adapted expanded polystyrene foam liners from motorsport helmets for cycling use; Bell released the Bell Biker in 1975, a hard shell lined with polystyrene foam and the first commercially successful helmet designed specifically for cyclists, followed by the V1-Pro racing helmet in 1983 and the Lil Bell Shell for children in 1984. The expanded polystyrene liner works by compressing against the head during an impact, absorbing energy that would otherwise reach the skull and brain.