# Bike Helmet build to Hard Hat Specs



## CraigCreekRider (Apr 12, 2007)

Yea this one is off the wall. Just wondering if anyone has heard of any bike helmets that would be built of material like a typical hard hat. Thinking Forest Service chainsaw work and weight reduction. Doubt if anyone has ever put the two ideas together just for us trail maintenance types - but who knows. Most bike helmets would probably take a good hit from a limb, but they seem too thin skinned for a chainsaw bite.


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## Fattirewilly (Dec 10, 2001)

CraigCreekRider said:


> Yea this one is off the wall. Just wondering if anyone has heard of any bike helmets that would be built of material like a typical hard hat. Thinking Forest Service chainsaw work and weight reduction. Doubt if anyone has ever put the two ideas together just for us trail maintenance types - but who knows. Most bike helmets would probably take a good hit from a limb, but they seem too thin skinned for a chainsaw bite.


I'm curious how long it would take a chainsaw to cut through a plastic hard hat. I think the primary benefit of the hat would be to your skull together if a rotten branch or top falls as you cut a standing tree.

I my chainsaw cert class, the Forest Service instructors were fixated on cutting standing trees. We seeked out diseased or semi dead trees, cut the wedge out and dropped 'em. At one point we became insistent that as trail workers, we were almost never cutting down trees, constantly bucking blow downs, reading tension in bound up messes, and just keeping trails open, and they should tailor the instruction towards that type of work.

They obliged us and it was more helpful. My point is that if the instructors are fixated on cutting standing trees, the regulation writers may be fixated on standing timber cutting. I think a bike helmet is effective from a log dropping on your head, but I'll just ride in with the hard hat since thats the reg and you're chances of getting some reg changed is little.

Rig a chin strap to your hard hat and you're probably good to go. Oh, the old 4 point harness hats don't meet spec any more, but I forget if you need 5 or 6 points. Anyone know?


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## mnwfrank (Feb 2, 2006)

I think the other main issue is that a bike helmet is designed to designed to crush on impact, or as I have heard it described, slow down your head speed by half. They are really only meant for one impact, the styrofoam compacts after that and is useless. Hard hats on the other hand seem to be designed to take multiple knocks from things dropping on them. 
I really think its a case of different needs means different construction.


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## radair (Dec 19, 2002)

Petzl makes a climbing helment that is ANSI rated for commercial work. Seems like it would be too hot for riding, though.


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## CraigCreekRider (Apr 12, 2007)

Fat-Tire, I must have had some of the same instructors you had in my cert. class. I thought the class delved into dropping trees too much and not enough on bucking. I guess thats what those guys live for though. My card allows me to cut something 6 inches or less standing, anything bigger than that I'm going around.

The 1 hat idea just comes from me trying to avoid buying a BOB trailer. With my small Echo saw strapped on a rack and a large Dakaine pack I may still be able to do that. Front end of the bike bobs up a little though.

Thanks to all for comments.


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## Francis Buxton (Apr 2, 2004)

A bike helmet also has vent holes in the top (usually), which would allow a sharp limb to penetrate and poke you in the brain. A hard had (theoretically) provides more protection. 

A bike helmet also generally has thin padding directly against your skull, then foam and the shell. A hard hat generally has a nylon "suspension" against your skull with a distance between it and the 'hat' part. A hard hat's general purpose is to slow the impact of an object falling on your head. A bike helmet's purpose is usually to cushion your head when you bang your head on something. Two slightly different purposes that yield fairly different 'hats'.


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