Bike helmet vs climbing helmet--the real differences!

Back in the day we had Compton helmets (the UK climbing helmet even before the Joe Brown/Snowdon Mouldings one). They were certified for motorcycling even then with approval for racing MX and such like. Compton-Webb make those neat British policemens helmets.
Another example where modern climbing equipment is lighter but weaker!

Doug Meneke wrote:It's about the type of activity...Not many folks die biking (that is the perception anyways).

I have seen plenty of people die biking while wearing helmets as well. Honolulu is one of the worst cities in the US for biker injuries because auto drivers dont give a fuck (although they will when they get sued for millions or sent to prison). It's not unheard of to get slammed by the back from an SUV at 45 MPH.

never wore a helmet climbing (except belaying occassionaly sketchy shit) in a decade+

when I do wear a helmet belaying its a good ole' protec

What about skateboard helmets?

skateboard/bmx helmets are the way to go.

heavier than road bike and climbing lids but they protect from impact on top, sides, front and back.

I've been wearing this one while climbing and on the daily bike commute for years and it was $30.

In the last five or six months since the Michael Schumacher accident skiing with helmet, there's been serious analysis about how ski helmets do not prevent serious brain injury in a substantial percentage of cases where the moving head strikes a fixed surface or blunt object.

. . (presumably this analysis also applies to bike helmets.)

Cases where there is no penetration or fracture of the skull, but the brain collides with the inside of the skull. This can cause severe injury to the brain.

So my understanding is that some sophisticated regional trauma centers routinely do brain scans after a climbing fall of any significant distance -- even if the climber was wearing a helmet and did not even have any head impact. I guess concerned about brain damage just from "shaking" of the head from the sudden deceleration of landing.

Of course wearing a helmet still would be expected to help in the substantial percentage of cases where a climbing fall would otherwise have resulted in skull-fracture or serious cutting/laceration on the head.

Ken

Back in a former life I was a union ironworker, working on bridges and skyscrapers here in nyc.

We were not allowed to wear boots with steel toe reinforcement. The thought process was that the stuff we were working with was so heavy that if something fell on your foot it would cave in the steel toe and cut your toes off; better just to have them smooshed and have hope of keeping the toes.

Helmets are kind of the same deal: they will protect from impact, to a point.

I'd rather get a concussion then a concussion and cracked skull.

Anyway, I'll take the added perimeter protection of the skate helmet over the webbing suspension of most climbing helmets designed for a top impact any day. I've fallen down many sets of stairs entangled in a 30lb bmx with that helmet to thank for my (relatively) unblemished grape.