There is no industry standard for concussion prevention. They occur from your brain rotating in your skull, and/or the quick deceleration. So, to avoid concussions your head needs to not rotate and it needs time to slow down. EPS is shit for concussions and really only prevents skull fractures. EPP is vaguely better, but not much. Vinyl is probably your best option, but I'm not sure if you can get a vinyl helmet with a slip plain tech like MIPS, which is what helps with rotational impact.

Your best defense to concussions is the obvious, don't fall. Modern helmet technology is grossly held back by wildly out of date testing standards that really only care about skill fracture level events. The test was created in the 70s and has not been updated. The continued use of EPS is due to this out of date test, which is a shame cause it's a completely worthless material in our modern world. It just happens to be the only material that isn't heavy as all hell that passes the useless test.

 

EPP is vaguely better, but not much. Vinyl is probably your best option, but I'm not sure if you can get a vinyl helmet with a slip plain tech like MIPS, which is what helps with rotational impact

Thanks Nivek. I ended up getting a vinyl helmet (Giro Discord) and hopefully that will help if it happens again. The other option would be MIPS epp

 

Concussion vary from people to people too.
I slammed my head and broke my Giro Combyn helmet and was out for about 5 seconds.
I now wear a Discord which is similar to Combyn soft shell with dual density foam liner.
Your goal should be avoid slamming all together.

 

I slammed my head and broke my Giro Combyn helmet and was out for about 5 seconds.
I now wear a Discord which is similar to Combyn soft shell with dual density foam liner.

Assume you were happy with vinyl to replace with same? Do you think you would have been worse off with epp or EPs? (I know hard to be sure)

 

It's not a vinyl helmet but just got my GF a Smith Valence MIPS for Xmas after listening to a cycling podcast reviewing test data on bike helmets. Makes sense to me since concussions are way more likely than a fractured skull. Will update my current Giro Surface when the men's version goes on sale.

 

Often times the concussion comes as much from the whip as it does form the impact and the outer construction can't be the sole preventer of concussions in those situations. That's why I'm a fan of MIPS and similar tech in regards to decreasing rotational impact concussions.


Example.... I slammed a tree hard enough to deform my helmet. No concussion. Nothing but a sore shoulder. I road away. In another accident I went down do to snow condition change.... riding very fast in shaded trees. Popped out and went to turn on a high sun area and slammed. Did not hit my head on anything hard but whipped very hard from going fast to slow so quickly on the impact. Instant concussion. So gnarly I started puking right then and there.

Impact vs. rotation.