Ready Kids › Getting Around Without a Car › Badge 1 › Lesson 1.2
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Helmets, properly
Fit a helmet so it is still on the right part of your head when you land, and say why a loose one hardly counts.
1Watch
The helmet that did not go with him
The helmet that did not go with him
A rider with the chin strap hanging loose hits a pothole and goes over the bars. In slow motion the helmet lifts and tips back off the forehead before anything touches the ground. Freeze there.
18 secondsHe is wearing a helmet. Watch where it is when the film stops.
2The idea
Where the injuries actually are
Roughly a third of e-bike injuries that reach a hospital are to the head, face and neck. That is the part a helmet covers, if it is still over that part when you land. In a fall you go forward and down, so the forehead arrives first.
A loose helmet is close to no helmet. It moves before you do. Tipped back, it leaves the forehead bare. Unbuckled, it is gone before you land. A helmet only works where it is, not where it started.
3The steps
The three checks: eyes, ears, mouth
Eyes: helmet level, brim two fingers above your eyebrows. Look up without moving your head and you should just see the edge.
Ears: the straps meet in a V just under each ear. Slide the plastic sliders up or down until they do.
Mouth: buckle up, one finger fits under the strap. Open your mouth wide and feel the helmet pull down.
Ten seconds, in that order, every ride. It is fast because it is the same every time.
4Worked example
Sam puts his helmet on
He pushes it back because it feels nicer. Eyes: he looks up and sees his whole forehead in the window. Tilt forward. Ears: the straps hang loose beside his jaw, so he slides the sliders up until they sit in a V under each ear. Mouth: two fingers fit under the strap, so he tightens it one notch.
Thirty seconds the first time, because the straps needed setting. After that it is the same three checks and the straps are already right.
5Build it
The fit check
Fit check
Three sliders on a side-on drawing of a head: tilt, strap V, chin buckle. Set all three and the helmet locks green when it would stay on in a fall. Get one wrong and the drawing shows the helmet moving.
Two fingers above the eyebrows. Straps meet in a V just under each ear. One finger fits under the chin strap, not two.
6Decide
Which one is fitted?
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
Ten seconds, every ride
Say this while you do the buckle
“Eyes, ears, mouth.”
Brim just above your eyes, V at your ears, a tug when you open your mouth. You will stop noticing you do it.
8Look
One crash, one helmet
After a crash
A helmet on a table with a hairline crack running through the foam on one side, hard to see unless you look for it.
The foam inside works by crushing once. After any real knock, even if it looks fine, it has done its job and is replaced. A helmet that has been through a crash is not a spare. It is done.
9Find them
Which of these mean the helmet needs sorting before you ride?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Put your helmet on and do the three checks. Then get a parent to grab the helmet and try to push it back off your forehead. If it moves, adjust the straps and do it again until it does not.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Level, snug, buckled. Two fingers above the eyebrows, a V under each ear, one finger under the chin strap.
Next lesson: Brakes, tyres, lights, battery