About Us

Our Mission

The overall purpose of Heads Don’t Bounce is to inform and educate about helmets and helmet usage. From there, the goal is encouragement. That is, to encourage you to take the initiative to protect your own head, the only head you have, whenever a protective helmet is available.

Sometimes there are laws or game rules that mandate the wearing of a protective helmet, but sometimes there are none. Just because there isn’t a law in place doesn’t mean you can ignore protecting that head of yours.

Heads Don’t Bounce – A Brief History

I grew up in a land before time when there were no bicycle helmets or ski helmets. Those were carefree days when falling off your bike just meant brushing yourself down then getting back on your bike again.

Times change, technology advances, and we learn that protecting ourselves can save a mother’s tears.

During the 1990s, helmet adoption really took off and several sports introduced mandatory helmet wearing rules, while other activities like cycling and snow sports encouraged the wearing of protective helmets. Unless you were in Australia where bicycle helmets became compulsory for cyclists of all ages.

Helmet Wearing

As to whether you should or shouldn’t wear a helmet, I’m all for freedom of choice and your right to choose to wear a helmet or not. That said, I would call myself an advocate of common sense rather than an advocate of helmet laws. In the absence of helmet laws, I believe that common sense would tell me that wearing a helmet is often a good idea.

For example, if your head were to hit the road or slam into a brick wall at 20 mph, or even 5 mph, do you think that a helmet could possibly lessen the pain? Common sense tells me that wearing a helmet would lessen the pain, so why not just wear it?

What if that was your brother, your mother, or your five-year-old child that hit the brick wall? You should encourage them to wear a helmet.

Why Heads Don’t Bounce?

Since 1999, I have lived most of my life in Cambodia where helmets laws were introduced around 2003, but sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking they were optional even now in 2023.

I’m sure that I can’t claim to have coined the phrase that heads don’t bounce, but it was a comment that I made often following reports of motorcycle/moped accidents when the rider was, more often that not, helmetless.

I personally know two people who were involved in motorcycle accidents while not wearing a helmet. Fortunately, they weren’t killed, although maybe they would be better off if they had been.

They both suffered head trauma and now need the assistance of a family member to do the very basic of things like dressing and feeding them, and even going to the bathroom.

New Helmet Technology

The most commonly asked questions about helmets is whether they expire, and how often they should be replaced. The short answer is that they don’t have a fixed expiration date, however, helmet manufacturers recommend replacing your helmet after a certain number of years.

This often opens up a debate about why you should replace a helmet that is still in good condition. There are several reasons why a helmet should be replaced, but ultimately the choice is yours. However, one very good reason for upgrading your helmet every few years is to take advantage of new helmet technology.

Consider the introduction of MIPS in helmets which then sparked the helmet safety revolution which brought about Wavecel, Koroyd and other rotational energy deflecting systems.

But there’s also the great advances made in football helmet technology which has seen a dramatic reduction in football related head injuries. And, more recently the technology involved in the Forcite smart motorcycle helmet.

If you need a reason to upgrade your helmet, then advances in helmet technology is surely one good reason for doing so.

Other Pages To Explore

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Keeping it Factual

We take fact checking seriously prior to publication, but also making necessary updates to articles when corrections are needed. All articles published on Heads Don’t Bounce must be fact checked. If you have any questions or concerns about the accuracy of any information, please contact us so we can set the record straight.

Feedback

We are always interested in your feedback. Any and all feedback is welcome. See our contact page for more details on how to get in touch.

Accolades for Heads Don’t Bounce

Everybody likes to receive praise for what they do, whether those words come from a random visitor to your website or from a well-known company or organization, it is the type of encouragement that let’s you know to keep doing what you’re doing.

Contact Form message from Snell Foundation.
Copy of an email from a reader thanking us for our response to their comment.
Copy of email from Black Diamond helmets

Thank you for visiting our website, we hope you enjoy it.
Ken Barclay


Heads Don’t Bounce

Email: editor <at> headsdontbounce.com

Address:
5325 Elkhorn Blvd #1122 Sacramento, CA 95842-2526

Fax: (916) 349-1620