July's Consumer Reports reviewed mountain bikes and bike helmets. Of two helmets they did not recommend (and recommended replacing) one was the Bell Influx. Reason, buckles may release on impact. I just got one this year and have noticed several other club members with it.
What are our legal rights in this kind of situation?
Consumer Reports "redlines" the Bell Influx
Tue, 06/15/2004 - 8:05am
Tue, 06/15/2004 - 9:52am
#1
CR = BS
"I would put very little faith in Consumer Reports, at least as far as bikes are concerned.
I remember, several years back, they tested hybrids and rated some as ""Unacceptable"" because they felt the front brake was ""too powerful"", likely to cause an endo. It was an adjustment problem! A few turns of the adjusting barrel would've cured it, but they were utterly ignorant of that.
They also rated on ""ease of shifting"", and some got much higher marks than others even though they were using the same Shimano stuff!
As for your helmet, I thought they pretty much all use the same fastex-type buckles. Is there anything unique about the buckle set up on this particular model?"
Tue, 06/15/2004 - 10:03am
#2
CR themselves conceded that other helmets with the same ITW buckle did not have the problem. Also missing was their testing methodology, how many copies per test, etc.
