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12-07-2006, 06:20 PM
Larry,
Ask a dozen people... get a dozen different answers.....
There are so many variables to take into consideration that it's sometimes hard to give advice over the internet. And I sometimes wonder......
Anyway, the best thing you can do is to educate yourself on what each of these items does in the "system" as it pertains to safety. Which is exactly what you are doing.
One of the things mentioned was a harness bar, roll bar or roll cage. Do you drive the car on the street? Does anyone every need to ride in the back? How tall are you? And so on.
You also comment on the HANS device and how you may not be willing to go to that extreme. Let's look at this whole thing as a system and what you are trying to do. In the event of a crash you want to keep from hitting the steering wheel, dash, a pillar or anything else in your car. In a perfect world the steering wheel would be 5 feet in front of you and the stretch of the seat belts and the distortion of your body would stop an inch from contacting the steering wheel. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Far from it. What you are doing is controlling your deceleration. The longer it takes to stop you motion the easier it is on you. The old saying "it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end" applies to this as well. Now, let's strap you into a car with a five or six point harness..... that's going, in theory, to hold you tighter and offer less stretch. Which in turn decelerates your body quicker. All of this has a profound effect on your neck as your head gets pretty heavy at these times. Oh, don't forget to add the weight of that fancy new helmet.
It's late and I'm rambling....... if you want to discuss certain aspects of adding safety equipment I'll be glad to talk about each of the points and how they affect you and are affected by other pieces. I can do this over this forum or by phone (215-368-9362) if you'd like.
Ask a dozen people... get a dozen different answers.....
There are so many variables to take into consideration that it's sometimes hard to give advice over the internet. And I sometimes wonder......
Anyway, the best thing you can do is to educate yourself on what each of these items does in the "system" as it pertains to safety. Which is exactly what you are doing.
One of the things mentioned was a harness bar, roll bar or roll cage. Do you drive the car on the street? Does anyone every need to ride in the back? How tall are you? And so on.
You also comment on the HANS device and how you may not be willing to go to that extreme. Let's look at this whole thing as a system and what you are trying to do. In the event of a crash you want to keep from hitting the steering wheel, dash, a pillar or anything else in your car. In a perfect world the steering wheel would be 5 feet in front of you and the stretch of the seat belts and the distortion of your body would stop an inch from contacting the steering wheel. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Far from it. What you are doing is controlling your deceleration. The longer it takes to stop you motion the easier it is on you. The old saying "it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end" applies to this as well. Now, let's strap you into a car with a five or six point harness..... that's going, in theory, to hold you tighter and offer less stretch. Which in turn decelerates your body quicker. All of this has a profound effect on your neck as your head gets pretty heavy at these times. Oh, don't forget to add the weight of that fancy new helmet.
It's late and I'm rambling....... if you want to discuss certain aspects of adding safety equipment I'll be glad to talk about each of the points and how they affect you and are affected by other pieces. I can do this over this forum or by phone (215-368-9362) if you'd like.
Michael Andrews