Bell Sports manufactures bicycle helmets designed and adapted specifically to your riding style. Whether it’s mountain biking, racing, road biking or BMX, Bell offers up head safety with some technologically advanced helmets that exceed standards.

But did you know that Bell also makes helmets for skateboarding, auto racing, snowmobiling, off-road motor sports and motorcycle riding?

Well, now you do!

Let’s take a look at some interesting facts about each of these respective sports.

1) Approximately 100,000 people require some sort of medical treatment for skateboard-related injuries, every year. A majority of these injuries are a result of people not wearing or not using proper safety equipment like helmets and pads. (EZineArticles.com)

2) Richard Petty, who won 200 NASCAR races in his career, including seven stock car championships and seven Daytona wins, is credited with inventing the window net to help keep drivers arms inside the car to avoid injuries during a crash. (HubPages.com)

3) There are approximately 1.69 million registered snowmobiles in the US and 601,000 in Canada. Out of all those snowmobiles, more than 85,000 people have full-time jobs generated by the snowmobile industry in North America. (SnowMobile.com)

4) In the 1960s the first All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV ) made came to production. They had six wheels and were amphibious – meaning they could float! These first ATVs were capable of traversing swamps, ponds and streams as well as dry land (ATV.info)

5) At the 2000 Gravity Games in Providence, RI, professional freestyle motocross racer Carey Hart became the first rider to land a back flip on a motorcycle during a competition. (Wikipedia)

We at Bell Sports hold bicycling – and safety – dear to our hearts. We publish these Fast Facts Friday (#FFF) blog posts with the hope of providing you with insightful information, and inspiring you to get out and ride. We also intend to provide you with factual information that encourages you to always wear a helmet when cycling. So, in the spirit of #FFF, today’s installment features some obscure bicycling and helmet facts meant to educate, inspire, and maybe even answer that nagging question that has piqued your curiosity time and again.

1) Despite the requirement for adults to use hand signals when riding in traffic, The American Academy of Pediatrics says Children shouldn’t use hand signals, because signaling may cause them to lose control of their bikes. (AAP.org)

2) Ever wonder why male cyclists shave their legs? Well, according to eHow.com it is it has nothing to do with aerodynamics, and more to do with road rash, massage, hygiene, vanity and tradition. Hairless legs are easier to clean, and it’s less painful to tear bandages off of smooth skin than hairy skin. Plus leg hair gets messy when slathered in massage oils, and it is easier for masseuses to work on bald legs. (eHow.com)

3) In China, bicycles outnumber cars 250 to 1, and in Tokyo, Japan a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes. (Strange-Facts.info)

4) Bell Helmets feature EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam liners. The purpose of the liner is to help prevent or reduce brain injury by absorbing the energy of an impact through its own compression or destruction. (BellSports.com)

5) And our Fast Fact“ee” of honor: At 25 years old Georgia native Fred A. Birchmore circled the globe by bicycle. The entire trip, through Europe, Asia, and the United States, covered forty thousand miles. Over the course of his tour, taken in 1935, he pedaled about 25,000 miles and wore out seven sets of tires. The rest was traveled by boat. And, Fred just celebrated his 98^th birthday this week! Happy belated birthday, Fred! (NationalGeographic.com)

What inspires you? Let us know what type of information gets you out on the road or on the trail spinning those wheels!

Here at Bell we know a lot of random facts about helmets and wheeled sports. But, we also realize there’s always more to learn, and to share. For this reason, we’ve decided to start up an ongoing series of helmet-related facts. Since this is our first post of this nature, we thought some historical facts would be fitting for your noggins:

1. The helm (heaume) of a helmet emerged in the late 12th Century. (Wikipedia)

2. Helmets were originally created and worn for military purposes; their basic function was to protect the head, face and sometimes the neck from the cutting blows of swords, spears, arrows and other weapons. (Armadillo Armory)

3. The Assyrians and Persians had helmets of leather and iron, but it was the Greeks who changed things up with their innovative helmets made of bronze. (Armadillo Armory).

4. Roy Richter, an auto racer and pattern maker, begins manufacturing the first helmet – the ’500′ – in his garage located behind the Bell Auto Parts store in 1954 (Bell Sports).

5. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) created a mandatory standard for all bicycle helmets sold in the United States, which took effect in March 1999. (Absolute Astronomy)

Know any helmet-related facts? As we mentioned, we’re always interested in learning more about helmets and sports. Feel free to leave us a comment sharing your own random helmet knowledge and maybe we’ll highlight it an upcoming post (offering credit where credit is due, of course).