Bell in a China shop (a bell helmet that is!)

OK, that was a terrible and tortuous pun!  But Bell and other cycle helmet brands may struggle to sell in the Chinese market as they're designed to fit more European head shapes.

Issue 2622 of New Scientist magazine (23 September 2007, page 27) features an article about a new project to model the average shapes of Chinese heads.

"The back of the Chinese head is a bit flatter, and from the top they are rounder," said Johan Molenbroek from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He claims this deters many Chinese people from wearing cycle helmets and other protective headwear designed for the European shape of head.

The project is called SizeChina and can be visited here:

http://www.sizechina.com/html/intro.html