Helmet, Yes or No?

Tomkeely

As a child of the 80's I think it's overkill when I see the ever increasing use of helmets in sports, not just cycling but skiing and kajaking too. I even see toddlers on tricycles wearing helmets?

I've heard it argued that snow boarders who wear helmets have move serious accidents than those that don't becuase it gives them a false sense of security and makes them feel they can be more careless. Not sure if the same would apply to cycling.

Just can't get my head around wearing a helmet - pun intended.

cloggsy

I wear a helmet & wouldn't ride without one!

If you wear a lid on a Motorbike, why wouldn't you wear one on a bike?

Initialised

On average I fall off once every one or two months of the last six occasions two involved head impact. One of these could have resulted in a brain injury, I landed pretty much head first, the other grazed a cheek bone. Both would have been more severe without a helmet.

Like taking drugs I believe it is personal choice and shouldn't be enforced, recommended and on your head be it if you get caught out.

bracketed

On average I fall off once every one or two months

Wow. Is this just general road riding, or racing, or mountain biking? To quote an oft-mentioned idea on various cycling fora - have you considered cycle training?

In the last 5 years (about 15,000 miles, mostly in London) I have fallen off once. That was a clipless moment...

EKE_38BPM

Initialised wrote:

On average I fall off once every one or two months...

How?

Why?

Where?

Did you learn to ride this year? As Bracketed said, I've had one unscheduled dismount in the last few years and that was whilst standing stationary and had a clipless moment. It was such an event I commented about it on here.

I'm almost lost for words.

shouldbeinbed

cloggsy wrote:

I wear a helmet & wouldn't ride without one!

If you wear a lid on a Motorbike, why wouldn't you wear one on a bike?

1- The law requires it for motorbikes
2- The relative speeds you are liable to crash at!

You cant really compare motorbikes to pushbikes & do you wear cycling leathers too?

Walking is more akin to cycling, the better question would be: why the hoo hah over cycling helmets when we blithely wander about bare headed.

PS I wear a helmet when cycling & have for years.

shouldbeinbed

Initialised wrote:

On average I fall off once every one or two months of the last six occasions two involved head impact. One of these could have resulted in a brain injury, I landed pretty much head first, the other grazed a cheek bone. Both would have been more severe without a helmet.

Like taking drugs I believe it is personal choice and shouldn't be enforced, recommended and on your head be it if you get caught out.

Crikey that's an awful lot, how many miles do you average between falls. I've fallen off once in over a year including the snow and that was my own stupidity, fiddling with computer (16. 3mph) & drifted too close to a fallen tree who's branches caught my cables, I wasn't expecting it at all & it turned the bars on me, I went off the front of the bike as it & I tipped but landed shoulder first and flipped over onto my back, my helmet didnt even touch the floor as I flipped cos my instinct was to tuck & roll & I didn't want to damage my rear light up there when I was flat.

jonny_trousers

shouldbeinbed wrote:

Walking is more akin to cycling, the better question would be: why the hoo hah over cycling helmets when we blithely wander about bare headed.

Nah, that's bollox. When walking you are rarely doing so alongside, and in and out of, two-tonne plus metal objects moving at speed. The, walking-is-potentially-dangerous-so-why-not-wear-a-helmet argument is utter cack. By all means choose not to wear a helmet if you don't want to (to misquote Bobby Brown, that's your prerogative) but seriously, don't even begin to suggest that when in a tangle with a moving motor vehicle you are just as well protected without a helmet, cos you're so blatantly not.

Risk assessment? Fine, but one could apply that to any number of cycling faux pas that get people's backs up here: cycling while listening to music through headphones, for example.

meanredspider

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

shouldbeinbed wrote:

Walking is more akin to cycling, the better question would be: why the hoo hah over cycling helmets when we blithely wander about bare headed.

Nah, that's bollox. .

+1

For starters, I walk at about 4mph and, even including all my messing about on MTBs, average over 15mph on a bike (and exceed 30mph on every commute often 40). Try walking headfirst into a wall then cycling headfirst into a wall. I have both feet on the ground walking and far more freedom of movement should I trip or slip. A pushbike is not a million miles from a moped in those respects - and certainly closer than to walking. Same story for stairs and all the other spurious comparisons people make. Stairs conform to building regs, have handrails, you typically don't spend very long on them and are generally pretty controlled environments. People do get hurt and killed on stairs but, relative to the number of people using them, the risks are much lower than cycling.

shouldbeinbed

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

shouldbeinbed wrote:

Walking is more akin to cycling, the better question would be: why the hoo hah over cycling helmets when we blithely wander about bare headed.

Nah, that's bollox. When walking you are rarely doing so alongside, and in and out of, two-tonne plus metal objects moving at speed. The, walking-is-potentially-dangerous-so-why-not-wear-a-helmet argument is utter cack. By all means choose not to wear a helmet if you don't want to (to misquote Bobby Brown, that's your prerogative) but seriously, don't even begin to suggest that when in a tangle with a moving motor vehicle you are just as well protected without a helmet, cos you're so blatantly not.

Risk assessment? Fine, but one could apply that to any number of cycling faux pas that get people's backs up here: cycling while listening to music through headphones, for example.

fair do's it was late, moderate drink had been taken & in my head the motorbike was bombing round the M60 at 100 MPH. I was making the point (badly, and more in my head on re-reading) that walking and bicycle accidents are both more likely to be low(er) speed falls without assistance from anyone else and rarely involve significant head to hard object/floor contact.

but I dont get why you've given the lecture about getting into a tangle with cars. I don't mention that angle, stated I always wear a helmet in this same post & have deliberately stayed well clear of the whole helmets efficacy in bike v car crashes thing on BR ever since getting my head chewed off ages ago with my own helmet took the impact story. In fact its the accident I've just described on your how many times hit thread but I left the broken helmet bit out so as not to sidetrack that into another version of this sort of pointless yes/no interlude.

Whether we as protected by a helmet as not depends entirely on the accident: I'm quite happy and secure in my belief that in that accident where I effectively headbutted the car at speed I would have been more badly hurt without a helmet, but am also quite certain that in other clipless moments & minor tumbles it didn't make a scrap of difference if I had a helmet on or not as through luck or judgement my head never hit the floor (e.g. my recent numpty tree crash) but should my head go under the wheels of a vehicle, I know full well that fragments of my helmet will still be getting picked out of the mush at my post mortem.

On the balance of probabilities I wear one, probably a placebo for most accidents but I feel (before the anti brigade jump on me too - its purely subjective) safer with than without it & it gives me somewhere to put a set of lights too

MRS, I've never broken a bone crashing on my bike but missed a step carrying a big box downstairs in both hands and broke my ankle in the fall. I'm one of the unlucky stair victim few.

I've only let myself get so drawn back into a helmet debate at all through having argued the toss with people on twitter over the AA giveaway. My bad.

meanredspider

shouldbeinbed wrote:

but missed a step carrying a big box downstairs in both hands and broke my ankle in the fall. I'm one of the unlucky stair victim few.
.

Sorry to hear that. Broken ankle isn't fun.

tailwindhome

cloggsy wrote:

If you wear a lid on a Motorbike, why wouldn't you wear one on a bike?

You wear a full set of leathers when you're cycling?

Jay dubbleU

I wear a helmet for commuting and sportives (where I have to) but not when I'm touring or leisure riding. I would be seriously hacked off if told I had to wear one

jonny_trousers

shouldbeinbed wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

shouldbeinbed wrote:

Walking is more akin to cycling, the better question would be: why the hoo hah over cycling helmets when we blithely wander about bare headed.

Nah, that's bollox. When walking you are rarely doing so alongside, and in and out of, two-tonne plus metal objects moving at speed. The, walking-is-potentially-dangerous-so-why-not-wear-a-helmet argument is utter cack. By all means choose not to wear a helmet if you don't want to (to misquote Bobby Brown, that's your prerogative) but seriously, don't even begin to suggest that when in a tangle with a moving motor vehicle you are just as well protected without a helmet, cos you're so blatantly not.

Risk assessment? Fine, but one could apply that to any number of cycling faux pas that get people's backs up here: cycling while listening to music through headphones, for example.

fair do's it was late, moderate drink had been taken & in my head the motorbike was bombing round the M60 at 100 MPH. I was making the point (badly, and more in my head on re-reading) that walking and bicycle accidents are both more likely to be low(er) speed falls without assistance from anyone else and rarely involve significant head to hard object/floor contact.

Ha! As you will see, it was even later for me and I suspect I was considerably drunker (hence Mr Ranty-pants). I honestly didn’t intend to single you out, so apologies if it came across that way.

I don’t care whether people choose to wear helmets or not, but I just cannot accept that you are as well protected without one. Perhaps the statistics can be shown to suggest as much, but I would rather take my evidence from other people’s experiences.

Paul E

I wear one, but I am not going to tell anyone else to wear one as that is their choice.

too slow to go

I`ll wear one most times im out..

Trail centre = YES
Road = YES
Leisure & cross country = 50/50
Commute = YES

jds_1981

Tomkeely wrote:

As a child of the 80's I think it's overkill when I see the ever increasing use of helmets in sports, not just cycling but skiing and kajaking too. I even see toddlers on tricycles wearing helmets?

Not sure what sort of kayaking you mean, but believe they're advisable for white water. Lots of rocks around and it is quite easy to catch an edge and flip over.
Most modern kayaking helmets are solidly put together. http://www.upandunder.co.uk/Watersports ... c---14288/

bloomboy

I had a bad accident going down a steep hill a few years ago, my bmx brake caliper fell off and got entwined in the front wheel and that was that, full fall flat onto face, and loss of two front teeth, which happily have been capped now.
So now its all about bike maintenance for me, I need to ensure my bike is in perfect condition before I go out.
I never ride with a helmet on, but I also dont like to f**k about, as in the past I have had one too many car doors open up on me and send me flying.
I was in Richmond Park today, glorious sunshine, fast descents wishing I had more gears down those wonderful bends can still be pretty hairy, and I am thinking, if I am going to fall off at that speed I dont think a helmet will be any use whatsoever.

Rules that I adhere to that I feel are as equal important to those in support of wearing a helmet -
Bike maintenance 100%
Never coast to near to the backside of cars
Stay out of the roadside
Never undertake a bus

I have loads more, be good to hear others,
.. I need to find the post about responsible cycling
8)

tarquin_foxglove

Agent57 wrote:

Cracknell's collision was one of those unlikely incidents, and it'd be wrong to overstate the probability of the same happening to you or I when we're out on our bikes. If we accept it made a difference, his wife said he wore an "Alpina bike helmet that sits lower on the back of the head. It took the blow far more effectively than a normal helmet" (source), so that story may not really transpose well to the normal cyclist's helmet in any case.

Besides, only the other day he himself was out on a bike without a lid:


(source).

Cracknell is on the One Show discussing helmets at the moment (Will be repeated on iplayer here...http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tcw7) showed his helmet & it had cracked at the rear. Didn't show the polystyrene inner to see if it had compressed or just cracked as well.

SmellTheGlove

I'm militantly pro-choice.
I saw Cracknell earlier, and believe me I have every respect for him and wish him well, but don't necessarily agree with his views on helmets.
Wearing or otherwise has to be an adult choice. We all assess our own risks and mitigate accordingly in life; even if helmets could prevent every head injury (in their present conventional forms they don't and can't) I would see no cause for compulsion.

Wouldn't a focus on accident prevention be more productive/be more beneficial? As far as anyone chooses to debate helmet wearing, I think it has to do with their being tangible objects. How often do we hear conversations along the lines "I was in a crowd of several hundred people and do you know, not one of them was doing anything about improving sightlines outside that school..."
"...blah-blah cyclist, not wearing helmet, yak-yak..." on the other hand is a staple.

(I probably wear one 70 to 80% of the time).

thel33ter

Offroad - Yes, no question

On road - most of the time yes unless it's a pootle down to the shops.

mattv

Yes. Always. 4000 miles a year, every single one with a helmet. Only ever used it in earnest once, but that was enough to make me certain its a good idea. And I dont understand why it is even legal to sell them in Tescos for £5, or why people would use one that is more than 5 years old. Had someone come into my workplace with a helmet dated 1998. Have a look inside yours, it will have a date sticker. Useful shelf life is 4-5 years MAX, or a heavy drop or any impact.

Stealthrider

Yes always wear a helmet. I had an accident in 2004 I was hit by a van that failed to stop at a very large roundabout, he was travelling in excess of 30 mph (to which he owned upto) and I was riding at about 15, my left leg was hit first therefore causing my head to hit the front door pilar, even though i suffered a front lobel brain injury and still not back to work, my face and head stayed the same shape (Be gentle with comments NEW here), had i NOT been wearing the helmet i would have had less then a 10% chance of survival...................back on bike within 6 months then lost the passion after about 2 years but passion been rekindled so hence on here as well as bike.

SmellTheGlove

Welcome back stealthrider

thiscocks

I Didn't like Cracknels view of 'if you don't wear one you are being selfish to your family' ect... absolute frivolous rubbish.

Funny how most people who do wear one think they have the right to preach on at those who don't and make them feel bad for just riding their bike.

I always wear bright clothing on the road and this is much more of an effective peice of saftey kit than a peice of polystyrene on prt of your head. Amuses me when I see cyclists wearing helmets dressed in all black clothing at dusk with no lights. Bit of a contradiction I think.

Either way if you choose to wear one or not I don't care and there should be no judgement directed to either choice.

notsoblue

Hey, has anyone mentioned how people who don't wear helmets are a burden on the NHS yet?

tiny_pens

cloggsy wrote:

I wear a helmet & wouldn't ride without one!

If you wear a lid on a Motorbike, why wouldn't you wear one on a bike?

Its against the law not to ride a motorbike without a helmet in the UK. Its one of the great pleasures of visiting America to be able to hire a motorcycle and cruise around without a helmet (although not in all states).

Lets turn the question around a bit. If you don't wear a motorcycle helmet, why not? Its going to be a great deal safer than a cycle helmet.

jamesco

tiny_pens wrote:

Its one of the great pleasures of visiting America to be able to hire a motorcycle and cruise around without a helmet (although not in all states).

Few things are dafter than riding a motorbike without a helmet. Safety issues aside, it's really uncomfortable, noisy, hot, bugs & sun in your face, hair flying everywhere... a bandanna & sunglasses are fine only if the bike is parked up

surreyxc

I decide when to wear one, depends on circumstances. Having just got back from Holland, were I saw the whole spectrum of society riding bikes without helmets or lycra, weaving in and out of mopeds and pedestrians, no dramas. So it all depends.

Lets not forget a lot of the most common serious accidents involve cars. As society we are curtailing peoples personal freedom to accommodate cars. It is akin to any other crime where the victim is blamed and told to curtail there actions rather than those who create the problem. Government could put real pressure on the automotive industry, to limit speed, acceleration, to make the outside of vehicles safer. And in addition they could make real efforts to come up with genuine integrated transport alternatives. The car was useful for getting society to this point but now it does seem to be increasingly problematic than helpful. Governments realise it is a problem but few have the courage to make real, and possibly painful changes. And it is sad they are missing an opportunity to make a change, instead opting for electric cars, how refreshing would it be for a streets to be once again quiet and relaxed, sociable and safe. Over a million killed a year globally, any other killer of this proportion would have governments up in arms for a solution, but because it is good for business it is deemed to be regrettably acceptable and in that sense we are all guilty, as we as a society value convenience too much to make much of a voice against it.

rick_chasey

Surely it's just a case of, some people don't like wearing them, and some people do?

It's a bit like drinking yourself into oblivion. Some people like it, some people don't.



The public health argument is simple - compulsary helmets mean less people ride (in the short & medium term at least) than without compulsary helmets, and the public health gains through fitness are bigger than the losses prevented by compulsary helmets.