Helmet Wearing

Yukon Lad

Should helmet wearing be compulsory or not, it is in Australia and its reduced head injury in cycling massively.

What do you think, Yukon Lad

supersonic

As much as I think we should all wear helmets, making it compulsory is a step too far.

hastings

making helmet wearing might be maybe taking it too far but it would save a lot more people every year as according to the web (so it must be true) 3/4 of all cycling related deaths are from head injuries, and it would boost the helmet making economy too

Jimbob_no5

it would also boost the selling economy aswell, we at alpine bikes sell quite a few helmets up here to the point where we don't have too many left at times. But making it compulsary would be to far, the feds would get fed up of pulling cyclists

Bikerbaboon

yay now to sum up so we can get alot the arguments over an done with asap

australia saw a reduction of head injurys when they inforced helmets.... but the numbers of cyclists droppped by more than the reduction.

helmets can only absorb about the same amount of energy as you would use in a single push up.

lots of people have chrashes say that they have not been killed due to the helmet.

in a few cases helmets have caused more damage to the brain ( small number of cases)

If i had a crash i would rather have a helmet than not. ( i ride MTB maily) but on the road if you are getting hit by 2tonne of steel going at 30mph its all a game of luck if you live of die. rather than putting money in to making people use helmets why not spend that money form stopping the crashes?

ok so lets have a nice clean fight no scratching biteing or your mum jokes .

Yukon Lad

not on the road as such but on trails or singletrack, just making it compulsory without enforcing it all the time and just making a couple of examples would make a lot of people think twice about not wearing a helmet

BlackSpur

I think a lot of people would stop cycling if wearing a helmet was compulsory - not those really into the sport but casual riders.

Anonymous

Making it cimpulsory is a bit much, but definitely get people to accept that it is the right thing to do. I see too many people who refuse to wear a helmet because they feel like a knob. Or, possibly worse, peple in trail centres with very badly fitting helmets, or helmets on backwards even seems to be getting more frequent :shock:

Papa Smurf

If anything I would think that having some sort of enforcement, or at least specific guidance for children would be more beneficial.
We're all aware that they hardly ever look and do very silly things on the road, I for one and have lost count of how many times I've seen a kid come within inches of his/her life while on a bike.
Obviously enforcing it would be a problem, same as with us adults. But showing tapes in schools and sending letters out to parents isn't exactly a wasted cause..

If they made in compulsory for everyone though.. I guess I'd get arrested. I wont be seen dead without one when on the trails, but not on the road. But then again I'd like to think I'm a good enough rider to see things coming and have enough skill to jump out the way if need be!

gazvenn

put the money into cycle paths that don't abruptly end randomly forcing you to hop onto the kurb or get squashed by a bus or something.

xtreem

One disadvantage of wearing helmets, twice happened to me form 20 rides with helmet:
At high speed, flys, bugs get stuck in the helmet between my head and the helmet, so you lose concentration when mostly needed. :evil:
The first time I ended up in a fence, the second time I stopped safetly to remove it.

Surf-Matt

gazvenn wrote:

put the money into cycle paths that don't abruptly end randomly forcing you to hop onto the kurb or get squashed by a bus or something.

Here here!

I always wear one but if others don't want to, then fine - plus fit blondes look better without one on (as spotted this morning)

ride_whenever

But if a hottie is wearing a helmet, then she can do the taking a helmet off and tossing her hair, also hot... particularly if it happens in slow motion...

Surf-Matt

ride_whenever wrote:

But if a hottie is wearing a helmet, then she can do the taking a helmet off and tossing her hair, also hot... particularly if it happens in slow motion...

Are you able to slow stuff down merely using your mind? Amazing!

Anonymous

Ah, Surf-Matt, you haven't got the Jedi powers of time manipulation? no wonder you claim to be no good at downhill. The trick is to make everything appear slower, so you have time to think about it.

As for removing a helmet, and revealing long hair, well, I've got long hair, and I just look a mess when I take my helmet off.

ride_whenever

Yes I have honed my jedi time manipulation skills, I also have a wildly overactive imagination...

Currently imagining some toned swedish godess in tight lycra unzipped to her navel bending over and tossing her hair back... :shock:

Bikerbaboon

thak you for the mental image. ( is it wrong im seeing her are red sonya ?)

Anonymous

mmm, that mental image certainly releives the boredom of having to work on children's cartoons in a minute!

BlackSpur

:shock: are you Walt Disney?

Anonymous

no, sadly. If I was Walt disney, I'd have a new bike, and I'd probably sponsor a little known boblseigh start-up team

BlackSpur

Ah, just remortgage your house! You'll soon make all the money back from bob racing - the bank will understand.

Wooohooo!

I think saying that it should be compulsory is maybe a step too far because of the simple fact that people who think they're too "cool" to wear a hat will continue to not wear hats however the people do have something to protect and therefore realise wearing a hat is necessary will continue to wear a hat... Don't see why someone wouldn't want to wear a hat... I think that it gives you a certain amount of confidence

batch78

Where are the 'majority' that voted yes? All very fishy, bloody Mail readers!

Unenforcable and completely OTT IMO.

If you ride off road without one then you are a complete muppet, if you ride on road, as has been mentioned, its a lottery as too whether a helmet would help in many accidents, personally I don't wear one to pop down the pub or round to the shops but do at all other times.

Anonymous

I voted yes before reading the question properly, I didn't realise it was to make them compulsory :oops:

Bikerbaboon

still when i read it i think it comes across as do you use a helmet of road.

Old Git On A Bike

I ride mostly on road at the moment and I don't wear a helmet, as for off road, if I was to ride something like the South Downs Way, I might think that I should wear one for that, but I would not be going down the hills anywhere near approcahing a fast speed, so probably wouldn't bother wearing one there either.

xtreem

yeehaamcgee wrote:

I voted yes before reading the question properly, I didn't realise it was to make them compulsory :oops:

Same to me.

traxntrailz

It's the old debate about making helmets compulsory, over here all our guests have to wear them or they don't rie. but as to the leisure cyclist what can you do to make them - everyone knows smoking is bad for you but they still do it!!!!! It's not the same but people will compare.

lambchops

supersonic wrote:

As much as I think we should all wear helmets, making it compulsory is a step too far.

explain

Anonymous

lambchops wrote:

supersonic wrote:

As much as I think we should all wear helmets, making it compulsory is a step too far.

explain

I think he means something along the lines of the fact we're already living in a nanny state, and having to wear a lid just for popping out a few hundred feet to the local shop to get a loaf of bread or something, lest we get charged, is a bit much. After all, the police are already stretched with having to support so many stupid little rules.

They actually had a "crackdown" on people smoking in works vehicles in Aberystwyth a few months ago, I'm told. Seriously :roll:

switchback18

I wear one off-road, but ...I've been known to occasionally forget to take one on holidays, which means riding at 80% and not crashing. Also, I've lent mine to someone else who forgot theirs & was not at all confident to ride without one. Again, as they were a much slower rider, there was no need for me to be pushing it, so I wasn't worried. Obviously I always wear one for work (except for bike maintenance courses...!) and I'd never choose to ride without one off-road, but on road I don't see the point. I don't have a road bike, I'm not goin to lose it on the MTB on the road, and if something runs me over what good is a piece of polystyrene?
Off road, I'd actually feel more like something's missing if I forgot my gloves.