Helmets? What do you think?

redwinnie

yeehaamcgee wrote:

What makes you think that, nfrang? Almost every cyclist I see these days has a helmet on.

You obviously never went to the London Skyride then.

Helmet debate aside. Wear one or don't your choice. BUT... the amount of people on the London skyride CARRYING their helmet.... WHY!!!!

Anonymous

redwinnie wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

What makes you think that, nfrang? Almost every cyclist I see these days has a helmet on.

You obviously never went to the London Skyride then.

Ah, I see.
Most of the people I know who cycle in or around London are fashionistas, and chase every trend going. You could only make them wear helmets if they were made by some designer label.

Out here in rural areas it's quite different.

Daz555

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Almost every cyclist I see these days has a helmet on.

Really? On the trails I agree but on my daily commute to work I'd put helmet wearers in the minority.

MrChuck

I always wear one but there's something in what Northwiind's saying, and I wouldn't like to see them become compulsory. Off-road though I'd say it's a no-brainer.

I find the "they could do more harm than good" arguments a bit annoying- ask these people if they wear seatbelts or have airbags in their car, as I'm sure you could dig up plenty of anecdotes to show they're dangerous.

cat_with_no_tail

I always wear mine, off-road and for the commute.

I do know of some roadies (yes that's right, I know some roadies :shock: ) who don't wear a helmet because it has been statistically proven that other road users give more space to cyclists who are not wearing lids.

Now maybe my logic is flawed here, but I would think that a driver who spots you, notices you are not wearing a lid, and therefore allows more room, is not only going to think "bloody stupid cyclists", but was also never really a concern to start off with, because he/she had already seen you.

The ones you need to worry about (aside from the homicidal ones) are the drivers who never saw you in the first place, and therefore have no idea if you were wearing a helmet or not.

RichMTB

Here is another way of looking at it.

When I'm riding home from work and a pass a someone going the other way with a helmet on i think "Oh look a fellow cyclist" and give a wave or a friendly nod.

When i see someone going the other way without a helmet I think "Some guy on a bike" and don't bother.

So wearing helmets spreads joy around the world

nfrang

redwinnie wrote:

You obviously never went to the London Skyride then.

This did make me laugh at the weekend. Boris is a legend.

mac_man

nfrang wrote:

redwinnie wrote:

You obviously never went to the London Skyride then.

This did make me laugh at the weekend. Boris is a legend.

Surprised old Boris didn't fall off whilst ogling ms. Brook there

Personally i always wear a helmet. You don't even need a big 'off' to end up dead or a veg. Just look at Natasha Richardson.... all she did was slip on her skis, small knock on the head... then dead a couple of days later.

For me any arguments against just don't stack up. Why risk life and limb for the sake of looking cool, or even worse, fashion :roll:

TBH am now considering some knee/shin & elbow protectors... especially as my ambitions and skills aren't quite in alignment just yet

CycloRos

statistically proven that other road users give more space to cyclists who are not wearing lids

what a load of old tosh! it's been statistically proven that 67.8% of statistics are made up on the spot!

My 2p's worth... I'm in the "always" crew, it doesn't matter how good you think you are on a bike everyone falls off, the more extreme you get on a bike the more you should invest in safety gear.

If you're Borris Johnson though a good whack on the head would probably be a good thing

lochussie

I wear plenty of protection on the downs but none on the long ups. There's much more chance of seriously injuring your body on the downs than there is of seriously injuring your head on the ups. Yet, as Northwind points out, many people just wear a helmet all the way round.

steelo

I'd have to say that my standard anwser to anybody that chooses the 'I don't wear a lid cos I don't fall off' reply is to ask them what happens when someone else crashes into them? That's certainly happened a few times in my biking group (he's not called Stupid Dave for nothing!)

adb1006

I always wear mine - on or off road. It's a personal choice though at the end of the day. Personally, i couldn't give a flying fcuk if anyone else chooses to wear one or not - that's their head, not mine!

MrChuck

CycloRos wrote:

statistically proven that other road users give more space to cyclists who are not wearing lids

what a load of old tosh!

Nope. It was more anecdotal than statistical but there is some evidence that this is true. And if IIRC the same study indicated that drivers give more space to women than men.

EDIT: Or men that look like women anway- I think the guy doing tthe study wore a wig for that bit

projectsome

cee wrote:

look...the helmet debate is boring and usually ends in someone saying I know a guy who fell on his head and would have died if he wasn't wearing a helmet....to which someone will respond yeah but I have never worn a helmet, fallen on my head loads and always survived......

statistically, you are more likely to give yourself a head injury whilst walking down the street, than riding your bike down the street......

I always wear one for off-road...those low hanging branches and many offs with boulders and sharp pointy stuff etc......thing is....its just habit now....i stick the lid on my head even when i am only going down to the shops...just part of getting on the bike now.

Well unless you live in the country then the shop would be about 5 mins away in which case you could walk it :roll:

wheela

always wear a helmet, i had a huge off at fort william a couple of months back and if i didnt have my helmet on i would definitely have been in hospital if not dead(it really was that bad totally destroyed a top range full face helmet!) . it only takes a split second of bad luck and you could be in real trouble, so dont go out without a lid!

Northwind

yeehaamcgee wrote:

A knee will also take a bigger impact than a head.
Tell you what, to prove this point, how about we meet up somewhere, and I knee you in the face/head repeatedly until my knee gives in, then we'll see what level of brain damage you have? :twisted:

Not a very good test You're talking repeat blows, which the brain being a soft organ isn't good at. The impact needed for a single blow to penetrate your skull with significant chance of permanent brain injury is a lot more than the impact needed to break a kneecap or to twist a knee enough to give you a full ligament tear. (though brains aren't so simple, you can turn a brain to mush without ever breaking the skull)

Anyway. In case I'm misunderstood, I'm definately not anti-helmet, I'm an armour nazi I'm more trying to get people to take the same reasoning that applies to their helmets and just apply it elsewhere. I've been very lucky to come back from 2 potentially crippling leg injuries, and I'd like for less people to have to go through that really.

blister pus

Always wear a helmet everywhere - the only exception is climbing or descending where there's guaranteed soft landing all around me (moorland that I know).

Tom Butcher

If I'm mountain biking yes - on road or just riding on tracks with the kids never unless it's an event where they are compulsory such as a race.

dave_hill

Tom Butcher wrote:

just riding on tracks with the kids, never.

What an excellent example to set - do as I say, not as I do, eh? :roll:

Tom Butcher

Not at all - I don't insist my kids wear helmets - they have them and can choose if they want to wear them or not except on the rare occasions they are track racing - generally they don't.

I don't think that the kind of cycing they are normally doing is intrinsically any more dangerous than them running about or climbing trees or any of the other things kids do without even considering wearing a helmet. If they decided to start doing technical mountain biking then that would be different.

Daz555

If I look back at what I got up to as a kid I'd put cycling down as one of the safer activities on the list. I wear a helmet on the trails but I've never quite understood why cycling has been singled out by the health and safety mafia. By some reactions you'd think that popping down to the shops on your bike was an extreme sport. I don't really understand why there is a helmet 'debate' at all.

Wear one. Don't. Whatever.

KonaKurt

I value the contents of my precious head very much, hence I always wear a helmet.

i think the golden phrase to remember here is that, "accidents happen when you least expect them". Therefore if you don't wear a helmet everytime, by the time you realize you just had an accident, your head will be a pot noodle for life. (If you live at all).

KK.

KonaKurt

PS: I just hope that those of us who don't bother with basic common sense safety like this, don't drive trains or petrol tankers for a living.

KK.

mkf

i can not Beleave ther are 23 people in this bike dedicated forum who thinks wearing a lid occasionally is okay. :x i hope they dont have kids :x :x

dave_hill

mkf wrote:

i can not Beleave ther are 23 people in this bike dedicated forum who thinks wearing a lid occasionally is okay. :x i hope they dont have kids :x :x

I can't believe that there are people who don't insist that their kids wear 'em... :roll:

Tom Butcher

Do your kids wear helmets for climbing trees, playing football etc. Do you make them wear a life jacket to go in the sea ? I can't believe there are people on a cycling forum who have such a disproportionate view of the risks involved in cycling.

Beardface

I wont wear my lid to the shops, to a mates house or on towpaths where there's a minimal chance of damage/injury... and if I'm climbing a long, wide fireroad or similar, I'll usually hang my lid off my bars (I get too hot!)

Otherwise, always offroad, occasionally for my commute (I've started wearing it more recently, cos white van men have been inching ever closer..)

My reasoning for not wearing a lid on my commute (although its all on road, nothing too busy), is what other people said about cars leaving more space if you dont wear a lid... lately that doesn't seem to be true, so best to be safe than sorry!

I dont wear any other body protection though.. yet.. lol, veggie wraps will be on order come payday

blister pus

Tom Butcher wrote:

Do your kids wear helmets for climbing trees, playing football etc. Do you make them wear a life jacket to go in the sea ? I can't believe there are people on a cycling forum who have such a disproportionate view of the risks involved in cycling.

Reality check time. You minimise risk where you can and you certainly do go out of your way to minimise risk with developing craniums so putting a poxy fucking 20 quid helmet on a small head and making it stay there generally stops a pointy stone or rock going into the temple when they get thrown off. .....and coming off has got nothing to do with speed either, it's purely down to how you come off, how you are jolted, what tension you have in your body, the landing and what you land on.

I'd love to see your face when your wife / partner is busting your balls because your kid has large bruises and a preventable concussion or worse.

Dgh

I always wear a helmet. Wife went over the bars a few years ago, hate to think what would have happened had she not been wearing one. Was it kivilev who died a few years ago after an apparently innocuous fall?

To say it's all about personal choice is facile. OK, it is, in the sense that there's no legal requirement to wear one, but that's just like saying it's a matter of personal choice whether or not to jump head-first off a tall building. Fact is, head injuries don't just damage the victim, they damage all of us with the costs of care. Seems reasonable to ask people to do their bit by wearing a helmet. Not to wear a helmet is about as sensible as drink-driving.

There really is no reason not to wear a helmet. They're not uncomfortable, and need not be expensive. They don't do any harm, and while they may not save your life in a heavy collision they offer good protection and can lessen the severity of injuries. Seems like the only reasons not to wear one are a) laziness, b) indifference to the consequences of your action to the community in general, c) a desire to assert your right to exercise your personal choice regardless of the wisdom of the same, or d) stupidity (which encompassess the previous 3).

Tom Butcher

blister pus wrote:

Reality check time. You minimise risk where you can and you certainly do go out of your way to minimise risk with developing craniums so putting a poxy ******* 20 quid helmet on a small head and making it stay there generally stops a pointy stone or rock going into the temple when they get thrown off. .....and coming off has got nothing to do with speed either, it's purely down to how you come off, how you are jolted, what tension you have in your body, the landing and what you land on.

I'd love to see your face when your wife / partner is busting your balls because your kid has large bruises and a preventable concussion or worse.

As I said what's the difference between kids climbing trees, playing sport, etc and cycling - would your kids wear a helmet for all of these activities. Nobody goes through life trying to minimise every little risk - just some of you choose to buy into the pro helmet lobby scare stories like a flock of sheep.

My missus wont "bust my balls" either - if that's your relationship with your partner then fair enough - we would both try and balance unacceptable risk and kids having some freedom to make decisions and enjoy themselves. Where do you stop - full face helmets, body armour, stop them cycling at all ? You talk about minimising risk but in fact you aren't are you - you are advocating a very small reduction in what is already a minimal risk.

Oh yes, and we've also got a trampoline in the garden and I let them play on it 2 or 3 at a time - without helmets - is that wrong too ?