When do you wear a Helmet? Research..

Anonymous

bails87 wrote:

FWIW, if anyone's going to have an agenda, surely it would be the pro-helmet (supported by the helmet makers) side, seeing as there's no money in convincing someone that a helmet isn't a cloak of invincibility.

There's no money in conspiracy theories either, just tons and tons of fukkin crazy people.

foxc_uk

Always, force of habit - I horse ride, so legally have to, and snowboard - having had the odd head-to-rock-covered-in-snow moment I just don't feel safe without it.

Anonymous

See, curiously, although I am new to snowboarding, and still fall over a lot, I'm more than happy going helmetless for now on it.
Comes back to the personal risk judgement.

Razor1548

I have had a few nasty falls because I can't jump even a little bit, so I will always wear a helmet at a trail centre these days.

I don't wear one on the road or for local farm trails / footpath riding. IF I was able to reach anything like 40MPH then I probably would, but I have only squeezed out 30 once or twice and then it's on nice rolling trails where you can see a long way ahead.

Aside from the safety, there is a natural selection element to this. Maybe people who fall off their bikes and damage themselves seriously on a gentle ride are best kept away from the gene pool!

raymenrh

yeehaamcgee wrote:

See, curiously, although I am new to snowboarding, and still fall over a lot, I'm more than happy going helmetless for now on it.
Comes back to the personal risk judgement.

Hmm you have given my a bit of a dilemma here. I've always sided with the pro-legalising helmet usage on bikes, but, although I have never snowboarded (although I have an ever increasing desire to try it). Yet I would probably not wear a helmet snowboarding, even on the first try. Even though it is probably as comparably dangerous to MTBing.

I am endeavoring now to digest and understand the gravity of such a judgement on my reflection on others cycling helmet wearing choice...

hmm.... interesting....

Although I'm still going to shout "where is you're helmet?" at people who aren't wearing one. THAT habits going to take a little more breaking

foxc_uk

yeehaamcgee wrote:

See, curiously, although I am new to snowboarding, and still fall over a lot, I'm more than happy going helmetless for now on it.
Comes back to the personal risk judgement.

I think what clinched it for me was a head-to-floor moment when someone else crashed into me while standing still (at the bottom of the slope at Tamworth)
Plus it keeps my goggles on when I decide to have a massive farking crash at 40mph

Anonymous

Someone I know smacking the back of their head (wearing a helmet) on a chunk of ice and having brain fluid (!) come out of his nose is what sealed it with me for helmet & snow sports. Though he was on skis from what I remember, and I ski anyway (gave up snowboard on the first attempt after busting my wrist 2 days in).

Anyway, I ski mostly in North America and helmets are worn far more out there. All the kids have to wear them and a large amount of adults do as well, probably as their kids are, but also because for the boarders it's something that's looking more cool these days. They're often kind of trendy a bit like the grungy pisspot style skate lids (actually beats me why more kids doing jumps don't just go with these kind of helmets rather than nothing at all, given they look pretty good).

That said, like all helmets, they don't make you invulnerable. Saw the result of an accident last year with medics, helicopter, blood in the snow. Later found out a guy had killed himself crashing into a tree. He was wearing a helmet.

Duki

[Do you wear body armour when cycling? Full face helmet? Leatt brace?]

Er no I too have enough blubber to soften the blow

I might be a fat head figuratively speaking but my skull is about the only bit of my body without excess fat

Anonymous

Actually the reason I didn't wear a helmet when snowboarding was because I was a really REALLY unfit smoker at the time, and any extra layers of clothing were a bad idea!

cooldad

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Actually the reason I didn't wear a helmet when snowboarding was because I was a really REALLY unfit smoker at the time, and any extra layers of clothing were a bad idea!

Carrying your argument to it's logical conclusion (as an unfit smoker) I should be riding naked.

Razor1548

cooldad wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Actually the reason I didn't wear a helmet when snowboarding was because I was a really REALLY unfit smoker at the time, and any extra layers of clothing were a bad idea!

Carrying your argument to it's logical conclusion (as an unfit smoker) I should be riding naked.

Don't stop there. There are many organs that are not really essential. Contact a disreputable surgeon and see what he can do!

Northwind

I always wear one... I mean, I'm realistic about the fact that the odds of it ever saving my life or even preventing any injury worth mentioning are vanishingly small, but... I'm also aware of the fact that if I were to fall off and spaz myself while not wearing one I'd feel like a right dick, if it weren't for the fact I'd no longer have the capability.

I do think that anyone who says "If you don't wear a helmet you're an idiot" is most probably an idiot, though- the facts just don't support it. Not to rehash old arguments too much but riding without kneepads is statistically a far worse idea than riding without a helmet, but if you ride without a helmet people think you're a moron whereas if you ride with knee pads people think you're a poof.

raymenrh wrote:

I've always sided with the pro-legalising helmet usage on bikes

I didn't know it's illegal

jimexbox

Northwind wrote:

whereas if you ride with knee pads people think you're a poof.

Possibly by those who have never been flung 20ft across gravel. I'll be riding with pads as soon an my elbow and knee heal.

Anonymous

Knees are costly to mess up, especially if you're self employed without any insurance like me (reminder to self... get insurance!).

nozzac

I've never even thought about getting knee pads. Maybe I should. I could do with shock absorbing gloves or something so that when I stick my arm out when I go over the bars I don't break my collar bone. I do seem to go over my bars more often than I should.

ThePriory1978

Always wear a helmet, unless just pootling to the local shop for bacons etc.
Have never bothered with knee pads, i find as i clip in in my knees and shins generally dont take to much of a battering from pedals and the like however my elbows are always getting mashed so for me elbow guards are a must and so are 661 Bomber cycling shorts. Takes all the bruising and scrapes out of the equation when my hips get friendly with the floor.
And gloves, cant get on with full finger but Mitts to save gravel rash are also a must.

paul_75

i wear mine only when going to a bike trail, up and down the local back roads i never use it, even if they made it law to wear a helmet i dont think i would, but im a bad man

Thewaylander

Off road, always wear Helmet gloves and knee pads as a minimum.

With the rocky nature of where i live even a relatively slow crash can leave your less all the skin on your knee's or less. testiment by the amount of ambulances that come to Cwm to scrape up the prats who think its girly to where knee pads that have crashed doing2 miles an hour and can no longer walk...

I just think it's good commen sence to put protection in sensible places if you crash likely hood is your hands will go down adn your knee's and sometimes over the bas ends in head inpact where i know my Helmets have saved my limited brain capacity.

options are yours but I take no sympathy with people who don't wear protection crash and injure themselves. Dude who blocked up cwm a few weeks back would have happily run over him if the good old ambulances boys hadn't stopped me.

blablablacksheep

knee pads as a minimum.

i still not sure why you need knee pads yet but im sure il find out soon

gloves i found out to be a must very quickly after some pikeys had put a thorn branch across a path in the woods head height, thank god for gloves or id have a thorn branch wrapped around my neck instead of arround my hand.

wish i found out who did it id cut their ..... off. :twisted:

Daz555

Not quite enough options for me so I plumped for "off road only" which is not quite accurate.

However, I really just tend to pick and choose when I want to wear my helmet. My current commute to work involves no roads and no dicing with traffic at all so I have chosen not to wear my helmet. If this was to change and I found myself in conditions I consider to be be more risky then I'd start wearing it again.

I find cycling most enjoyable when it is at its most basic. Shoes/shorts/t-shirt and away you go is the best. Everything else after that depends on the conditions but each one is a small dimishment in the pleasure of riding for me - warm clothes, wooly hat, waterproofs, winter gloves, helmet, etc. I commute 12 months of the year so have to accept that in the winter commuting is not so enjoyable.

beanieripper

Never in 20 years apart from busy trailcentres

mikeyj28

Always wear one as from personal experience it is not at all nice getting run over, being in intensive care and having a headache for 5 months from landing on your head!

You could just as well hurt your head popping to the local shop as you could on a trail.

Rather save my head than worry about how cool i look.

thepha5e

I always wear a helmet, on road or off road, but if i'm just cycling 50ft down the cul de sac and back, with no cars, at about 5mph, to test my gears or whatever, i normally don't bother.

the people saying "i've ridden on roads for 15 years and only fallen twice, and neither time was serious, or a head injury" i think that's a terrible argument, just because you've been lucky so far doesn't mean some idiot driver isn't going to fall asleep/not concentrate because their on their phone and crash into you. the only reason you don't hear from people who have had serious head injuries on here, is because they are unable to. do you want to end up dead or paralysed, with your friends and family devasted, and frankly ashamed you couldn't be bothered to put on a helmet because it doesn't look cool or it'll never happen to you or it ruins your hair :roll:

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/73998/

Mojo_666

I saw some dude doing The Wall at Afan a few weeks back with no helmet.

DCR00

Always.

I dont particularly like wearing one as 90% of my riding is done on flat trail, and i look like a bellend with a helmet on due to having a massive head. However, Im pretty confident that if i was killed whilst cycling and i didnt have my helmet on, then my life insurance company would use that as an excuse to not pay out.

This would leave my Wife and Son in the sh*t, so its not worth not wearing one IMO.

Kaise

after my crash on whites level black run 3 weeks ago i will always be wearing a helmet when on the trails. if i hadnt been wearing the full face i would have a fractured cheekbone fo sho!

Touch wood ( ) i have never come of on the road even when doing long races, but i still wear one as i have seen too many people with bad head injuries.

I wasnt born with a nice face, but it could be made worse by a road or trail at high speed.

On the subject of knee pads, i bought some about 2 years ago and i dont like wearing them but they give me support to a knee thats had an ACL and PCL reconstruction whilst also giving me the protection when, and i mean when, i do come of, and its better spending £30 on a set of 661 veggies than limping round after an off........

Daz555

DCR00 wrote:

However, Im pretty confident that if i was killed whilst cycling and i didnt have my helmet on, then my life insurance company would use that as an excuse to not pay out.

If you suspect that then if I were you I'd be out checking the T&Cs of your life cover. I know for example that my own T&Cs indicate that the policy pays out for any accident - even if it is entirely my own fault. Suicide aside of course.

I have not heard any stories about life cover not paying out as a result of a cyclist not wearing entirely optional protection. If you die from a broken neck would life cover not pay out because you were not wearing a neck brace - now available to all cyclists who value their necks?

I imagine this might be different if it was a car driver with no seatbelt or a motorcyclist with no helmet as these are matters of the law/compulsion.

There have been a small number of cases where compensation (driver fault accidents) has been trimmed as the cyclist was not wearing a helmet but this is entirely different to life cover.

TownyDC

Always, (apart from when i'm climbing a really steep hill in granny and i'm hot and sweaty).
I have a Recon 661, love it to bits as well as having good all round protection, i think it looks the bizz too.
Wouldn't go out on the bike without it.
towny