Helmet poll

Pross

I haven't read the whole thread (sorry) but I suspect that any poll on here is likely to to get you a far higher percentage of people wearing helmets than in the general population. It is a rarity for me to see a 'proper' cyclist (i.e. fully kitted out) not wearing a helmet but the majority of people I see riding in normal clothes tend not to wear helmets so I don't think a survey on here can ever be 'definitive'.

Pross

Just from a quick review of the above, Merak has given the most informed and well argued response but others are trying to deride his argument without offering anything near as well thought out. Why is that? I'll hold my hand up as being anti-compulsion despite always wearing a helmet myself (ignore the 20 year old avatar!) and making sure my kids do.

Jonny_road

Think I know how this guy would be voting - http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/video-mountain-biker-taken-out-by-antelope-32016

Feetsocks

I always wear one, but then I ride fast so it hurts if I fall off. If you just potter along you probably don't feel you need one maybe.

meanredspider

Pross wrote:

Just from a quick review of the above, Merak has given the most informed and well argued response but others are trying to deride his argument without offering anything near as well thought out. Why is that? I'll hold my hand up as being anti-compulsion despite always wearing a helmet myself (ignore the 20 year old avatar!) and making sure my kids do.

Because it's not informed or well argued. He's using spurious "statistics" to support his points without underlying reasoning or rationale. He's making the classic mistakes with correlation and causation. I, for one, can't be bothered to spend the time picking apart each individual point. There are NO reliable statistics for cycling-related injuries (even less so when related to helmet use) so any argument based only on statistics (Merak's approach) is deeply flawed.