Please Convince my Work Colleague to Wear a Helmet
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Must admit I felt odd the first time I wore my helmet on an outing, as per usual every other cyclist didn't and cycling for them looked the chilled, relaxed form of transport that it is meant to be. I totally agree the threat levels of cycling are kind of ramped up by some.0
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Regardless of any anecdote or that loony website, i would rather have an inch of styrafoam between my skull and the tarmac for when i hit the deck - any day of the week.0
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Peat wrote:Regardless of any anecdote or that loony website, i would rather have an inch of styrafoam between my skull and the tarmac for when i hit the deck - any day of the week.
Right, but would you bully someone else into doing it?
That's what this is about, letting adults make their own, informed decisions.0 -
Nope, let them remove themselves from the gene pool.0
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Well, as you ask. i fell off in July last year and head butted a tree. Helmet almost split in half, i walked away.....
I was on a trail and on an MTB, but it could have just as easily been on a road, being clipped by a wingmirror at 20mph and the tree a lampost.
I don't want to preach about it because my decision to wear a helmet was made long before i had this accident when i actually needed it.0 -
There you go.Peat wrote:I don't want to preach about it because my decision to wear a helmet was made long before i had this accident.
If someone wwants to do something that doesn't put them in significant danger and doesn't hurt someone else, let them do it.
The 'should I wear a helmet' debate is a whole different thing, this was about a grown man bullying his colleague into doing something he didn't want to do. A full race harness or roll cage would make your car safer, if you choose to do it, fine, but don't bully anyone else into doing it.0 -
Peat wrote:Well, as you ask. i fell off in July last year and head butted a tree. Helmet almost split in half, i walked away.....
I was on a trail and on an MTB, but it could have just as easily been on a road, being clipped by a wingmirror at 20mph and the tree a lampost.
Could it "have just as easily been on a road, being clipped by a wingmirror at 20mph" though? I've fallen of my MTB plenty of times, and since the likelihood is relatively high it makes sense to wear a helmet.
On the other hand in around 25 years of riding on the roads I've never been clipped by a wing mirror or really hit my head, so the likelihood of that sort of accident is relatively low. Or at least no higher than plenty of other things that could give you head injuries that people happily do every day without helmets.0 -
Isn't this par for the course though, helmet evangelists taking a clear and valid circumstance where a helmet is completely justified and warranted, and then transposing that to a completely different scenario in a poor attempt at using one to justify the other? Like the man said, there's a world of difference between dropping down a col at 50+mph and my gran pootling to church on a Sunday morning. Claiming that riding an MTB on slippery uneven surfaces surrounded by trees is the same as being on the road, is a bit desperate, but - like I said - par for the course. <shrugs>MrChuck wrote:Peat wrote:Well, as you ask. i fell off in July last year and head butted a tree. Helmet almost split in half, i walked away.....
I was on a trail and on an MTB, but it could have just as easily been on a road, being clipped by a wingmirror at 20mph and the tree a lampost.
Could it "have just as easily been on a road, being clipped by a wingmirror at 20mph" though? I've fallen of my MTB plenty of times, and since the likelihood is relatively high it makes sense to wear a helmet.
On the other hand in around 25 years of riding on the roads I've never been clipped by a wing mirror or really hit my head, so the likelihood of that sort of accident is relatively low. Or at least no higher than plenty of other things that could give you head injuries that people happily do every day without helmets.0 -
Peat wrote:Regardless of any anecdote or that loony website, i would rather have an inch of styrafoam between my skull and the tarmac for when i hit the deck - any day of the week.
All this post shows is that you are unable or unwilling to consider reasoned argument that may contradict the received opinions you hold.0 -
I wear a helmet for commuting every day. 6 months ago it was a different story - back then I very rarely wore a helmet when travelling to work.
One day I simply thought to myself, how stupid would I feel if I fall off my bike, hit my head, and end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life? So, I just decided that wearing a helmet was the sensible thing to do.
That's not to say that everyone must wear one though. At the end of the day it is a personal choice and that's how it should remain. Everyone should be responsible enough to weigh up the risks and make a decision that's right for them.Check out my blog at http://www.bikingadventures.co.uk0 -
CraigTheBiker wrote:One day I simply thought to myself, how stupid would I feel if I fall off my bike, or down the stairs, or off the kerb, or in the shower, hit my head, and end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life? So, I just decided that wearing a helmet was the sensible thing to do.
FTFY.0 -
I landed square on my head a few weeks ago after a small misjudgement, fortunately I was wearing a helmet!
Do I advocate that everyone wears one at all times? No. Infact I still don't, very rarely wear a lid when pootling on my Brompton.
Shame the OP appears to have vanished...0 -
MrChuck wrote:CraigTheBiker wrote:One day I simply thought to myself, how stupid would I feel if I fall off my bike, or down the stairs, or off the kerb, or in the shower, hit my head, and end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life? So, I just decided that wearing a helmet was the sensible thing to do.
FTFY.
Not sure what you are claiming to have fixed. Seems to me that you've totally missed the point of the entire post i.e. it is up to the individual to consider what is right for them.
And if an individual were to decide that wearing a helmet when walking "down the stairs, or off the kerb, or in the shower" was right for them, then good luck to them. That is their free choice.Check out my blog at http://www.bikingadventures.co.uk0 -
CraigTheBiker wrote:MrChuck wrote:CraigTheBiker wrote:One day I simply thought to myself, how stupid would I feel if I fall off my bike, or down the stairs, or off the kerb, or in the shower, hit my head, and end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life? So, I just decided that wearing a helmet was the sensible thing to do.
FTFY.
Not sure what you are claiming to have fixed. Seems to me that you've totally missed the point of the entire post i.e. it is up to the individual to consider what is right for them.
And if an individual were to decide that wearing a helmet when walking "down the stairs, or off the kerb, or in the shower" was right for them, then good luck to them. That is their free choice.
Of course it is- who's said otherwise? The point is the inconsistency and selectiveness of the "helps clean up the gene pool" brigade.0 -
HebdenBiker wrote:All this post shows is that you are unable or unwilling to consider reasoned argument that may contradict the received opinions you hold.
What the actual f......?
If i were to strike my head against any surface, i would prefer to have a layer of hard foam and padding between my scalp/skull and the striked surface.
I don't wear a helmet thinking that it is an invincibility amourment, nor do i think it will save my life should i get platted around the axle of a lorry/bus. I do however believe that it will go some way to protect me from minor injurys flesh wounds to my head and cracks to my skull in the event of a tumble onto a hard surface. For the sake of looking like a 'square', i really don't mind.
Are you lot scientoligists or something?
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I'm a litle baffled as to why i have been marked out as some kind of 'evangelist' here.
In the context of the thread, i haven't taken side with the OP nor have i demanded that everyone wear a helmet.
I am as pro-choice as they come! (I just arrogantly think that my choices are the correct ones and will defend them thusly).
If i were to boil it down to a base level, we are all talking rubbish because the vast majority of us partake in the most mindlessly dangerous pastime of all - driving a car on the roads.0 -
bails87 wrote:True, but that's not what craigthebiker was saying, he was being perfectly sensible in terms of not forcing other people to do something.
You're right, I was a bit selective with my quoting there. Craigbiker was spot on with this:That's not to say that everyone must wear one though. At the end of the day it is a personal choice and that's how it should remain. Everyone should be responsible enough to weigh up the risks and make a decision that's right for them.0 -
I have read some of the replies and i agree its a personal choice but dont really agree with the arument about falling up stairs or in the bath, if i was in the shower and cars were racing past or going upstairs that cars frequently whizzed up and down then i may consider it!!
I wear a helmet, i dont think it looks that bad, it takes 10 seconds and i'm sure if i get hit by a lorry it would make absolutely no difference but if i hit a curb and then hit the floor it would cussion my head from the pavement (happened to me recently)www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes0 -
Well my best mate who's been riding for almost 30 years has always refused to wear a helmet if he's not racing. The other morning he was knocked off on his commute home from nights, only about 200yds from home. 10 staples in his head, concussion, can't remember being loaded into the ambulance, his wife had to be told at work that her husband had been knocked off his bike and was in hospital and was obviously fearing the worst.
Today he went out on his road bike for his weekend ride, helmet on. He's appreciated how lucky he was; and that this coming week could easily have been his funeral.Commuter getting to grips with a Giant Rapid 10 -
Well, KR MAN, that's convinced me. After 50+ years of helmetless cycling with no head injuries, I'm off to Tesco as soon as they open to get me a lid.Ceps, morelles, trompettes de mort. Breakfast of champignons.0
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The thread that won't die...KR MAN wrote:Well my best mate who's been riding for almost 30 years has always refused to wear a helmet if he's not racing. The other morning he was knocked off on his commute home from nights, only about 200yds from home. 10 staples in his head, concussion, can't remember being loaded into the ambulance, his wife had to be told at work that her husband had been knocked off his bike and was in hospital and was obviously fearing the worst.
Today he went out on his road bike for his weekend ride, helmet on. He's appreciated how lucky he was; and that this coming week could easily have been his funeral.
What a good post. This shows that a man not wearing helmet came off, suffered some quite severe cuts & bruises and within a few days is back on his bike. The 'phew it could have been a funeral' is nothing more than hyperbole in reality.
This though is what those of us who don't bother with helmets are getting at - that falling off your bike isn't likely to do any long term serious damage. If some of you wish to mitigate against every type of injury please feel free to wear your helmet; no-one will criticise you for it. For the rest of us who are quite happy to take that risk and tbh aren't that bothered if along the way we occasionally suffer a bit for it, that it really is an individual's choice.
And one final point. It's not vanity, or a desire to look cool, or some imagined lack of colour co-ordination with the rest of the bike or indeed any aesthetic reasoning that sees my lid staying in the garage more often than not. It really is a result of nothing more than a view - that some, more or all of you are free to disagree with - that riding my bike without a helmet will not result in my untimely death or being spoon-fed Weetabix for the rest of my days. That's the only reason. Even if helmets looked uber-cool and guaranteed every girl on my route to work would throw herself at me I'd still be minded not to wear one purely because I personally don't get on with wearing one. I wish I did. I'd save hours justifying it against people who can't accept a contrary view.0 -
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Absolutely right that wearing a helmet whilst cycling is (and should always be) at the riders discretion, however my preference is to wear a helmet and I would always recommend others do the same.
Two weeks ago on a suburban 5 mile commute to work and less than half a mile from home I somehow came off the bike. I say somehow because to this day, I have no memory of the event or the 45 minutes immediately after. Thanks to having Endomondo watching my every move, I've been able to pinpoint the location: a cycle path. Not a road, not a cycle lane but a nice "safe" cycle path.
The first thing I can remember following the accident is sitting at my desk and commenting to a colleague that "I don't really know how I got here". I'd seemingly carried on my journey in to work on autopilot, negotiating junctions, etc as usual, locked my bike up, had a shower and sat at my desk. The first hint that I'd been in an accident was discovering my cycle helmet looked like:
...on closer inspection, my jacket was all scuffed and my front wheel buckled. Yet no memory of what happened!
I am glad my helmet took the impact and not my skull.0 -
I'd be at least as worried about the fact that I'd fallen off for no apparent reason. Seriously.Sometimes parts break. Sometimes you crash. Sometimes it’s your fault.0
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davis wrote:I'd be at least as worried about the fact that I'd fallen off for no apparent reason. Seriously.
Don't get me wrong, I am worried about that - but with no apparent witnesses or means to locate witnesses (short of writing into the local paper) I don't know what else I can do. I should add, I took a trip to A&E following the accident and they checked my head out with a CT scan. Since then I've discovered bruises on my leg and hip and ache like hell!0 -
Poacher wrote:After 50+ years of helmetless cycling with no head injuries,.
This is the (type of) argument that I find most fatuous - "ridden a 100 years without a head injury" - frankly far more ridiculous than the "I fell off and the helmet saved my life" stories.
in nearly 50 years, I've
- never needed a seatbelt in my car
- never needed a smoke alarm in my house
- never needed a box in cricket
- never needed circuit breaker on my electric lawn mower
- never needed a fire extinguisher when welding in my garage
- never needed axle stands in case my trolley jack collapses
- never needed the escape chute in a plane
... you get the picture
absence of need to date is no guarantee of the future.
Freedom of choice, though, is paramount.ROAD < Scott Foil HMX Di2, Volagi Liscio Di2, Jamis Renegade Elite Di2, Cube Reaction Race > ROUGH0 -
meanredspider wrote:- never needed a seatbelt in my car
- never needed a smoke alarm in my house
- never needed a box in cricket
- never needed circuit breaker on my electric lawn mower
- never needed a fire extinguisher when welding in my garage
- never needed axle stands in case my trolley jack collapses
- never needed the escape chute in a plane
... you get the picture
Blimey. I failed 4 of those. (one *was* deliberately jumping out of an otherwise serviceable aircraft, though)Sometimes parts break. Sometimes you crash. Sometimes it’s your fault.0
