I would suggest that you wear a helmet, please.

declan1

So. Just gone for a ride, ended up clipping a kerb and flew off. Taken all the skin off my shoulder, big cut just above my eye and cuts to my knee. 5 mins afterwards I couldn't see anything - vision went completely white, no hearing and nearly passed out.

Basically what I'm trying to say is if you don't mind, I would highly recommend that you wear a helmet. It could have quite possibly saved my life just now.

RDW

I'm not a medic, but that sounds like concussion. Get it checked out today.

Edit: In fact sudden deafness after a head injury comes under the 'call an ambulance now' category:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Concussion ... ptoms.aspx

declan1

Yeah, 7 people stopped to see if I was ok, one of them NHS. She called an ambulance for me - they checked me out properly and took me to the hospital. I'm fine now apart from a ******* painful shoulder!

EDIT: I didn't have sudden deafness, it was just ringing in my ears and the same feeling you get through a tunnel on a train.

RDW

Glad to hear it!

Edit: that wasn't a deafness joke!

Sodafarl

Sorry to hear that. Glad you are alright.

-spider-

Sorry to hear about your accident - glad you're (relatively) ok.

ben@31

I've never understood why cyclists don't wear helmets? I don't even notice mine.

thegreatdivide

Glad you're OK (ish) chief!

Got distracted on the way out the door this morning and rode to work without mine on. Only realised when I was locking the bike in the bike shed. Really angry at myself.

ballysmate

ben@31 wrote:

I've never understood why cyclists don't wear helmets? I don't even notice mine.

Actually feel exposed and slightly naked without mine. That's familiarity for you.
I can remember when seat belts in cars became compulsory (Feb 1983.) Sad, I know. Everyone soon got used to it and now it feels strange if you don't buckle up.

thegreatdivide

ben@31 wrote:

I've never understood why cyclists don't wear helmets? I don't even notice mine.

And these days the majority of them look cool as feck!

exlaser

no :evil:

declan1

Well, at least I can get some shiny new kit now! New helmet, bibs, jacket and glasses are needed (glasses are in three bits now - they snapped in two at the bridge and one lens has been broken out)

I suppose this is one reason to get cheap Lidl stuff - I probably only wrecked about £65 worth of gear (helmet is £50 of that).

ethanhayes

ben@31 wrote:

I've never understood why cyclists don't wear helmets? I don't even notice mine.

I notice mine unfortunately, it rubs on a little skin tag I have on my ear and after a few hours it's been known to bleed, which is a pain in the arse
That said, I do feel naked without a helmet. I would never ride my bike without one.

Glad your not in a worse state OP.

Frank the tank

Glad the OP is OK now, never nice having a spill.

I always wear a helmet but I believe it's a case of each to there own.

Having said that,I believe the not wearing a helmet attitude wil die out as the older generation of cyclists "fade away".

airbag

Frank the tank wrote:

Having said that,I believe the not wearing a helmet attitude wil die out as the older generation of cyclists "fade away".

I'm 23, so not exactly old, and I made a vow recently: every time I see patronising nonsense about helmets, I go for a ride without one. Two if it's in ALLCAPS. Four if someone claims it saved their life with no evidence to this effect other than a cracked helmet - when cracking is usually a pretty poor method of dissipating energy in a crash.

The objections people have to generalising 'I fell off with one and I'm not dead' to 'they save your life and you should wear one' are well known and have been retrodden, to no-one's benefit, thousands of times, so there isn't really an excuse for not being aware of them. Why not just leave your experiences at that, and actually trust people with making a competent decision with the evidence presented, rather than ramming an opinion down their throats? If you were really that desperate to show someone helmets worked, at least point them to some of the reasonable medical studies out there, which actually do illustrate the point rather than emotive bollocks.

ballysmate

airbag wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Having said that,I believe the not wearing a helmet attitude wil die out as the older generation of cyclists "fade away".

I'm 23, so not exactly old, and I made a vow recently: every time I see patronising nonsense about helmets, I go for a ride without one. Two if it's in ALLCAPS. Four if someone claims it saved their life with no evidence to this effect other than a cracked helmet - when cracking is usually a pretty poor method of dissipating energy in a crash.

The objections people have to generalising 'I fell off with one and I'm not dead' to 'they save your life and you should wear one' are well known and have been retrodden, to no-one's benefit, thousands of times, so there isn't really an excuse for not being aware of them. Why not just leave your experiences at that, and actually trust people with making a competent decision with the evidence presented, rather than ramming an opinion down their throats? If you were really that desperate to show someone helmets worked, at least point them to some of the reasonable medical studies out there, which actually do illustrate the point rather than emotive ****.

I don't give a flying feck if people wear helmets or not.
All I can say to you is 'Natural Selection'

ballysmate

Sorry that should read NATURAL SELECTION

GiantMike

Hope you get well soon. At least you're in a postion where you can get well again and not dead.

A mate of mine was recently airlifted to hospital when he crashed on a descent. His helmet was cracked and he took quite a while to recover completely, but he did. I wear a helmet. I occasionally see people out without helmets. I don't care what ridiculous reason they have in their head and I don't want to know why they decided to step away from common sense.

declan1

airbag wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Having said that,I believe the not wearing a helmet attitude wil die out as the older generation of cyclists "fade away".

I'm 23, so not exactly old, and I made a vow recently: every time I see patronising nonsense about helmets, I go for a ride without one. Two if it's in ALLCAPS. Four if someone claims it saved their life with no evidence to this effect other than a cracked helmet - when cracking is usually a pretty poor method of dissipating energy in a crash.

The objections people have to generalising 'I fell off with one and I'm not dead' to 'they save your life and you should wear one' are well known and have been retrodden, to no-one's benefit, thousands of times, so there isn't really an excuse for not being aware of them. Why not just leave your experiences at that, and actually trust people with making a competent decision with the evidence presented, rather than ramming an opinion down their throats? If you were really that desperate to show someone helmets worked, at least point them to some of the reasonable medical studies out there, which actually do illustrate the point rather than emotive ****.

If I hadn't have worn a helmet today (which isn't cracked now by the way), I would have most certainly had a fractured skull (at least). If you are so ignorant as to think helmets are useless then so be it. At least we'll all know why a 24 year old sustained serious head injuries in an accident.

Frank the tank

@ Airbag

I also posted this.....................
I always wear a helmet but I believe it's a case of each to there own.

Not trying to ram anything down anyones throat.

At 23 and not being a helmet wearer bothers me not one jot. However I believe you're of a generation where believe wearing a helmet is the norm. It's just about public attitudes and behaviours such as smoking, drink driving etc.

For your info I've had one accident where I totally smashed the helmet I was wearing and that was just in a off road spill. The only time I've been knocked off my bike by a car I didn't have a helmet on and I walked away reasonably unscathed, I was lucky. I've always said the main reason cyclists die in RTA's is because they've been hit by a ton of steel and wearing a helmet is neither here nor there in a lot of cases. Like when a friend of mine got squashed (literally) by the trailer of an artic last about 18months ago. Helmet didn't help him.

It's about personal choice.

Kieran_Burns

Oh look.

A helmet thread.

Oh joy.

Cue unreasoned arguments and emotive language and possibly "natural selection" comments.

Wait, wait... Ah, I see... we've already started.

ballysmate

I infer from Airbag that he usually wears a helmet. If someone posts re helmet he goes out without one. If they do it in capitals, he goes lidless twice, that really shows em eh?
I think all things considered, that makes him a 'helmet' in his own right.

But as stated before, I don't give a feck what he wears. I just think his behaviour strange.

airbag

@ FranktheTank - I've got to apologise on this one, although I quoted you most of what I said was referring to the OP. My fault entirely for communicating badly, and I pretty much agree with you, including the 'natural selection' part.

@OP - I should probably apologise to you as well, at least in part - it's probably not on to be rude to someone in your situation. That said, my personal experience heavily correlates "falling off with a helmet on" with "suddenly presupposing you're sufficiently better informed than others to tell them what to do, despite any reasonably intelligent person being able to perceive that you aren't" (in fact, considering my friends, it also correlates "falling off with a helmet on" with "significantly worse head injuries"). It's probably best for everyone that I don't take that sort of evidence as a reliable guide for the future - especially when advising others.

Most people must surely know that if you fall off and hit your head, it'll hurt and if you're wearing a helmet it'll be damaged. If they're not wearing one, likelihood is they have some reason that isn't going to be torn down in shreds by telling them that. That doen't mean it's a good reason. Just one that isn't rendered void by your experience.

Mikey23

So is it best just to shut up then and take the attitude that its their life and not my business? I must admit that i tend to be a little outspoken at times which is one of the benefits of being a grumpy old git. So littering, dropping fag ends out of car windows, talking on mobiles while driving, motorists that have nearly wipe me out with thoughtless behaviour etc etc are likely to get a reaction from me which are very unlikely to inform behaviour and can and have led to confrontation,,.

It seems that we have become a nation of people who are unwilling to get involved in what is obviously stupid and antisocial behaviour... Discuss in less than 10000 words!

johnny25

Essentially, whether a cycle helmet protects the head in an accident is inconclusive. There are just too many variables involved.

http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1052.html The article is a summary but I'm inclined to accept what it says.

I wear one because it looks nice and in my mind I feel 'safer' wearing one.

BillyMansell

Mikey23 wrote:

So is it best just to shut up then and take the attitude that its their life and not my business? I must admit that i tend to be a little outspoken at times which is one of the benefits of being a grumpy old git. So littering, dropping fag ends out of car windows, talking on mobiles while driving, motorists that have nearly wipe me out with thoughtless behaviour etc etc are likely to get a reaction from me which are very unlikely to inform behaviour and can and have led to confrontation,,.

It seems that we have become a nation of people who are unwilling to get involved in what is obviously stupid and antisocial behaviour... Discuss in less than 10000 words!

That's easy. Not wearing a helmet is neither stupid nor antisocial, therefore not worth getting upset about.

rolf_f

Always obvious where this thread was going to go.

I have been in the unfortunate position to have a helmet wrecked for me. This is what the lid looked like afterwards:

I don't think that not wearing it would have killed me. All that I did suffer was a bit of headache and neckache. However, had I not been wearing it, my head would have been jarred more on the impact (as the helmet supported my head and kept it aligned to my neck) so I imagine that the neck ache at least would have been a lot worse and, of course, my head would have been badly scuffed - my hip was pretty nasty looking despite the protection of my shorts and tights so a bare head would have been a mess. I think the lid was worth it.

@thegreatdivide - been there too. Managed to get 10 miles into work on more than one occasion oblivious to the fact that I'd left the helmet at home!

ben@31

I still haven't seen one reason not wear a helmet.

Kieran_Burns

ben@31 wrote:

I still haven't seen one reason not wear a helmet.

http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1182.html

Bozman

I didn't wear one yesterday but i did this morning, i do prefer a ride without one but if it's icey i'll wear one.
Long may it remain a personal choice.

Cleat Eastwood

Kieran_Burns wrote:

ben@31 wrote:

I still haven't seen one reason not wear a helmet.

http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1182.html

hehe

"One of the most interesting experiments, conducted by Gennarelli et al, 1982, subjected 12 squirrel monkeys to linear accelerations with peak levels 665-1230 g and 13 other monkeys primarily to rotational accelerations from 348 to 1025 g. "

There you go , never ride with a monkey on your back.

This isnt a debate about helmets - a guy was injured to the degree that an ambulance was called - as bompington said - too much iq not enough eq.

To the OP, that must have been a shock, I wouldnt worry about what a 23 year old child thinks. My cousin was in a terrible accident - will never cycle again - in a coma for over a week - the surgeon said without a helmet he would be dead - his head injuries mean he is now suffering memory loss and becoming agressive - if you have any of these symptoms, or peole tell you they see a change in you - do get checked out. Wish you well - keep safe.