I would suggest that you wear a helmet, please.

mouth

I don't believe in compulsion but I know which side of the fence I sit on here. I damn near always wear a helmet. I occasionally forget when I get up late in the morning for the ride to work or something like that. I also make sure my son wears his when we ride but I must admit I have no clue as to whether he bothers when he's out alone. I suspect he does.

Ballsy - your point ref seat belts works both ways IMO. As a bus driver by trade my vehicle is exempt from seat belts and so I don't wear one. When I get in the car to drive home it certainly feels very weird.

airbag

Rolf F wrote:

I think part of the problem is that quite a few cyclists insist on believing that cycling isn't any more dangerous than walking whereas common sense says that it quite clearly is. 30 mph on the roads is more dangerous than 4mph on the pavement (as long as you aren't in an iPod induced semi coma oblivious to your surroundings). I'm only too well aware of this having been particularly unlucky over the last 6 months - knocked off twice by cars, once in a club ride coming together and once on ice. Of course, if you only ride at weekends in nice weather, the odds change somewhat.

Is that really a particular problem? Most of the unhelmeted cyclists I see aren't cycling at closer to walking speed than 30mph, not in close formation with other cyclists, and avoid busy roads. It sounds to me like you're taking far more risk than they are. In fact, in that situation I don't see why cycling shouldn't be at least approximately as safe as walking - you've even got the advantage of constant rather than intermittent contact patches, and it's pretty much impossible to fall directly backwards on a bike where your arms can't reflexively protect your head.

I expect they don't see any good reason why you'd want to do 30mph in a chaingang on skinny road tyres either. But they seem to at least keep quiet about it.

goonz

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 ****.

Here we go.....

Giraffoto

airbag wrote:

. . . 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 . . .

You should wear a helmet, YOU REALLY SHOULD WEAR ONE. I (or someone I know) had a crash and only survived because they cracked their helmet.

That should keep the wind in your hair for the next week. Give me a shout when you're next contemplating wearing one.

declan1

Giraffoto wrote:

airbag wrote:

. . . 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 . . .

You should wear a helmet, YOU REALLY SHOULD WEAR ONE. I (or someone I know) had a crash and only survived because they cracked their helmet.

That should keep the wind in your hair for the next week. Give me a shout when you're next contemplating wearing one.

Well, he's going to have three rides without a helmet now isn't he?

Tom Butcher

Slight tangent but thankfully as cycling is becoming more popular the compulsory helmet lobby seem to be losing ground.

sev112

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 ****.

Good for you , I hope it works out for you, and for your family in the event you ever come off. They will be the ones looking after you for the rest of your life, so I presume they agree with your choice , or maybe you havent asked their thoughts on what they might be doing for the rest of their lives as a result of your choices; most people don't, then some of them have to say "sorry" to their nearest and dearest when they come to see them in hospital.

I was knocked off 25years ago, I was extremely fit and had very quick reactions in those days . My head hit the road before I knew what had hit me. I can reasonably deduce from the damage to my helmet , my jacket, my leg and my motorbike, that my helmet saved my life in that case.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating compulsory helmets, more that it's not just you that's a stakeholder to your personal risk managementv strategies.

Keep safe
P.s. am interested in the theory that cracking isn't a great energy dissipator? I was under the impression (mistaken?) that was exactly what hard hats were designed to do?!

Pokerface

I never used to wear a helmet unless racing. Now, I wear one every ride. Not for any particular reason except that helmets now are so comfortable and light that it seems stupid to NOT wear one and risk a head injury.

If you don't want to wear one, so be it. But please don't ask the NHS to pay your medical bills if you end up as a vegetable.

napoleond

I crashed a couple of years ago, went over my handlebars at over 30mph, i landed on my head and left shoulder.

I broke my back, collar bone and my helmet. I shudder to think what I'd be like now if I hadn't been wearing my helmet.

Wirral_paul

Giraffoto wrote:

airbag wrote:

. . . 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 . . .

You should wear a helmet, YOU REALLY SHOULD WEAR ONE. I (or someone I know) had a crash and only survived because they cracked their helmet.

That should keep the wind in your hair for the next week. Give me a shout when you're next contemplating wearing one.

Haha well given the vow - i guess we could put this forward as justification for WEARING A HELMET (there's another load of CAPS). After all - anyone who makes such a "vow" on a forum must have landed on their UNHELMETTED HEAD a couple of times.

There we go - there's a few more unhelmetted rides justified. If he gets killed from an accident involving head injuries on those rides... should we feel guilty??