For those of you who don't...

YeehaaMcgee

Thelonegroover wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Obviously damaged your brain and made you repeat yourself though, so maybe helmets are dangerous.

What would I put the red light on if I didn't have a helmet?

Your bike?

cooldad

Thelonegroover wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Obviously damaged your brain and made you repeat yourself though, so maybe helmets are dangerous.

What would I put the red light on if I didn't have a helmet?

Roxanne? Is that you?

Tony__B

Yawn...here we go again.

If you are riding off-road then a helmet makes perfect sense, no question. However, riding on-road the question is not quite as clear-cut. Google 'Ben Goldacre' or 'Bad Science' and read the science, or rather, what the science throws up for discussion. While wearing a helmet would always seem to be the better option, using pure common sense, actually the statistics call this into question. See also: endless previous threads on the road forums.

Also please remember: anecdotal evidence is always just that.

And before you shoot me down - I wear a helmet every time I get on a bike, even if it's round the corner to the supermarket.

Kowalski675

A cycle helmet weighs nothing and you don't even notice you're wearing it when you're riding (testified to by the fact that after a group of guys we chatted to briefly at Gisburn rode off, we noticed one had left his helmet where he'd been sat, and ridden away not noticing he wasn't wearing it, lol) might save your life and there are no circumstances where it can make the outcome of an accident worse. There is no debate, it's a no brainer (and "statistics can be manipulated to make them say whatever you want them to say). Whether each individual elects to wear one or not is their own decision, but to suggest it can ever be a bad thing (apart from a style point of view, lol) is moronic.

coulddobetter

As a qualified nurse there's no way I would venture out without a helmet.

miss notax

Hmmm. I get the point that it's personal choice, but I simply don't ride my bike without wearing one. I also REALLY don't like riding with anyone who isn't wearing a helmet - I don't want the responsibility of scraping them up / phoning their wife if anything happens. I know that could happen anyway (hopefully not!) but not taking a sensible and easy precaution to keep your head intact is just lunacy in my book.

cooldad

miss notax wrote:

I don't want the responsibility of scraping them up / phoning their wife if anything happens.

Mine would probably thank you profusely. But she is ex.

RidingSeed

cooldad wrote:

Mine would probably thank you profusely. But she is ex.

Laughed for quite a while. Also, many people don't wear helmets because they believe they would get laughed at (happens very often in my neighborhood) and even if they want to wear it, they leave it home, fearing of people pointing at them. I've gone through this and I just don't care about what others say, it's a life savior for me hands down.

ilovedirt

I had probably the biggest crash of my life racing the student downhill champs at Comb Sydenham a few months back. Nose dived a big jump at pretty high speed, went straight over the bars and took the full impact on my face. Completely destroyed the front of my helmet - as in properly shattered it (the photo doesn't really do it justice). Now tell me that helmet didn't save my life - or at the very least, a VERY broken face. I managed to get back up with only a few scrapes, a broken lid and bent bars. I count myself pretty lucky.

pesky_jones

ilovedirt wrote:

I had probably the biggest crash of my life racing the student downhill champs at Comb Sydenham a few months back. Nose dived a big jump at pretty high speed, went straight over the bars and took the full impact on my face. Completely destroyed the front of my helmet - as in properly shattered it (the photo doesn't really do it justice). Now tell me that helmet didn't save my life - or at the very least, a VERY broken face. I managed to get back up with only a few scrapes, a broken lid and bent bars. I count myself pretty lucky.

Yeah son - gnarly!!

concorde

Do people really still not wear them?! You see the odd cretin on the road riding in a ridiculous gear on a 40 year old piece of scaffold without them on, but never see people without a lid out on the trails these days.

stubs

ilovedirt wrote:

Thats a definite, drinking soup through a straw for a couple of months crash.

batmo

I've broken three helmets in various ways:
Stood up on pedals on road bike and snapped a crank (No, really. Examining the break showed it was pre-cracked half-way through). Went over sideways like a felled tree.
Trying to avoid an un-lit low loader parked on a country lane at night (I admit my own light was poor).
Just this March coming down from Kenmore to Applecross after the snow and grit had turned my brakes to paste.

From the other side of the coin when I was at school, a friend's Mum was cycling with the family, got tangled with the daughter's bike arriving at a junction, fell over sidways hitting her head hard on the road. No helmet. She was paralysed from the chest down and went from being extremely sporty and active to wheelchair bound. She's been that way for 30 years now. I've needed no other encouragement to wear a helmet.

Kowalski675

Batmo wrote:

From the other side of the coin when I was at school, a friend's Mum was cycling with the family, got tangled with the daughter's bike arriving at a junction, fell over sidways hitting her head hard on the road. No helmet. She was paralysed from the chest down and went from being extremely sporty and active to wheelchair bound. She's been that way for 30 years now. I've needed no other encouragement to wear a helmet.

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, surely paralysis would have been caused by a spinal cord injury (around T3/T4 for below chest paralysis?), a helmet would make no difference to that.

batmo

Kowalski675 wrote:

Batmo wrote:

From the other side of the coin when I was at school, a friend's Mum was cycling with the family, got tangled with the daughter's bike arriving at a junction, fell over sidways hitting her head hard on the road. No helmet. She was paralysed from the chest down and went from being extremely sporty and active to wheelchair bound. She's been that way for 30 years now. I've needed no other encouragement to wear a helmet.

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, surely paralysis would have been caused by a spinal cord injury (around T3/T4 for below chest paralysis?), a helmet would make no difference to that.

I was led to believe it was brain injury to the areas controlling motor function, but I'm not an expert, I didn't ask pertinent questions at the time and it was 30 years ago.

paul.skibum

I have been down on the south coast for a few days this week and driving between a mates house and a job site - I have seen numerous non helmet wearing road riders - I havent seen so many in one area for ages, no idea if it was the good weather bringing out a load of novice or rare riders or if this was the common situation in that area.

On the road or on the trail a helmet can save your life. People always say "if a car hits you a helmet wont help" but that is ignoring all the potential ways a car or any other incident could have you off your bike - sure if a truck runs you flat a 300g lid wont help but a sideswipe, tangle with pedestrians, buffetted by air etc etc all mean potential head to tarmac interface and a lid will help.

Buy one, make sure it fits, wear it everytime.

Kowalski675

Tbh, you wouldn't want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, even if it were legal or sensible - at anything above about 30mph it's just bloody uncomfortable, lol. And black visors look cool, lol.