Helmet discussions: has anyone ever been persuaded otherwise?

[simon_brooke]

Again proof, what speeds are you talking about? you can't make sweeping statements without backing them up, its like me saying all guns kill, whereas in reality its the people that use them that kill.

I don't want to start yet another flame war here. If you're interested in the evidence which casts doubt on the efficiency of helmets, all the arguments are presented at http://www.cyclehelmets.org/

Have you tried doing the same when wearing a helmet? if not how can you say the cotton cap saved you? again personal view point no proof.

My comment that a cotton cap saved my life was satirical. People who have serious crashes wearing helmets often say afterwards 'the helmet saved my life'.

 

[Dan B]

Eh, so what you could also say is:

Cyclists have a 10 in 1000 chance of suffering a head injury and we can prevent 100 injuries in a year

Pedestrians have a 1 in 1000 chance, and we can prevent 50 in a year

That makes that particular argument a chocolate teapot I'm afraid.

You can only say that if you increase the number of cyclists on the roads tenfold.

How would you go about doing that?

 

[I am Spartacus]

You can only say that if you increase the number of cyclists on the roads tenfold.

How would you go about doing that?

cutting up driving licences

 

[HJ]

Yes I do also use racing as a reason as I'm quite comfortable to ride at 20+ most of the time, but also my ride Tuesday which was ended with a trip in the back of an ambulance, neck brace and back board had nothing at all to do with road conditions, racing, sprinting or anything other than the driver who decided when I was level with his bonnet, looking right at me thought it would be safe to try and turn across me. The damage to my helmet was enough to show that had I not been wearing it I would have suffered head injuries at least.

And this sort of thing happens almost every day to normal non racing cyclists, anyone who things in the split second from impact to hitting the ground and can move their body so that they reduce or remove any chance of getting head injury is sadly mistaken. Those that have not suffered these injuries are lucky and nothing more, they could not do anything about it and other than thinking oh well this proves not wearing one is the right move is just stupid.

Although I personally feel a helmet is the right way to go and would not complain if it was made compulsory, until that day its everyone's own choice, but cut the crap and stop saying not wearing one is safer and you will get less injuries, its all speculation and personal input.

Then again you fail to take into account the possibility that wearing a helmet added to your injuries, the extra weight of the helmet makes it more likely that you will hit your head and if you bother to do a bit of reading you will find there is a body of research which has shown that wearing a helmet increase the risk of neck injury.

 

[summerdays]

Remember this is a thread about whether it changed your mind one way or another rather than a helmet/non helmet bashing thread.

 

[yello]

Remember this is a thread about whether it changed your mind one way or another rather than a helmet/non helmet bashing thread.

Indeed. And should anyone try to make it so, I shall plague it with surreal derails!

 

[Dan B]

Remember this is a thread about whether it changed your mind one way or another rather than a helmet/non helmet bashing thread.

... a timely reminder

I wear a helmet more often for group skating than I used to (is that nearly on topic? It's human-propelled transport on roads, and the helmets are the same), as a result of someone who pointed out that risk compensation is probably negligible when most falls are caused by other people's accidents anyway. I think this was during an online discussion, though I have to admit it was somebody I know in real life also.

In this heat I won't be wearing it tonight though.

 

[swee'pea99]

Remember this is a thread about whether it changed your mind one way or another rather than a helmet/non helmet bashing thread.

Well that would make a very short thread. To whit:

No.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Remember this is a thread about whether it changed your mind one way or another

In that case the answer is YES. I don't wear my helmet as regularly as I did 10 years ago.

 

[ufkacbln]

Since reading this thread I've been persuaded to change my socks more regularly.

That could be a debate to compare with single panniers - do you wear a single sock and do you have to wear matching socks?

 

[D4VOW]

I've never used a helmet and still don't so my answer is no. However, I do own a helmet incase I go somewhere that it's compulsory to wear one.

 

[Bigtwin]

the extra weight of the helmet makes it more likely that you will hit your head

I'm very much in the each to his own camp of helmet wearing, but as a point of order that is complete bollix. Your head the a massive weight just dying to hit the ground at all times; especially when you are T-boned or go over the bars as I did on a road bike, destroying a helmet in the process. Unless you are wearing a WWII tank commander's bucket the few grammes of helmet weight are absolutely irrelevant.

 

[Will1985]

I didn't wear one for "commuting" and short trips because I thought that carrying a helmet around was cumbersome. My low speed crash in October changed my opinion after getting a painful knock on the head, and I've worn one ever since for every journey no matter how short.

Helmets wouldn't have made a difference in my other 2 crashes since then (at 42km/h and 48km/h) but I'm glad I had one on because a few inches difference in falling would have probably made the difference between going to casualty as walking wounded and on a trolley.