Detention Lines: I will wear a helmet.

[benno1uk]

I don't wear a helmet due mainly to not having got round to it and probably if I'm honest not wanting to look 'too serious' (I.e. All the gear no idea). But despite this I do actually believe that wearing a helmet would benefit a rider in the event of sustaining a blow to the head. It's common sense that protecting the head will reduce impact damage to some extent isn't it? I must admit the more I ride the more likely I think I will be to get a helmet.

 

[handsome joe]

Thanks for all the messages of support. I'm getting fairly adept at one-arm tea making....._/)....

I'm not and never will judge people who don't wear helmets. Me and i think most people who have decided to wear a helmet realise it will not save lives. Saying that it saves lives misses the point. As regards head injuries, well i think it would make a difference. I mean the only way to test it would be to throw myself off my bike and see what works? After whats happened to me recently that's the last thing i want to do! I do think until i had an accident i did create a sense of false security with the thought of nothing has ever happened and nothing will.....if i keep my nose clean. But each to their own as they say.

 

[col]

Do you wear a visor, does the helmet have "snag points", was there in fact only an impact that occurrred because of the additional bulk of the helmet - it is quite possible that your head may have missed her nose altogether, but the protruding 1" - 1.5 " of helmet were the prime reason for the impact!



There is also inconclusive evidence that car drivers should wear helmets for the above reasons .... Drive a car - wear a helmet?

Like i said other things happen.

 

[Brock]

I've decided evolution knows best how to protect my head. Thousands of years of design have gone into the shape of my skull, the length of my neck, the width of my shoulders and the fact that every sinew in my body is hardwired to do everything it can to protect my head when it is falling towards the floor.
I just don't believe slapping a cheap lump of scabby padding around my skull is going to help prevent anything except my innate instinctual ability to prevent it from impacting the floor in the event of a spill.
Cycle helmets are a fashion accessory, and liable to increase your chance of neck injury and head impact. I'd rather bungee a pillow round my head.
I could be wrong though, they might just save your life.

 

[ufkacbln]

I'm not sure that many helmet wearers would presume that they will be saved from more serious injuries than bumps, bruises and cuts by their helmet. after all, they're only a lightweight bit of foam.

It's like wearing gloves. it's going to help reduce abrasion, but it's not going to stop your hand getting broken.

I for one dont wear my helmet to stop my scull being crushed. I wear it to avoid banging my head directly into things.

I'd rather nut the pavement with a helmet on that without.

All of which is equally valid when a pedestrian....

 

[Brock]

All of which is equally valid when a pedestrian....

The thing with being a pedestrian is that you don't expect to fall over and hit your head. I'm pretty sure some of the cyclists here are actually expecting to fall off and smack their brains out on the road.... UNLESS they wear a helmet. Phew, lucky there's safety-wear manufacturers to save them.

 

[4F]

The thing with being a pedestrian is that you don't expect to fall over and hit your head. I'm pretty sure some of the cyclists here are actually expecting to fall off and smack their brains out on the road.... UNLESS they wear a helmet. Phew, lucky there's safety-wear manufacturers to save them.

I don't expect to fall and bang my head as either a ped or a cyclist and don't wear a helmet for either alleged highly dangerous activity .

 

[BentMikey]

All of which is equally valid when a pedestrian....

And yet virtually no-one wears a helmet walking anywhere, when walking is roughly as dangerous as cycling. What makes cycling so special that it needs a helmet?

 

[dudi]

3 things make walking less dangerous than cycling.


1) Speed. i don't know about you, but i cycle faster than I walk. therefore any accident is likely to happen faster, and likely to hurt more.

2) we share the roads with cars. who travel very fast. if cars were driving along pavements regularly, perhaps peds would wear protection.

3) contact points with the ground: the amount of surface area of tyre in contact with the road is many times lower than the area in contact when walking. even the sole of just one shoe is many many times larger.


But anyway, you seem to be missing the point again.

I dont think any real cyclist expects their helmet to prevent a MASSIVE head injury.

It'll just help a bit if you topple off your bike and knock your head a bit. not that we're expecting to fall off, or that we somehow posess lower bike handling skills. helmet clad cyclists are just as optimistic and skilled as non helmet clad ones. Helmets are just a precaution.

Let me ask you a simple question.
If you had to headbutt a wall, Would you rather do it with or without a helmet?

 

[Riding in Circles]

No-one on here can make a definitive claim that a helmet saved their life.

Mikey, that is really one of those very stupid statements trotted out by people from time to time, I came off a motorcycle and know the helmet saved my life because my head hit the side of a van at 45 mph, without the helmet I would have been dead. Your comment is now, "well you don't know that because you have not done it without the helmet to prove it", that is what your original statement sets you up to say. There may well be people who have had the same type of impact twice, once with and once without the helmet, but on the occasion without they have died so cannot make the claim, hence your statement is stupid and lacks judgement. I know you have seen it used by others but that just makes it a popular stupid statement.

 

[BentMikey]

You simply can't know that, Catrike. It's not a stupid statement, it's a true statement. On the contrary, it's those who claim their helmet saved their lives that lack judgement. It may or may not have, but it can't be claimed as fact.

And dudi, just because you think walking is much less dangerous than cycling, doesn't make it so. The facts say otherwise.

 

[dudi]

What facts say otherwise?

can you conclusively prove that walking is just as dangerous as cycling? This is asked in the same manner as you require conclusive proof that helmets reduce injury before you will accept them as a potentially useful item of ptrective clothing.

 

[Origamist]

Pedestrian helmet

 

[Riding in Circles]

You simply can't know that, Catrike. It's not a stupid statement, it's a true statement. On the contrary, it's those who claim their helmet saved their lives that lack judgement. It may or may not have, but it can't be claimed as fact.

And dudi, just because you think walking is much less dangerous than cycling, doesn't make it so. The facts say otherwise.

Prove me wrong then, go smack your head of the side of a van at 45mph and see if your family are left fatherless and husbandless, it is a stupid request to validate your stupid statement, if you cannot come up with a more sensible way of proving your helmet argument then you shouldn't bother.
The simple fact it that there are very few head injuries related to cycling, the whole argument is one of personal choice, I choose to rarely wear a helmet, when I do, it is for two reasons, visibility and warmth, not protection, if I rode something that I could go over the handlebars of I may consider the protection angle but I don't, and I would rather retain it as a choice rather than have someone rule I must, I would rather have a choice to wear a seatbelt although I would always wear one while driving, I would rather have a choice on most things. I can make an informed choice based on facts and experience, mine and others.

 

[BentMikey]

LOL, dudi! It's not something that's in contention, a bit like the road tax argument, although I accept that it might be surprising to many.