Yeah. The thing is, what with the evidence showing no significant protective effect of helmets, people who don't want to wear them don't have to justify it. Given that you're at roughly the same risk of head injury as a pedestrian, I could just as easily ask you to justify why you don't wear a helmet when you walk to the shops.
The Helmet Debate
- Thread starter ComedyPilot
- Start date
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Yeah. The thing is, what with the evidence showing no significant protective effect of helmets, people who don't want to wear them don't have to justify it. Given that you're at roughly the same risk of head injury as a pedestrian, I could just as easily ask you to justify why you don't wear a helmet when you walk to the shops.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
I apologise in advance as I've haven't had time to read all the threads but, is there an underlying concern that wearing a helmet is about to be become mandatory? If it isn't, why are people so polarised about our freedom to choose?
Our freedom to choose is already being eroded. I've done a few sportives this year, and every single one has had mandatory helmets.
Your freedom to choose, if you choose to wear a helmet, is not under threat.
If you choose not to wear one, then that freedom is constantly under threat.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
In that case joggers and marathon runners should have to wear protective headgear to compete.
If there is a logic, then it should be consistant.
If there is a logic, then it should be consistant.
Dan_h
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Reading, UK
Being as cycling is proven to have so many health benefits it ought to be compulsory! 
Whilst your posting may not be off topic, it is certainly not within the spirit of the thread.
'Tis the season of Peace and Love.
No. This is a Helmet Thread.
Spirit and Decency have nothing to do with it.
Christmas, Schmishmas!
This is the thread where whoever is typing at any given moment is right and everyone else in the world is wrong.
It can be no other way. I have a friend who knows a bloke who wrote a paper on traffic collisions. It was 16% less accurate than other papers may or may not have been.
That's a fact.
Arfcollins
Soft southerner.
- Location
- Fareham
The problem with this regular debate is that it is a religious discussion. Both sides have beliefs based on little real data. By that I mean that the number of head injuries per thousand cycled miles is vanishingly small and so is irrelevant to our day to day cycling experiences. We instead base our choices on our own personal experiences, so I suspect that very few who don't wear helmets have had a severe blow to the head when coming to grief off their bike. Conversely those who have had hard contact between head and ground probably think that wearing a helmet has its benefits.Are you telling me helmetism is not a religion?
And like any religious debate, people are rarely convinced that the other person is right.
And that's a fact! (Please excuse me stealing your ™ catchphrase Bicycle).
Davidc
Guru
- Location
- Somerset UK
I'm waiting for a meeting to start and I'm bored, but I have made the wi-fi work with my laptop!
I've been trying to get mine nicked, so I won't have one and noone can complain when I don't wear it. I usually have it on when I use the town bike, so...
I keep leaving it hanging unlocked from the stands my bike's locked to, or just dangling from the handlebars. It's always there when I get back to the bike. I've tried hanging it from empty stands next to the one I'm using. Same result.
I thought "I'll leave it here and see if it's gone by tomorrow". A woman rode up beside me at the traffic lights down the road and handed it to me complete with an admonishment for not wearing it.
Its only use is keeping my head warm when it's very cold and a wooly hat does that better.
If I have an accident I really don't want to be killed by having my head twisted off by a helmet, so please will someone take it!
(Better be after Christmas though or I'll be gifted a new one).
As Arfcollins says, it's all down to personal experience. I happen to have had an accident years ago (before helmets appeared) in which a helmet would have been bad news. I believe, but of course have no proof, that whether a helmet is good bad or neutral depends on the specific accident, and that the weighting for each option is unknown (lack of research).
In summer when it's hot helmets are actively dangerous - risk of passing out from overheating. Apart from that they're generally just uncomfortable and I prefer the feel of the wind in my hair. When it's very cold they keep my wooly hat on.
The probability of an accident while on a bike is so small that as far as I'm concerned it's not worth considering.
The last person's arrived (used a car to get here I think, so she's late) so that's all I'm saying about helmets...
I've been trying to get mine nicked, so I won't have one and noone can complain when I don't wear it. I usually have it on when I use the town bike, so...
I keep leaving it hanging unlocked from the stands my bike's locked to, or just dangling from the handlebars. It's always there when I get back to the bike. I've tried hanging it from empty stands next to the one I'm using. Same result.
I thought "I'll leave it here and see if it's gone by tomorrow". A woman rode up beside me at the traffic lights down the road and handed it to me complete with an admonishment for not wearing it.
Its only use is keeping my head warm when it's very cold and a wooly hat does that better.
If I have an accident I really don't want to be killed by having my head twisted off by a helmet, so please will someone take it!
(Better be after Christmas though or I'll be gifted a new one).
As Arfcollins says, it's all down to personal experience. I happen to have had an accident years ago (before helmets appeared) in which a helmet would have been bad news. I believe, but of course have no proof, that whether a helmet is good bad or neutral depends on the specific accident, and that the weighting for each option is unknown (lack of research).
In summer when it's hot helmets are actively dangerous - risk of passing out from overheating. Apart from that they're generally just uncomfortable and I prefer the feel of the wind in my hair. When it's very cold they keep my wooly hat on.
The probability of an accident while on a bike is so small that as far as I'm concerned it's not worth considering.
The last person's arrived (used a car to get here I think, so she's late) so that's all I'm saying about helmets...
classic33
Leg End Member
Religion being brought into it again!!
OP
OP
ComedyPilot
Secret Lemonade Drinker
- Location
- The Kingdom of Yorkshire
Why is it grown adults try to tell me to wear a helmet, yet haven't swung a leg over a bike since they were 11?
Dayvo
just passin' through
- Location
- 59° 50′ 5.55″ N, 10° 47′ 41.89″ E
Even cricketers and rugby players wear helmets. And that Chelski goalkeeper!
OP
OP
ComedyPilot
Secret Lemonade Drinker
- Location
- The Kingdom of Yorkshire
Only when at the crease or wicket keeping, the out fielders don't bother. Perhaps we should start a campaign to make ALL cricketers wear helmets - AND golfers too! I wonder how many people are killed on golf courses every year?
Rugby players should wear helmets, because they have 22 other (muscular) blokes trying to do them irreversible harm, so it would be crazy not to.
And the mainstream media, (and people with no sense) still expect me to wear a sweaty polystyrene helmet whilst I potter about at 10-15 mph on quiet back roads?
Rugby players should wear helmets, because they have 22 other (muscular) blokes trying to do them irreversible harm, so it would be crazy not to.
And the mainstream media, (and people with no sense) still expect me to wear a sweaty polystyrene helmet whilst I potter about at 10-15 mph on quiet back roads?
OP
OP
ComedyPilot
Secret Lemonade Drinker
- Location
- The Kingdom of Yorkshire
And golf green keepers should wear helmets....they're just asking for bother by not wearing one......
Davidc
Guru
- Location
- Somerset UK
And they don't even wear one while walking!
