Why do people ask about helmets when you scrape your knee ?

[Rassendyll]

I recently had a bit of an impromptu departure from my bike while we were travelling at about 22 mph.

Left a few square inches of knee, hip, knuckles, elbow and shoulder along the road but luckily nothing broken or badly damaged.

Invariably everyone I mentioned it to asked whether I was wearing a helmet. Even people in my club (nearly all helmet wearers) who know I don't.

No amount of pointing to the fact that every bit of me had been damaged EXCEPT my head would convince them that it was utterly irrelevant.

A day later someone I know fell off his ladder and smashed his arm in three places, which is now held together by bolts and pins. Nobody asked him if he was wearing a helmet to build his pergola.

 

[rich p]

imo it's just one of the things that has become synonymous with cycling. I was down the pub at the weekend enjoying a lovley carvery and a couple of drinks. Went outside and was unlocking the bike when someone asked 'Where is your helmet?' When I told him I didn't have one he looked at me in a weird kinda way.

Lee, I think he probably said ,"wears your helmet" to which the reply is ,"yes it does".

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Lee, I think he probably said ,"wears your helmet" to which the reply is ,"yes it does".

... unless you remove the scabs and then it's a bit smoother.



I'll get my coat.

Sorry!

 

[purplepolly]

Went outside and was unlocking the bike when someone asked 'Where is your helmet?'.

I'll bet he doesn't have any difficulty finding his huge nose.

 

[Archie_tect]

The correct reply being, "Aw, mum!!!"

 

[Ian H]

Knee jerk reaction.

 

[tordis]

Went outside and was unlocking the bike when someone asked 'Where is your helmet?' When I told him I didn't have one he looked at me in a weird kinda way.

I keep getting That Look, too. It's not that I don't like helmets or I'm scared of having helmet hair. I feel that my vision is slightly obstructed when I'm wearing one. And also, I fail to notice how a helmet would help me if I fell of the bike. Because I've never fallen head-on to the ground. It's always the knees and the elbows and the wrists that suffer most.

 

[Jane Smart]

Whenever I tell people I have started cycling, that is their first question.

Do you wear a helmet?

I do though

Oh and helmet hair, don't go there !!

 

[John the Monkey]

I wear a helmet, and I just get everyone pointing out the effects of risk compensation, and the results of comparative studies of head injury fatality rates in countries with helmet compulsion and without, to me.

Can't win, can you?

 

[Billloudon]

I left my bike suddenly about 10 weeks ago. The blood was pouring from my leg and knee and all I got was, bet you are glad you were wearing your helmet.
Yes, but what about my F****g Knee?

 

[byegad]

A couple of years ago a local child cycled off the pavement between two cars into the path of a van which couldn't avoid him and knocked him off the bike. His ankle was broken where the van hit him and apart from a graze or two he was otherwise OK. Luckily for him the driver was travelling at only 20 mph in a 40 mph zone.

He got on the local TV news and his mother, concerned that similar accidents could affect other children started a campaign for all children to be given free cycle helmets, or at least one to be supplied with every child's bike and for the use of a helmet to be made compulsory for all children.

Now he wasn't wearing a helmet when he decided to crash test the front of a Ford Transit, and his only significant injury was his ankle, so what would a helmet have done for him in this accident?

Helmets have become the new St Christopher for cyclists. I ride recumbent trikes and don't wear a helmet. I understand why some people on uprights, or recumbents,
do wear them but in all cases their protection factor for your ankle is exactly zero!

 

[Arch]

Whenever I tell people I have started cycling, that is their first question.

Do you wear a helmet?

I do though

Oh and helmet hair, don't go there !!

I think it can be quite cute, on a chap with short hair, when he takes his helmet off and you can see the pattern of the vents....

When my Mum came off and broke her wrist the hospital questionnaire asked whether she was wearing a helmet (she wasn't, I doubt she would have thought of it, she grew up in a time when the Luftwaffe were a bigger issue). No relevance to her wrist at all. Alas, she did also bang her head on the cattle grid she went over on, and cut her forehead, and still has the scar, and I feel guilty every time I see it (It was me suggested the bike ride).

Bizarrely, I wear mine 'sometimes' and it's more often because it's like a 'uniform' when I'm all lycra'd up. But if Mum asks, I wear it all the time.

 

[Fnaar]

Despite my former sig line claiming to have had a helmet that was purple in colour, I haven't worn a helmet since taking up cycling 'properly' again about 6yrs ago. I used to wear one in the 1990s when I commuted to work in London.
I'm aware of the arguments that most cycling injuries aren't head ones, and many car accidents do involve head injuries etc etc... and the counter argument that runs along the lines of well, you don't need it till you need it...
Anyway, I've just succumbed to constant wifely helmet pressure () and bought one (well, it will be delivered soon). I can't promise to wear it all the time, and it isn't purple.

 

[Mr Pig]

someone I know fell off his ladder and smashed his arm. Nobody asked him if he was wearing a helmet.

Good point actually. If a helmet is valid for cycling it's just as valid for building or DIY, maybe even more so.

 

[Fnaar]