Helmets Save Your Bonce

Raging_Bulls":1llnmcv6 said:

Helmets are for people who can't ride.

There, I've said it. Bring out the torches and pitchforks. :twisted:

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Now then, someone eventually says it.

I've been reading this thread and chose not to comment but there have been quite a few posts where people have hinted at similar. ie I'm good on a bike so I won't come off. I consider myself a competent to good city centre cyclist and ride through a very busy city which is currently in a dreadful mess with roadworks, temporary road surface, diversions and so on.

I still have a few close scrapes due to drivers not paying attention and coming out of junctions etc. I've been lucky but I'm not cocky enough to think my skill on a bike will protect me if I'm sideswiped or worse by a motor vehicle. A friend had a bad fall last year from having to pull across to avoid a bus moving towards him without signalling. He got his wheel stuck in a tram line and hit the ground hard, knocked himself out, fractured his eyesocket above his eye. He's is a good rider who commutes across town every day and the same when he is in London where he spends 50% of his time. He wears a helmet now.

That wasn't down to lack of skill.

Chopper1192":2bbt4j9e said:

Question - cycle helmet use is rising, but in the last 15 years there has been a large increase in the numbers of cyclists, especially in Western nations. The number of cyclists not wearing helmets is still actually rising as the the overall number of riders increases As not only the number of cyclists wearing helmets is rising, but the number of cyclists not them is also rising as the number of cyclists in both camps increases together. As the numbers of non lid wearers has also risen why should there be a drop in serious cycling head injury figures?

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In countries were helmet use is compulsory, the number people cycling has reduced by about 25%. The proportion of remaining cyclists using helmets rocketed overnight but nowhere I can find has seen a corresponding reduction in incidence brain injury. There has however been a marked reduction in the incidence of Skull fracture. A clear indication that current helmet designs protect against skull fracture but not brain injury and concussion.

Told you

Re competency, aren't the TDF chaps the best int' world?

You know the punchline.

Re competency, aren't the TDF chaps the best int' world?

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They use them because steroids thin the bones, so they've got skulls like egg shells.

Judging by this year and skin of leather!

Raging_Bulls":2kc2steu said:

Helmets are for people who can't ride.

There, I've said it. Bring out the torches and pitchforks. :twisted:

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15 pages and this is where we have got to, :roll: many an overly confident / arrogant person has made themselves available for a Darwin award............

Imagine a world:

*where for some reason the regulations governing the design and testing of bicycle helmets specify that bicycle helmets should protect against skull fracture but not against concussion and brain injury

*where lots of scientific research on the causes of brain injury and concussion, dating as far back as the 1960s, has been ignored by regulators and helmet manufacturers

*where helmet manufacturers know that their helmets do not protect against concussion and brain injury but correcting this is of no financial advantage

*where helmet buyers and users do not know that their helmets do not protect them protect against concussion and brain injury and so do not put pressure on manufacturers and legislators to improve helmet design, testing and regulation

*where the helmet regulations mean that whilst a helmet will protect from concussion in a 6ft drop test it will not protect when dropped from 3ft

*where helmet manufacturers who design and produce helmets that dramatically exceed the minimum regulated standards cannot advertise the advantages because they will be sued if their helmet was ever to fail to protect as intended

*where helmet regulations and testing procedures are very difficult to revise and so very unlikely to be rewritten to include head injuries and concussion

I am afraid that I am talking about the current realities of this world!

I have now thoroughly researched this subject and this is my conclusion:
The real issue is not whether we should use helmets.
But that the helmets that most of us do use do not adequately protect us against concussion and brain injury?

Helmets are not just there for crashes and big accidents.

i whacked my head on an unseen low hanging branch on Tuesday. my helmet neatly saved any undue injury, deflected the errant branch and let me pootle on my way.way

Raging_Bulls":2u3a19sb said:

Helmets are for people who can't ride.

There, I've said it. Bring out the torches and pitchforks. :twisted:

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a bit of a simplistic conclusion

My peak keeps the flys out of my eyes on my road bike!