Helmets!

[Cavalier]

I always wear a helmet whatever bike I'm riding, one for road and one for mountain, replaced every three years without fail.

I can't believe some people, one guy on Facebook said that he didn't wear a helmet as cuts and bruises heal... I've never heard of internal bleeding, comas, cracked skulls and brain damage just healing over have you?

Just say to people who don't wear them:
What's the height your heads at whilst riding at? 7ft.
How high's that drop you're on? 3ft.
Now go and headbutt the ground at 10ft without a helmet and see how it feels!

The person on Facebook was correct in alluding to the kind of injuries that a helmet is designed to protect you from, namely cuts and bruises. It's irresponsible to mislead people into thinking that a bike helmet will protect them from the sort of injuries you're describing as it will not and is not designed to do so..

 

[Cavalier]

Thinking about this blame/guilt culture that cycling seems to attract I remember this summer watching my older sister taking her five year old son to the local park with his new bike. When she helped him onto his bike she popped a helmet onto his head and off he trundled. Later when he was bored of cycling he took his helmet off and joined all the other children in the playground on the swings, roundabout, climbing frame and all the other things you find in a playground. And yet looking back at that day it has just struck me that neither he nor a single other child in that playground were wearing helmets while carrying out activities that are far far more dangerous than trundling off on a small bike with stabilisers.

So the question is, did all these mothers and fathers hate their children and wish them injuries as some posters on this thread have suggested or do we as a society have this ridiculous sense of danger when it comes to cycling propagated by a motoring lobby that uses all the ability it has to pass their own responsibility for others safety onto the victims?

 

[Woz]

Thinking about this blame/guilt culture that cycling seems to attract I remember this summer watching my older sister taking her five year old son to the local park with his new bike. When she helped him onto his bike she popped a helmet onto his head and off he trundled. Later when he was bored of cycling he took his helmet off and joined all the other children in the playground on the swings, roundabout, climbing frame and all the other things you find in a playground. And yet looking back at that day it has just struck me that neither he nor a single other child in that playground were wearing helmets while carrying out activities that are far far more dangerous than trundling off on a small bike with stabilisers.

So the question is, did all these mothers and fathers hate their children and wish them injuries as some posters on this thread have suggested or do we as a society have this ridiculous sense of danger when it comes to cycling propagated by a motoring lobby that uses all the ability it has to pass their own responsibility for others safety onto the victims?

Good post. I think this is about the fourth helmet debate / discussion I have read on RB, and always new angles come up.

Ultimately, I see it as a personal risk assessment thing. As your post suggested the risk assessment case above is highly skewed and my own research points to aggressive and clever marketing by Bell just at the right time of MTB gaining popularity. That more than helped to put
cycling in the danger catagory and
promoted a tough cool new sport image.

A look at the Klunker vids shows
no helmets, even though sausage
and string road helmets were available.

What gets my goat up is when laws are passed enforcing helmet wearing - based either on a knee jerk reaction, lobbying by the manufactures, bad evidence, ignorance and shift the problem to the potential victim under a smoke screen of a caring nanny state (yes, using the disgusting tactics too).

 

[captaincosmic]

Re:

I am not for a law telling people what to do
It's a choice and up to you if you care
I saw Fluffys helmet after he hit the Land Rover and it convinced me to buy an Urge enduro style helmet to protect the back of my head.
It amuses me how passionate the non helmet wearers are rest assured I could care less if you smoke too it's not my problem.