No Helmet = No Seatbelt!!!

Arrrgghh after trawling threads trying to make an informed choice on wearing a helmet with my own safety at heart I found it frustrating at the number of people who seem to form a relationship with not wearing a cycle helmet and not wearing a seatbelt.....

It's statistically proven that wearing a seatbelt in a car crash will improve your chances in the event of an accident, there's evidence....

There doesn't seem to be any such evidence about wearing a helmet on a bike!

If you do have some statistics could you post em? In fact stupid as it sounds, there seems to be evidence that wearing a helmet may decrease your survival odds. Someone posted a link to http://www.cyclehelmets.org/mf.html?1012 which has some pretty interesting points on the subject.

Could we avoid the, "i fell off and my helmet split, it saved my life" testimonies. I'd genuinely like to know if we've all been brain washed into wearing a helmet and if a little piece of plastic is giving a false sense of security or if it statistically saves more lives.

Maybe the helmet poll should really have been along the lines of,

(I think) wearing a helmet has saved my life at least once!
(I think) wearing a helmet has saved my life loads of times!
I have wrecked once and the helmet made no difference!
I have wrecked loads of times and the helmet made no difference!
I'm amazing and have never wrecked, but i wear a helmet anyway just in case...

Cheers.....

http://www.bhsi.org/stats.htm

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"There is alot of blather here that does not float the hooey barge." boudreaux 11/22/2005

Down under we have no choice its illegal not to wear a helmet just like its illegal not to wear a seat belt.

Wear a helmet - PROTECT YOUR MELON!!

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"I have no karma - I had to get rid of my karma, because it runned over my dogma..."

I believe that helmets increase your chances of surviving a crash, therefore I wear a helmet any time I am on a bicycle. I also believe that it should be the choice of the rider whether or not he wears a helmet, and not be mandated by the government. I am tired of politicians and bureaucrats trying to protect me from myself!

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One life, one chance. Don't waste it!

The literature on helmet wearing is by no means as strong as the seatbelt literature. I work with car safety engineers who tell me that they believe that a helmet would be very worthwhile for protecting your noggin from the effects of a simple vertical fall off your bike, but not much chop for anything else. I think it's worthwhile wearing one, but don't let it reduce your care and vigilance one iota.

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"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."

First off, if you race you are required to wear a helmet. Same with any organized ride. Even most casual rides will stress the helmet need. I've seen plenty of riders go down while racing, even sometimes on an agressive training ride. When you see a teammate's blood pooling up in the road and then see him walk out of the hospital 3 days later with only a concussion you'll understand. I don't need a study to prove helmets save lives.

The consensus is that wearing a helmet will aid you in an accident, but perversely the wearing of a helmet causes cars etc. to pass closer thereby increasing the risk of an accident in the first place.

Those kind of car drivers though should not be allowed on the roads and many countries are now bringing psychological testing into the license structure to remove them from the roads.

Walking away from an accident always beats riding away in an ambulance.

This research was done in Britain, where helmet-wearing is optional and consequently is perceived as distinguishing competent riders from the inept. Drivers, as the story goes, avoid the inept but steer close to the "competent". I guess this distinction may apply to most countries but not in Australia, where drivers are still able to regard all riders as inept.

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"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."

Thanks for the link,



Actually those stats. aren’t as scary as I though they would be. If you put them another way,



In 2005 in the USA, by choosing to ride a bike you gave yourself a



0.64% chance of a visit to an emergency room

0.079% chance of suffering a head injury

0.0009% chance of dying



Using the 45% - 88% estimate for avoidable head injuries.



In terms of having an accident, helmet or not you had between 89.1% and 94.4% chance of not suffering a head injury. Sticking a helmet on your head, you improved your odds to between 93.2% and 98.5%



In terms of choosing to riding a bike overall with a helmet or not, the odds of you suffering a head injury were between, 0.0355% and 0.0694%. Sticking a helmet on your head improved your odds leaving you with only between 0.0095% and 0.0434% chance of suffering a head injury. (Someone might want to check my maths)



Excluding the theories such that wearing a helmet increases actually improves your chances of having an accident in the first place. These then are available facts about choosing to or not to wear a helmet (in the USA) right?



Has anyone read Richard Ballantine’s book City Cycling? It’s a good read and has some very good safety advice on how you ride and attitude towards fellow road users.



Cheers.

The only time I hit my head in a fall off the bike I was wearing a "hairnet." My wife has been making me wear a real helmet, though, since 1993.

Isn't that what a forum is for--for people to share their personal experience with the equipment we are discussing? I wouldn't be surprised at all that there are lots of instances where a person has been involved in an accident where he either believes a helmet has possibly saved his life or prevented a head injury, but the person has been able to walk or ride away from the accident with cuts, abrasions and bruises that don't require medical attention, or he may require medical attention, but the head smack doesn't go in to the record. The helmet did its job but fails to get included in the statistics. That has been the case with me four times in 35 years---twice mountain biking and two times riding in fast packs on the road. In one of those mountain bike instances I actually did go to the emergency hospital to xray broken ribs, but since the helmet worked, I forgot to report the head smack part of the accident to the medical examiner. In one of the road accidents, my cuts and abrasions were treated by an EMT at the end of a long distance race, but my crushed helmet and saved noggin didnt' became part of any statistics.

I had a lot of other falls on the mountain bike in the 80s and early 90s where I never hit my head. I suppose I sound like a real klutz, but I think if you are pushing your personal limits on a mountain bike, trying to go as fast as you can, racing friends down the mountain, etecetera, you are likely to have a few falls as part of the process. In road riding, I would guess that riding or racing in fast packs greatly increases your chances of eventually hitting the turf (not necessarily hitting your head though), because in those instances your ability to keep the bike upright are not only dependent on your own bike handling skills, but are also dependent on the bike handling skills of the other riders around you. A moment's inattention from just one rider can end up taking down much of the pack regardless how skillful a rider you personally may be.

I also believe my white/silver helmet increases my visibility to cars as well as hides a portion of my ugly bald noggin from the sun's harmful rays. I will take the helmet, thankyou!

what is the point of riding a mountain bike on a pissin pavemnet with a safety helmet on doing 5mph someone tell me please - i dont wear helmets only due to overheating but i was doing 20mph on the road - risk i know but ill take the risk - then i see a cyclist mentioned above - my heart really goes out to these poor guys!!! are you one??

Even if you are sitting still, your head is going to be between 1 and 2 meters off the ground. If you fall over, your head will hit the pavement with considerable force. Its better to be wearing a helmet than not wearing a helmet any time your head hits the ground.

It is especially important for the fellows riding a MTB at 5 miles an hour to be wearing a helmet because they are obviously inexperienced riders who can really use the extra protection. I wear one and have 40 years experience. Never had a problem with overheating. BTW, with your "well equipped" bicycle, why were you only riding at 20 MPH on the road? That is about 7 MPH less than what I do on my Shimano 105 equipped Raleigh when I'm winding down from intervals!

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One life, one chance. Don't waste it!

If you fall over, your head will hit the pavement with considerable force -

WILL IT NOW DO YOU NOT THINK TO USE YOUR HANDS ???

I wear one and have 40 years experience. Never had a problem with overheating

GOOD FOR YOU

why were you only riding at 20 MPH on the road? That is about 7 MPH less than what I do on my Shimano 105 equipped Raleigh when I'm winding down from intervals

I WAS SLOWING DOWN FOR TRAFFIC LIGHTS - I NORMALLY DO 30MPH - ABOUT 3 MPH MORE THAN YOU OLD GUY!!!