I normally don't use a helment. I use a helment often as part of my job, and all too often find it to be more of a hazard (typically due to hangups and its weight). Some of when I find it to be a problem also traslate to biking.
Helmet: Yes Or No?
- Thread starter Gelsemium
- Start date
Almost the same here. The only time I fell from a bike and hit my head, I was wearing a hairnet, and I had a minor concussion. That was about 40 years ago. When I saw my MD, he told me he used to race in Italy, and he'd had several.Gelsemium said:
On the other hand, my boss slid head-first into a curb after an altercation with a car on his ride home from work. He credits the helmet with saving his life, or at least preventing serious brain damage.
Even if I didn't wear one, I would not advise anyone to follow my example.
I always wear one, too many studies and too many emergency room doctors swear by them, and one accident I had with my head going through a side window of a car breaking the glass then whacking my head with the steel door post from the side then whacking the pavement hard with my head again, all in all it totalled my helmet but not my head.
It would probably be critical to use a helmet where traffic is horrid, though unless I was somewhere like New York, NY, I would advise against cycling the area in question. That's why I go away from traffic.
Usually, what prompts me to use a helment also has long since prompted me to stay my butt well away from that area on a bicycle.
Usually, what prompts me to use a helment also has long since prompted me to stay my butt well away from that area on a bicycle.
Traffic isn't, by far, the only thing that can make you take a spill. Frost, wet leaves, tree roots, bumps and potholes, critters running into your path - I've almost wiped out from all of those things, and I did wipe out on a wooden bridge on our safety path one time when it was coated in frost early on a cold fall morning.lectraplayer said:
I am definitely for a helmet, but I don't want to be forced having to wear one when I don't feel like it. In Australia, for example, it is mandatory to wear a helmet, and you are facing a fine if you don't have one on your head if the police stops you on your bike.
I usually wear a helmet when I go on a long or dangerous trip, but I don't wear a helmet to work or when I drive around my neighborhood. My only excuse is that I am usually driving really slow, but, of course, that's no real excuse.
I usually wear a helmet when I go on a long or dangerous trip, but I don't wear a helmet to work or when I drive around my neighborhood. My only excuse is that I am usually driving really slow, but, of course, that's no real excuse.
In my opinion, it really depends. If you cycle on the road much without any bike lanes, than definitely yes! Don't risk your life for some fashion thing. I myself ussually cycle on bike lanes, which go on the sidewalk or in the forest, so I dont use helmet, because there is really very little chance of something happening. But if you're a professional cyclist that cycles long distances on the road, then use helmet.
I always wear one, even if it was just the one bought at Wal Mart when I just started riding my bike. I thought it was illegal to ride without one in California because somebody said so. Now, that I think about it, I never actually check whether it is actually true or not.
If it was okay to ride bike without one, then I would probably be more reluctant to buy one. However, once I buy it, I will try to keep using it. I am not going into the debate of whether it matters or not but I think wearing the cheap one that I bought at Wal Mart won't make too much difference than not wearing one.
If it was okay to ride bike without one, then I would probably be more reluctant to buy one. However, once I buy it, I will try to keep using it. I am not going into the debate of whether it matters or not but I think wearing the cheap one that I bought at Wal Mart won't make too much difference than not wearing one.
20 or 30 years ago no one wore a helmet? Incorrect, I knew lots of people including myself who wore one, in fact in 1976 I bought the first hardshell helmet called the Biker. I know the date of the helmet purchase because I also bought the first year Trek went into production, a frame labeled TX900, I bought the two items at the same time along with some other now vintage components,including an almost all but useless square headlight, but I did improve it with a halogen bulb later. Prior to that a lot of biker wore that useless (though we didn't know that at the time) leather helmets, can't recall the brand that I owned but those leather helmets had been around since about the 1930's, a lot of people I knew wore those dumb leather helmets and continued to do so for a while even after the Bell Biker came out.
I personally think the hard shell material Bell used in that Biker helmet is superior to any hard shell material for bike helmets on the market today, that shell was virtually indestructible, when I crashed my head with that helmet all it did was compress the styrofoam, there was no damage to the shell other than scratches, the newer thinner shells would have been destroyed along with the inside foam. I took a hammer to the Biker after I crashed it to see how much damage it would take, I pounded many times to get that thing just to crack, however when I threw away my last helmet and took a hammer to it, the hammer went straight through on the first shot. The Biker was heavy due to that shell and peoples necks are just too weak to hold a helmet up so manufactures made them super light and super fragile, though I never had any issues holding the helmet nor did anyone else I knew who went on long rides with that helmet, but modern man has evolved into a race of weaklings who can't even squeeze their water bottles anymore.
I personally think the hard shell material Bell used in that Biker helmet is superior to any hard shell material for bike helmets on the market today, that shell was virtually indestructible, when I crashed my head with that helmet all it did was compress the styrofoam, there was no damage to the shell other than scratches, the newer thinner shells would have been destroyed along with the inside foam. I took a hammer to the Biker after I crashed it to see how much damage it would take, I pounded many times to get that thing just to crack, however when I threw away my last helmet and took a hammer to it, the hammer went straight through on the first shot. The Biker was heavy due to that shell and peoples necks are just too weak to hold a helmet up so manufactures made them super light and super fragile, though I never had any issues holding the helmet nor did anyone else I knew who went on long rides with that helmet, but modern man has evolved into a race of weaklings who can't even squeeze their water bottles anymore.
Always, 100% of the time. I wouldn't go one block without one. I am a pretty safe rider, I haven't crashed since I was 8 years old, but I don't take risks, like ever. I wear a helmet because there are cars on the road and you never no who might not be paying attention. A helmet could mean the difference between life and death. Even getting hit at a slower speed could result in a serious head injury depending on how you are hit.
What bugs me is that in my town, the cyclists who don't wear helmets are also often the ones who are least aware of the vehicles around them, and are often the ones who do annoying things that irritate the drivers. Most of the time when I see someone biking who is wearing a helmet, they are also riding very responsibly and politely.
What bugs me is that in my town, the cyclists who don't wear helmets are also often the ones who are least aware of the vehicles around them, and are often the ones who do annoying things that irritate the drivers. Most of the time when I see someone biking who is wearing a helmet, they are also riding very responsibly and politely.
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