I always wear a helmet, not because I feel unsafe on a bike, but because I feel unsafe around the car here!
I've trashed one helemt in the last year when a SUV pulled out in front of me at a round about 300m from my house when heading to work. I hit near the front wheel and just rotated around the handle bars and hit my head HARD on the hood, then rolled doen the side of the fender to land on the grond next to my bike. BIG cracks in the helmet just above my left eye and hurt my elbow pretty badly (nothing showed ont he first xray so didn't go back for a second).
If I had not been wearing a helmet might have been my skull that was cracked not the helemt. That would have meant a few days in hospital, not a day off work getting xrays (elbow swelled so much I could bend or extend my elbow) and with a mild headache.
My girl friend had a similar experience a few weeks later. Worse driving but less injuries. Similar result with the helmet.
Accidents happen, and you can't predict them or always avoid them (no matter how special you think you are). If I break my arm it will heal. I smash my brain and I'm a vegetable. If I'm in a bad enough accident to do enough damage to my helmet to cause more than a bad concussion then the rest of me will likely be pretty messed up as well!
I always wear a helemt, even when riding to the shops.
I've trashed one helemt in the last year when a SUV pulled out in front of me at a round about 300m from my house when heading to work. I hit near the front wheel and just rotated around the handle bars and hit my head HARD on the hood, then rolled doen the side of the fender to land on the grond next to my bike. BIG cracks in the helmet just above my left eye and hurt my elbow pretty badly (nothing showed ont he first xray so didn't go back for a second).
If I had not been wearing a helmet might have been my skull that was cracked not the helemt. That would have meant a few days in hospital, not a day off work getting xrays (elbow swelled so much I could bend or extend my elbow) and with a mild headache.
My girl friend had a similar experience a few weeks later. Worse driving but less injuries. Similar result with the helmet.
Accidents happen, and you can't predict them or always avoid them (no matter how special you think you are). If I break my arm it will heal. I smash my brain and I'm a vegetable. If I'm in a bad enough accident to do enough damage to my helmet to cause more than a bad concussion then the rest of me will likely be pretty messed up as well!
I always wear a helemt, even when riding to the shops.