Poll- Do you wear a helmet?

After a few bad bike wrecks, I never leave the house without my helmet, whether it is a road ride, cross ride, or just a trip around town. I was surprised to see how many riders around Kutztown, PA don't wear their helmet on group rides. Back home in Atlanta there is only a couple of old soviet block riders that don't wear a helmet, but it seems to be more of a trend here.

So, how many of you always wear your helmet?? Any stories of a helmet saving your life?

Jafer Beizer
Kudzu.com U23 Cycling Team

 

I'll never ride without a helmet again. I busted my skull pretty hard about 17 years ago. It took a long time to recover. I'm lucky to still be here. I would have been way better off if I had a helmet on.

 

Unfortunately, there are alot of old timers around T-Town that started racing way before helmets were standard. The newcomers in the Lehigh Valley try to emulate these guys because half of them are in the US cycling hall of fame. Unfortunately, it has passed a bad tradition down to another generation.

I always were my helmet. Almost everybody in Philadelphia wears one on every ride. You are stupid if you don't.

 

i always wear a helmet. to not wear one is to say, "oh i wont crash." a completely ignorant point of view that i wont take. When i see a biker with a helmet, i see a biker that knows what he/she's doing. when i see a person on a bike with no helmet, i think, amateur.

 

I always wear helmet, road or MTB. 2 weeks ago took a nice double cartwheel over the bars on our weekly MTB ride, bruised shoulders, knees, hands, PRIDE .
The next morning I was cleaning gear and noticed my helmet had a crease about 1/2 in deep 4 in long across the top of my head and I never felt my head hit a rock. Best $50 I ever spent( Giro), and my new one was a Specialized for only $40

 

I'm glad to hear that most people wear their helmets. In the eight years that I've been riding, I have almost split two helmets in half from hitting a tree and a rock. I know that if I didn't have my helmet, I would have been in a spot of bother. I have been a little luckier on the road. I have hit a car because it stopped in front of me and my teeth took the hardest impact on the back windshield but my helmet still did it's job protecting my forehead.

Back home in Atlanta if we don't wear our helmet riding around the parking lot or to the registration tent at a race, the officials threaten to fine us if they see us without our helmet. Are your officials as strict with the helmet policy? From the races I did in New Jersey they didn't seem to care.

Kudzu.com U23 Cycling Team

 

I don't think they care that much in South Jersey. I know in Pennsylvania, Judy Miller will definately impose a fine if she sees you without a helmet. She fined a friend of mine a few years back. Frankly, I am glad that she is tough on this.

 

100% of the time.

There are NO GOOD reasons NOT to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle on the road - PERIOD, end of story. In Vancouver, BC I frequently see recreational cyclists tooling around the city w/o helmets and just think to myself how stupid they are.

Like your mother told you a long time ago, the burner on the oven is hot and you better not touch it or you'll get burned...apparently some cyclists will have to experience a cracked cranium to understand wearing a helmet IS cool, and very smart...

 

If you have someone who balks at wearing a helmet, show them this thread from another board. This dude was out on a quick little neighborhood jaunt on a bike path -safe right. Not so much. He's lucky to be alive and a walking poster boy for why you should never go out without a helmet.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=111566

(I actually came across this a link from a 3rd board this morning.... its powerful stuff and *VERY* graphic, so viewer beware)

 

I used to, but I got hit by a car making a left and the helmet was damaged. I just have not bothered to get another. That was 5 years ago.

Honestly, I really don't care. I have been hit a few times without a helmet in the 80's and with a helmet twice in the 90's and am still alive to tell the tale.

It is probably better to have one on than not- but so what.

 

I regard gloves as better safety gear than a helmet. I can do a decent job of protecting the head if I don't have to worry about my hands . As a lifelong motorcyclist ( ATGATT all the way) I feel cycling helmets are pretty mickey mouse for serious head protection . My cycling is strictly rural and if I get clipped from behind with a pickup truck, a helmet will not change the outcome in the slightest . I have gone over the bars once - of course I had the foresight to have the bucket on that day - no strikes to head, no clav fracture, badly fractured a couple of ribs .
I'll probably get trashed for my lax attitude, but hey, I still like Lance too .

 

I ALWAYS wear it. I value my mind & so does my family, friends and people I work with.

I got knocked off on the road a couple of months ago(sun strike for the motorist and she moved too close to me - stopped and paid to replace my gear etc - good on her). My helmet took a hard hit - cracked it but protected my skull well

I think people who ride without them are foolish
Even though its illegal to ride without one here in NZ some 1/2 wits still do - often riding on footpaths where they shouldn't be too.

 

Brilliant logic!

 

No trashing here, your free to ride how you like........................................



But, a buddy was hit from behind by a PU while riding, headlight hit right on his left butt cheek and launched him over the bars headfirst into a pile of rocks/gravel. Head/helmet was the first point of contact, road rash on the side of his face right up to the helmet line, then nothing. Dr said the helmet probably saved his life.

Collar bone and ribs broken as well as a very bruised pelvis.

 

I almost never wear a helmet. But I live in a very rural area with little traffic, and few hills.

I swear by rear view mirrors, though. And I USE it, I say that because I know a lot of people who ride with mirrors but have never conditioned themselves to check it much.

I believe that awareness is an important skill while riding a bicycle. You can either be aware of your surroundings, and in so doing most likely prevent the accident itself, or you can dress yourself up to be safer in the event of the accident. I'd rather just not get into an accident, myself.

Now, that said, there are times when I certainly do advocate wearing a helmet. Whenever I'm in an event, where there are a lot of people, and I'm most likely to be in a paceline, I'll certainly wear one. Whenever I'm traveling, touring, or in an unfamiliar area, I'll wear one. If I'm somewhere where there are big hills, or lots of traffic, or hazards such as that, I'll always wear one. But normally I prefer not to. Shoot, up until a few years ago, even the pros rarely wore helmets.

 

A Helmet will cut down the incidence of serious brain injury by 80%, i think that speaks for itself

 

What I don't get is that some people think that if there's not much traffic and they aren't taking screaming descents then its all safe....
I know more people who've been seriously injured on the local bike path than have been hit by cars.... I've also personally cracked 3 helmets in the last 2 years (OK, I race and that ups the risk, and one of those was damaged while it wasn't on my head- freak accident a truck rolled over and flipped one of those concrete parking space barriers into my bike and helmet that were leaned nearby)

Dude in the mt bike forum thread was riding along slowly on a deserted bike path when he got his 3 skull fractures

I've heard all the arguments against and I'm not convinced. I always wear a helmet, since I value my head.

 

Yes, and I won't even sit on a bike unless I'm wearing one.

A few years ago I fell off my MTB in some woods near me at speed and hit my head on some rocks. Basically my helmet was a total write off. It was cacked in several places and very badly scratched in others. Luckily for me the friend I was riding with is actually a paramedic so I had just about the best first aid cover possible, although he did say he didn't want to think what might have happened had I not been wearing a helmet. It might have saved my life; I don't know. It certainly saved me from some pretty nasty injuries, and as result of that incident I absolutely refuse to ride without wearing a helmet. No helmet - no ride. It's that simple.

 

I always wear a helmut, one for safety and secondly it's a hefty fine from our friendly police if caught not wearing one

 

if you live in a rural area with 'little' traffic, there's probably even less bicycles for what traffic there is to practice their avoidance techniques leading to the enevitable... as drivers are notorious for 'multi-tasking' while driving

Then you state that you ALWAYS wear a helmet in the following:

• whenever I'm in an event/paceline (meaning they let you race?)
• where there are a lot of people (sidewalks?)
• whenever I'm traveling, touring, or in an unfamiliar area (sound advice, but tell me... what's the difference between a rural road near you and one that's far away?)
• if I'm somewhere where there are big hills (why... do big hills scare you?)
• lots of traffic (??... traffic doesn't cause accidents... inattention does [both driver & cyclist] & generally only one car hits you at a time)
• hazards such as these (pretty much describes cycling in general, doesn't it?)

You are free to ride as you wish, but are, in my opinion, an accident statistic waiting to happen. I ALWAYS wear my helmet (since 1990 or so) and thankfully have never needed one. Anyone who doesn't is foolish to say the least. The above analogy by another poster likening not wearing a helmet to testing a burner to see if it's on was great. Yes, it's true that we all could conceive of situations where a helmet would do no good, but that's looking at the glass half empty and rather a defeatist outlook. I prefer to see the glass half full and would like to keep it that way if at all possible. I wear a helmet for those siuations where it'll do it's job and I come out no worse for wear in the hopes that I can ride another day!!