Who wears a skid lid on training rides?

[wayfastwhitey]

Who here wears a skid lid on trainig rides? I don't I hate them, don't have much confidence in them to protect you, testing is limited to specific impacts, but in the real world, I haven.t experienced a plumb bob falling on my head from a prescribed height.
I think it is a freedom of choice, I've heard too many times ( while passing people ) " nice helmet!" , so for those of you who are advocates, I've heard that one too many times. Also I think exclusion from some group rides for not wearing a helmet is bogus.

 

[Walrus]

Who here wears a skid lid on trainig rides? I don't I hate them, don't have much confidence in them to protect you, testing is limited to specific impacts, but in the real world, I haven.t experienced a plumb bob falling on my head from a prescribed height.
I think it is a freedom of choice, I've heard too many times ( while passing people ) " nice helmet!" , so for those of you who are advocates, I've heard that one too many times. Also I think exclusion from some group rides for not wearing a helmet is bogus.

This is a can of worms topic that has been argued to death...

In Australia, it's the law, so not worth arguing here.

 

[lumpy]

I guess it comes down to how much your head is worth. Mine is priceless, so I wear a helmet.
The problem with it beeing a "freedom of choice", well that's fine but when your brain dead, can I use my freedom of choice to not pay for your hospitalization?

lumpy

 

[Doctor Morbius]

Who here wears a skid lid on trainig rides? I don't I hate them, don't have much confidence in them to protect you, testing is limited to specific impacts, but in the real world, I haven.t experienced a plumb bob falling on my head from a prescribed height.
I think it is a freedom of choice, I've heard too many times ( while passing people ) " nice helmet!" , so for those of you who are advocates, I've heard that one too many times. Also I think exclusion from some group rides for not wearing a helmet is bogus.

I seldom wear a brain bucket either but you can expect to get seriously flamed for posting that question here. I do wear gloves though. Instinctually the first thing a person does when falling is put out their hand. Most of the accidents I've had in the past 15 years have been due to losing my balance from going too slow and falling over.

I can't begin to count the number of times I've wrecked on a bicycle throughout the course of my life and I've never ever ever hurt my head. I'm talking about being 14 years old and jumping ramps 15+ feet on a beat up old Schwinn Sting-Ray. Never hurt my head. Racked myself several times but I never hurt my noggin. I never wore a helmet back then (1974) and neither did all of the other kids. I'm willing to bet good money we took more risks on our Sting-Rays than roadies do today yet somehow we all survived without any head trauma. Imagine that.

Besides, I can put my fist through most bicycle helmets. They're just made out of thin plastic and styrofoam (the same stuff used for beer coolers). How is that supposed to protect your noodle? Trust me, if the wheel of a car runs over your head a bike helmet won't do a damned thing.

 

[Jim R]

I have never met an ER doctor that doesn't wear one (and I am one myself). One summer in our ER and you would not be asking this question.

 

[Doctor Morbius]

I have never met an ER doctor that doesn't wear one (and I am one myself). One summer in our ER and you would not be asking this question.

Yes, I'm certain your hospital has a dedicated ward full of lycra clad roadies that are now drooling vegetables.

 

[graf zeppelin]

I would have to say its freedom of choice, so yes, I would frown on anyone being discriminated against for choosing their preference on this matter - either way. That said, I have seen first hand what a head injury can do, and I will take any step I can to reduce the chance of that happening to me - however great or small depending on who you hear it from - so I wear my helmet.

 

[HotLips]

Personal choice this one, but having experienced a bad fall when i was 18 and the helmet saving my life, or at least saving me from spending the rest of my life in a repat hospital i will always wear one, its not worth the risk, and if you are going to spend 2000-5000k on a bike i'm sure 100-200hundred on your head is a good investment. You can at least replace your bike if you crash. But if you are only worried about image/looks then you prob have bigger issues.

I am a paramedic so know what not wearing a helmet can do.

 

[txbuckeye]

Your call. I wear one, and everyone I ride with wears one. I think it's a smart piece of equipment.

 

[Fat Hack]

A "skid lid" is just a helmet, right?

Even though I used to love not wearing one when I was young and silly, I don't even the 1 km to the Seven-11 without one.

Do you know how easy it is to damage your brain?
You don't have to going fast to seriously injure your head.

 

[NSM3]

I've crashed a motorcycle enough times at various speeds, to know that my helmet has either saved my life, saved me from being wheel chair bound or at least protected my facial features.

I know cycle helmets aren't full faced (and couldn't be for obvious reasons) but even that small bit of plastic could be the difference between getting off with a bit of concusion or sucking soup through a straw for the rest of my days - even 40mph is no speed to be cartwheeling down the road without protection - you cannot control where your head ends up - believe me!

 

[rv]

hopefully stupid sons-of-*****es such as wayfastwhitey and dr morbius will kill themselves off before they have a chance to procreate and bring more stupid sons-of-*****es into the world. and hopefully they go quickly so my tax money or high insurance premiums don't go toward their support.

 

[rule62]

Natural selection is alive and well.

 

[wayfastwhitey]

hopefully stupid sons-of-*****es such as wayfastwhitey and dr morbius will kill themselves off before they have a chance to procreate and bring more stupid sons-of-*****es into the world. and hopefully they go quickly so my tax money or high insurance premiums don't go toward their support.

You don't know enough about me to call me a stupid son of a *****, if you really read my post, I am asking for yor opinions/experience, my only input is that I find them uncomfortable, and data on their value inconclusive to the point of almost being a toss up, I have worn them and have crashef both with and without and never found that it "saved my life" or didn't, I know that I have experienced crashing with the helmet on and it seemingly not helping at all. I am not trying to push my view off on anybody, I am curious what your experiences are, and opinions. Not looking for a debate. I realize that this is an interenet forum, but I don't think you would call me a stupid son of a ***** in person based slely on the fact that I don't wear a helmet, or you would get leveled. I still thing being mature and having some kind of manners applies here.

 

[artmichalek]

I do wear gloves though. Instinctually the first thing a person does when falling is put out their hand.

I had a nasty crash a few seasons back where my hands got tangled up in the drop bars. The full force of getting flipped into the deck went into my shoulder and the side of my head. It took twelve weeks for my shattered collar bone to heal. My helmet was trashed, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be around to write this if I hadn't been wearing it. As an engineer, I can assure you that when a piece of light weight foam gets crushed and broken it absorbs a huge amount of energy.
My gloves, by the way, didn't have a scratch on them.

 

[wayfastwhitey]

I had a nasty crash a few seasons back where my hands got tangled up in the drop bars. The full force of getting flipped into the deck went into my shoulder and the side of my head. It took twelve weeks for my shattered collar bone to heal. My helmet was trashed, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be around to write this if I hadn't been wearing it. As an engineer, I can assure you that when a piece of light weight foam gets crushed and broken it absorbs a huge amount of energy.
My gloves, by the way, didn't have a scratch on them.

By the way to everybody else, thanks for the replies that are sharing your experience and how you find them to have been good or not, rv and rule 62 can go suck off, and go to some other thread and call other people names from their holier than thou soapbox.

Everybody is real tough when their on the computer, but once again, I stress that since you know your scrawny cyclist ass would get leveled, I am going to assume you don't talk to other perfect strangers like that in person

 

[billyboost]

I wear a Helmet on all my rides, for me it is just like putting on my shoes... I don't even think about it any more, and since every event or club ride requires one...

 

[jerryz]

Actually this is a pretty cut and dried issue. If you want the facts just go to PubMed and do a search. You'll get a huge number of studies supporting reduced traumatic brain injuries to cyclists after the implementation of helmet laws, comparison of types of injuries to cyclists wearing helmets to cyclists not wearing helmets admited to ERs. There are several pages of abstracts. NOt one of them is even a little fuzzy on if wearing a helmet is beneficial. The conclusion? Wear a helmet.

 

[lumpy]

Yes, I'm certain your hospital has a dedicated ward full of lycra clad roadies that are now drooling vegetables.

Actually my local hospital does have a head trauma ward - Laguna Honda Hospital - and it is full of drooling vegies. Mostly motorcyclists but quite a few cyclists - many of them are children. I fail to see any humor in that.

 

[capwater]

Interesting point from all sides, so here's my take:

If you race you are required to wear one.
If you do any type of semi-organized group/training ride you will be required (or at least strongly encouraged) to wear one.
So it comes down to choice only when you're on your own. To me it's just simpler to grab the helmet every time I saddle up. I resisted seatbelts for years because my Libertarian tendencies didn't want the government telling me what to do. Once I had kids I started wearing one since it would have been hypocritical to strap the tykes in and not do so myself. Now, it's just an automatic reflex when I get in my truck.

Yup, jumped and crashed the Stingrays on homemade ramps 30 years ago too. Even knocked myself unconscious a time or two!