OP are you still waiting at the trail head for the general consensus to your dilemma?
If so neither a,b,c,d you need to get someone to come and pick you up.. 🙁

If you crash badly it’s others that have to step in and deal with the consequences

I get the helmet odds but for me it’s this.

I’ve also had branches drop down in bad weather and they don’t brush aside as you pass.

Was in theatre the next day, having spent the night in hospital, getting my knee cleaned out with dettol and a wire brush. Left with 10 stitches.

Ah intensive cleaning , I did wonder why they wouldn’t do my arm with a local 🙁

Goldigger sed: OP are you still waiting at the trail head for the general consensus to your dilemma?

😆

Risk is finite on an average basis,but unpredictable and non finite on a local one. Hence, it depends is the answer to the original question!

If the ride was a slow non techy ride with some mates, then i’d consider riding without an helmet, but at reduced pace / risk. For proper MTBing, on features with a significant risk of crashing, then no, i’d not ride without one.

Left my helmet on the ferry at Calais once. Cycled to Barcelona and back without it….including some pretty fast alpine/pyraneean descents.

Probably wouldn’t do that now though. I’m properly conditioned to wear a lid at all times except pootling along a towpath.

Wouldn’t ride unless it was really tame

Got to Swinley and had forgotten it…..earlier this year…….rode on, steadily.

Mark

i have no idea why I wrote Pembrokeshire,your right that would have been a very long day out.

I was staying in Northumberland…..

B for me. Making a dynamic risk assessment as I went along.

Yes I have previously smashed a helmet up, landing on my head repeatedly during Megavalanche practice. I wouldn’t ride those bits without a lid

Z. Arrive home to find helmet on the wheely bin and thats the first time you’ve realised.

Would be interesting to know how many who are opting for A or B have previously had serious crashes that involved smashing their helmets to bits.

I’ve broken two helmets. One in a very low speed crash when I lightly bumped my head on some grass. The other when it got knocked off a worktop onto a tiled floor.

Have done this once at Innerleithen, went to Alpine Bikes down the road to hire a helmet and they very kindly told me just to take one from the basket of hire helmets and just bring it back when I was finished. I wouldn’t have ridden without one

A for me. But I normally ride well within my limits anyway

D if I’m in the Alps or something

The thing is no one intends to crash. Crashes don’t just happen because you’re doing huge jumps or gnar either and a lot of the time they happen while riding normally.

And if you’re on trails without one you’re a nob. If something serious happens you’re potentially risking the trails. A helmet minimises that risk.

And if you’re on trails without one you’re a nob.

If you’re on the trails expecting it to do much if you crash, you’re a nob.

Somewhere like the Chilterns; then A, A trail centre in wales; probs D

I’ve been known to set off and get halfway round a ride before realising I’d forgotten to put me lid on!!

Crashes don’t just happen because you’re doing huge jumps or gnar either and a lot of the time they happen while riding normally.

How? Do you just fall off when riding along a fire road or something?