Wearing something that weighs **** all,doesn't impede, and may save ur head is a no brainer…

research shows you are more likely to crash, more likely to get head injury the more often you wear a helmet.

is bollox

90% of the time.

When touring I don't, doesn't seem to go with the feeling of freedom.

Always now, ever since the Bell Tomac really.

I could show you the gaps from loosing three teeth on the tarmac, or the big lump in my nose though you wouldn;t guess I'd ever broken my jaw.
All done during the leather hairnet helmet period, which no one ever wore whilst training.

I always wear one.
I refuse to ride with anyone wot don't.

SB

Oh god not this again!!!!!! my postion is clear and iam not getting dragged into this.

research shows you are more likely to crash, more likely to get head injury the more often you wear a helmet.

Is actually true – part of what I mean about the science being contradictory and counter-intuitive.

All the research shows this effect.

In Aus they had a compulsory helmets law. head injuries per mile cycled increased after the law.

London – over the last few years helmet wearing has gone from a minority to a majority. This has been accompanied by an increase in head injuries per mile cycled

Holland where hardly anyone wears a helmet has a lower risk of head injury per mile cycled than the UK

Why? I am not qualified to say but there are many theories.

This is an old stale argument now – but please go and have a good look at the research – you will be surprised.

oldgit – Member

Always now, ever since the Bell Tomac really.

I could show you the gaps from loosing three teeth on the tarmac, or the big lump in my nose though you wouldn;t guess I'd ever broken my jaw.
All done during the leather hairnet helmet period, which no one ever wore whilst training.

So how would a typical XC helmet prevent these injuries?

I'm not the forum police and I'm not on either "side" of the argument but, please, I beg you all, just stop.

This never, ever goes anywhere.

As you all well know.

Now the following is really specific to road and commuting cycling, but something I really feel I have to get across to the 'always, what harm could it do? group' and I'll try to use non-inflammatory language, is the big picture here.
If helmets made a slight difference in a crash, but made it much more likely that YOU would have that crash, or that a vehicle would crash into you would it make you pause for a second?
Because thats what seem to be the effects of compulsion, or even widespread use.
Just the promotion of helmets seems to be bad for cycling, as it shows it to be dangerous. Its also part of a general shift in duty of care, from bad drivers onto their victims.
Those of us that are trying to resist this culture may/ may not be taking a greater individual risk, but we are making cycling safer for everybody.

Not even sure why I clicked on this thread (maybe to try and work out why somebody was bothering with a helmet thread), but anyway…

you fall off at speed, you are almost guaranteed to hit some part of your head.

You think so? How many times have you fallen off your bike? I've certainly been off mine multiple times and only very occasionally hit my head.

Could a helmet save ur head?? If so then wearing one is a small price to pay.

The reason why so many ppl are against wearing helmets is they dont want to be forced to wear one through legislation..

all the time .

nockmeister – Member

Could a helmet save ur head?? If so then wearing one is a small price to pay.

The point westkipper makes above is that infact this is far from proven. Indeed there is evidence that across populations helmet wearing increases injuries.

TJ
The teeth and jaw one was down to good old top of the head slam, put my front teeth through my lip as well.
I think something between my skull and tarmac might have helped, I'm not prepared to find out!

I can only compare it to a later off when I could feel the lid working on impact.

Please, if you have to answer this thread, just answer the original question with a 'yes' or a 'no'.

And please, please, for the love of all that is unholy, don't get all huffy and try to justify your position to other people

Yes- all the time.

I find mine is a useful place to attach lights and cameras.

TJ wrote,

"London – over the last few years helmet wearing has gone from a minority to a majority. This has been accompanied by an increase in head injuries per mile cycled

Holland where hardly anyone wears a helmet has a lower risk of head injury per mile cycled than the UK"

You know fine well that London's seen a huge rise of bicycle use since the congestion zone charging came in, with people who'd not ridden for 20 years suddenly commuting in the most hostile road riding environment in the UK. Of course there's an increase in injuries. And there are myriad reasons why Holland has lower injury rates, none of them helmet related.

There are legit arguments against helmets. Just that these 2 aren't.

Off road – yes.
On road – yes.
Pottering to the shops or the pub – no.

"Helmets make it much more likely that you will crash" is not non-inflammatory language, by the way. 😉

Northwind

Its a simple point. The evidence is contradictory and counter-intuitive.

There are many reasons why when rates of helmet wearing is higher accident rates are higher. Its far more complex than you suggest.

Its clear that there is no good evidence that can be seen for helmets reducing serious injuries when looked at across whole population.

Go and have a read around the evidence – IIRC there is a good set of links to follow from wiki that takes you to all sorts or proper research. Its interesting

You know fine well that London's seen a huge rise of bicycle use since the congestion zone charging came in, with people who'd not ridden for 20 years suddenly commuting in the most hostile road riding environment in the UK. Of course there's an increase in injuries.

Given more people cycling and less driving it would be perfectly reasonable to expect the head injury rate per mile cycled (the metric TJ quoted) to decrease.

Always wear one both on and off road. Although I did go through a stage of just wearing a beanie while on the road..bit silly.

A protrusion of bone from the top of the head about 1" diameter and 2" high, or possible an M6 tapped hole in the temple would be a good alternative to a helmet.

Or you could mount the camera on the handlebars.

I did wonder about an M6 mount for a headlight 🙂

TJ wrote, "There are many reasons why when rates of helmet wearing is higher accident rates are higher. Its far more complex than you suggest."

Of course it is. And it's also far more complex than you suggest. But you can't deny that neither statistical case is at all compelling. The weakness of the examples you chose is pretty telling IMO.

TJ wrote, "Its clear that there is no good evidence that can be seen for helmets reducing serious injuries when looked at across whole population."

Again, of course there isn't, just as there is no good evidence to support the contrary- this is a lack of information and doesn't support either case. But that doesn't mean that we should disregard smaller studies, and as you know there are a large number of these which present arguments in favour of helmet use.

Northwind – are there? find me one. Thats a challenge for you

The only strongly positive studies I have seen are after the fact statistical surveys of hospital admissions – these are always strongly positive because of the imbalance created by the self selecting sample.

I'm not going to play silly games, multiple pro-helmet studies are a google away. Attewell gives us 16 in 1.

All the time now (except the 10 metre pedal after fettling to make sure things are schweet…)

Down here in Australia, you have too. Law, fines etc.

When I was home in June, I did find it hard to understand the number of people without helmets in London traffic.

I don't ride differently with or without; I don't try to fall off; but if caught unaware by a ped/car/bus/van/truck/etc who isn't concentrating, I may have less chance of being as hurt as I would without it…

Even if the numbers are unreliable, unavailable etc, I reckon more serious injuries are reduced by having a helmet, than are made worse by wearing one (if it fits right, etc). Therefore, I feel they are worth having and if you have one, you may as well wear it.

Holland where hardly anyone wears a helmet has a lower risk of head injury per mile cycled than the UK

I live in Holland and it is poles apart from the UK, drivers have respect for cyclists, their version of the Highway Code is completely different, the cyclist has primacy, if one gets knocked off it is the drivers fault, unless it was due to some extreme stupidity of the rider. Using Holland as an example is like comparing apples with underpants!

Fatsimon Mk2

[/quote]Oh god not this again!!!!!! my postion is clear and iam not getting dragged into this.

I think you have by posting.

What happened to freedom of choice? I like wearing a lid, it adds to my collection of gear that shows I have no idea, but what you do with your head is your choice.

It seems the OP wants to carry out a sampling exercise to find out what current trends/opinions are so he can place himself somewhere on the trend/opinion scale according to whether he is strictly conformist, mediocre, strongly non conformist or just plain eccentric.

Anyway it's important for people to have accidents and hurt their head so that the doctors have people to practise on, and we have more significant numbers for the statistics. Ideally half the cycling population would wear helmets and half wouldn't, and for a real double blind study we would need half the non cycling population to wear helmets too.

All the time for me because my riding is pants.

Each to their own though

Not if I'm riding up and down my road tweaking gears or something but anywhere else, yes. I feel naked without it. Even in the Alps, riding up the Col de Cou in 27 degrees, I had my lid on.

Maybe it does make me take more risks but that's part of where the thrill is for me so it's worth it. As for wearing it on some rides and not others, I don't see the point. I own it anyway and I don't actually know when I'm going to fall off. Maybe my chance of falling on a pootle around is only 1 in a million. Do I know if today is the 1 or one of the other 999999? No idea, might as well wear the light weight well ventilated lid I already own. besides, I've got to get the use out of it, it's scrap after 3 years! 😈

Anyone who has ever met me has been subjected to my 'I had a ride in a helicopter once' story.

Perhaps if I hadn't bothered with the helmet I could have saved them from the tale.

Ohh go on subject us…

I used to wear a helmet unquestioningly for for on/offroad racing, but would wear a hat in cold weather, and I would notice how much keener my hearing was with approaching traffic, NOT wearing a lid seemed to give me a bit of crucial early warning, NOT wearing one was making me safer!
It also made me a bit less tired too, which was less distracting.
.
This is a MTB site,with many members that dont ride on the road at all, and helmets are part of the MTB uniform, so its unsurprising that that challenging the orthodoxy here is a bit like being a human rights campaigner in China (another place with lots of bikes, no helmets, and the hospitals aren't full of cyclists being spoonfed)
PLEASE, try and look at what information is available, look at why organisations like the CTC are against compulsion, and what it would mean for cycling if a third of them gave up in the typical aftermath of such a rule.

off road, yes.

on road, mostly no as all main routes here in germany have a proper cycle lane laid alongside the main road but not on it. if there is a chance of the paths icing up then i'll put my lid on.

plus the snowboard piss-pot helmet keeps my head warm in winter.