Thank god for helmets

Mate came off his road bike during a cycle at the weekend and during the impact with the road, which broke his radius and clavicle, his head smacked against the road, smashing his helmet but protecting his bonce. I’ve always been an advocate of wearing a helmet no matter what the discipline but after seeing your mate sliding along a road at over 30 mph with bits of helmet flying off it certainly makes you realise just how important they are!

I’m not trying to whip up another long pointless debate, just stating my first hand experience!

Couldn’t agree more! Hope your mate is ok!

Oh no !

‘He’ will be along shortly…

Hey. Don’t say His name.

AAAAAAAARRGHHHH….. [runs for cover]

NB: Had two similar in August. One being a youngster I was training whose bars snapped resulting in a face first full speed impact with a tree. That resulted in nothing more than a precautionary ambulance trip on blues and twos for a scan which revealed no damage other than to the tree and her helmet (which was totalled), and the other being another young racer who fell and smacked her temple on a rock. A fact she was unaware of until after the race when she realised she had taken a semicircle of material out of the rim of her helmet, but leaving her unware and unscathed. Of course the rotational forces did untold damage and that will only become clear later in both cases 😉

Don’t worry i’m sure he’s been alerted the by red buzzer on his desk. 😀

I’m not trying to whip up another long pointless debate, just stating my first hand experience!

So why post?

Helmets are good, since walking in all muddy into Tesco express; you get strange looks without a helmet, but with one people instantly know your a mountain biker and all is well 🙂

So why post?

You quoted me, did you not read it before you quoted it!?

just stating my first hand experience!

He’s alright, no need for surgery so just rest and recoup. TBH I expected some non-wearing helmets to wade in and say this and that, but if someone buys brakes that work really well you stick a post up saying these work well, or good tyres etc. I saw a helmet do its job exceptionally well so I thought I’d share it! Bell helmet, if you don’t have one, consider buying one.

I do seem to be seeing more riders about nowadays without helmets.

Is this a trend – are more stupid people starting to mountain bike?

I’ve never seen a thread that says I bought some brakes, brakes are great you should all buy brakes they helped me stop and saved my life. People do recommend a model or make of brake that they consider works better than others which is quite different to just saying brakes are great use them.

I suppose the reason that people don’t post the brakes are great type thread is that they assume that most people on here understand the purpose of a bicycle brake and are able to make up there own mind as to whether they use them or not (you know who you are you cheeky fixie riders). It would be nice if people could take the same approach for helmets and there usage.

erm… 420 posts so far…

PSA: XT Brakes

People do recommend a model or make of brake that they consider works better than others which is quite different to just saying brakes are great use them.

My helmet after going OTB and colliding head first with some anti vehicle railings along side a canal bridge…note how much the helmet is crushed in along the edge in the middle of the photo. It still scares me to think what my skull would have been like had it been crushed in by that amount.

Ok, quote where I “just stated brakes are great, use them”?

i actually said: if someone buys brakes that work really well you stick a post up saying these work well. Just like someone bought the new XTs at a good price and they perform well so they shared it. Simples.

I’m obviously not saying “I bought some brakes, brakes are great you should all buy brakes they helped me stop and saved my life.” cos that would be rather retarded.

“erm… 420 posts so far… PSA: XT Brakes“

Point totally missed.

That thread is analogous to one that says “I’ve seen Giro Hex helmets for £30, can’t be bad”.

This thread is analogous to one that says “My mate went down a path that ended near a road, with cars in it and stuff, but he had brakes so he was able to stop in time. I’ve always been an advocate of brakes and this shows how important brakes are. And the point of this post is definitely not to start an argument about whether you should use brakes, even though there appears to be no other point to it at all.”

Bloke falls off bike, hits helmet, meh.

Helmets are designed to break on heavy impacts, arn’t they? So a blow that damages your helmet wouldn’t necessarily crack your skull in the same way…

/devils advocate

“i actually said: if someone buys brakes that work really well you stick a post up saying these work well.“

But the point is that you’d post “I used Brake X and found it was loads better than Brake Y”.

Your post was nothing to do with one helmet being better than other (which you wouldn’t know anyway unless you can persuade your mate to repeat the experiment precisely with a variety of helmets). It didn’t even mention which helmet it was, let alone whether it might be better than any other.

Respectable effort if you’re trolling though.

“I’m obviously not saying “I bought some brakes, brakes are great you should all buy brakes they helped me stop and saved my life.” cos that would be rather retarded.“

No, you were saying “My mate bought a helmet, helmets are great you should all buy helmets they helped him bounce and saved his life.” Which is only a bunch of nouns and pronouns different to your “retarded” example.

Brakes cause accidents!!

It still scares me to think what my skull would have been like had it been crushed in by that amount. Made from polystyrene

Helmets make you hit your head!

Thank gawd for jelly babies. without jelly babies I would never get anywhere

You’ve got a helmet made out of jelly babies?

The brakes analogy was a theme continued from your second post.

Perhaps I didn’t make it clear, my point was that we all know what a helmet is and how it’s supposed to work.
And although to your credit you did not state it, these threads always descend into ridiculing anybody that chooses to not wear a helmet, regardless of their reasons.

Helmets make you hit your head!

I’ve worn one for 25 years and haven’t hit my head in that time thus both disproving your statement and proving your general viewpoint which is that there are plenty of times when they are unnecessary.

And what’s the best way to keep the jelly babies stuck to your head?

I’ve got a slice of toast, butter side down, strapped to the top of my helmet with a cat superglued to it feet down.

You can’t be too careful.

(wear a helmet – I can’t count how many times I hit my hat on branches and stuff in the woods).

smacked my helmet mounted light off a low branch the other night. it’s over the entrance to a hidden singletrack trail I ride all the time, you need to hop a wall to get into it and with no helmet I’ve never hit my head.

where can I get a decent mount to fit my light straight on my head?

GW – I find a m6 bolt into the skull works fine – stainless or Ti preferred

When I came off at Surprise View in the Pesk District at about 25mph I was glad I was wearing my helment, from how I headbutted the drystone wall.

I’m sure there are instances where a helmet doesn’t help much, but from the way I got neck ache from the force of head butting the uneven rock, I think I could have damaged my skull.

My helmet split and I was concussed for two and a half weeks, i’m just glad it saved my skull from hitting hard against something pointy.

Tim

Occasionally I don’t wear my helmet if i’m pottering, but I do most of the time.

Car drivers are supposed to take more care around helmentless drivers, so possibly there could be something in it?

shouldn’t we have seen evidence of helmets making 30% of impacts worse for the wearer by now from all these anecdotal stories ?

Look I’m not trolling, I was simply stating that this was my first experience of witnessing a high impact to the head and I was alarmed as to how bad it looked and how much the helmet absorbed. I’m glad it was that and not his head. My personal view is that children should wear helmets, adults it should be personal choice or club rules. If people make an informed decision then that’s their choice. He’s my mate so I have an invested interest in his well being, I don’t know you so I don’t care about your well being unless it impinges on mine or my family/friends.

Anyone who doesn’t wear a helmet is doing so for their own reasons, if you’re not putting anyone in danger other than you then so be it, it’s your life, live it how you wish.

However, because someone chooses not to wear one doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to tell people the benefits of my mate wearing his. And that goes to the militant pro group as much as the super defensive non wearing group.

Anyway, he’s in the proper cycling club now he’s broken his clavicle! After seeing it I can’t say I’m in a rush to join him!!

I was glad to be wearing my helmet today – best protection against branches!!

I don’t know you so I don’t care about your well being unless it impinges on mine or my family/friends.

Typical Christian attitude.

****

Klunk – Member

shouldn’t we have seen evidence of helmets making 30% of impacts worse for the wearer by now from all these anecdotal stories ?

You cannot with an y certaintly say what would have happened if they werenot wearing one.

However it is one of / a part of the possible explanations for the proven fact that as helmet wearing rates increase head injury rates do not decrease

In response to a few things said back at me I just want to put across a few pointers from my experience of a head on crash and then I’m out of here !

I was travelling down a hill at 33mph and met a Landrover on a single track bridge coming round a blind corner where 364 days a year there are never any cars. It was no ones fault.

I BRAKED in an instant panic and the bike locked up and I went OTB, cleared the Landrover mid air and went head first into the railings. There was no time to make a gentle braking action and power slide to the right and it was automatic to break hard, NO ONE would do any different in that situation. It’s the same as falling off a cliff, if you see a branch you will grab for it, you don’t have time to wonder if it will hold your weight or if it’s covered in thorns.

I don’t even remember what colour the Landrover was(or that it was a Landrover) let alone going over the bars. From the moment I rounded the corner and hit the brakes my mind has blanked the lot.

I clearly hit the railings full on head first. The witness said I din’t even have chance to hold out my hands, so there was no natural instinct kicking in to help save me.

I spent two nights in hospital, the first in intensive care whilst the swelling around my brain was settled.

Doctors opinion and my opinion… the helmet saved my life, and nothing anyone else is going to persuade me otherwise. That’s what a near death experience does to you BUT….

…you’re all individual and all entitled to you own opinion and you all have your own life choices to make. Perhaps I though can appreciate more how quickly and easily it can all be snuffed out and how in most cases you won’t know a thing about it but those around you will.

You cannot with an y certaintly say what would have happened if they werenot wearing one.

If a tree falls in the woods, and there is no-one there to hear it….

😉

have we hand anyone post on here that their helmet made the injury worse ? let alone 1 in 3!

excitable – if you couldn’t stop in time you were going too fast, and if you crashed and locked up you need to improve your braking skills.

Two areas at a quick glance that may have led you to be able to avoid the accident.

I far prefer active safety- avoiding accidents to passive safety – mitigating the effects of them.

“However, because someone chooses not to wear one doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to tell people the benefits of [something that happened when] my mate [was] wearing his.“

FTFY.

Benefits can only really be worked out once you’ve performed a valid control.