If anyone knows either of the two kindly downhillers practicing their jumps in the jump pit at Bracknell at 1500 on Thursday when my mate piledrove into the ground with his head can you get them to get in touch? One's a South African fella with a new Big Hit, the other has a Kona….

My mate landed a double badly (on his Rockhopper xc), hit the ground on his head doing at least 12 mph. Out cold for a minute, had a seizure, still can't remember anything. Split his lid like a coconut, thought he was haemorrhaging. A&E, nearly off to John Radcliffe for a scan, still not allowed to drive…..

Wear a lid folks!

or bail early enough.

hope he's ok

Tell that to the guy who's always there on a Yeti, he never wears a helmet and lands some impressive jumps.

One of the more surreal things I've seen at Swinley was a bloke out one afternoon on a hardtail, pootling around wearing proper body armour on the top half, but without a helmet – saw him again about an hour later on the other side of the woods, still sans lid, so its not like he'd just put it down – I mean, just how do you come to the conclusion that you're worried about doing your ribs in, but not your head?

Maybe he's realised that the vast majority of accidents on a bike are bruises, cuts and scrapes to your limbs/body? Still a bit weird though imo.

BTW check out this for some helmetless riding!

i saw that on some spesh pitch thread, i was more impressed a pitch could handle that. still props to the lad and hope he landed it.

I used to always dirtjump in knee pads but no helmet, on jumps you know/built you just don't land on your head, you become accustomed to knowing if you're coming up short you ditch the bike and jump over it to the down slope.

and body armour doesn't really protect ribs, or collar bones 😉

Was at sherwood pines jump spot today when a couple of blokes rolled up one had a full face helmet on.
They dropped their bags off and said guy took off his full face and began jumping through the doubles.
Mental!

I used to always dirtjump in knee pads but no helmet

Similar story here. Jumped and rode halfpipe/mini ramps for years (20+) and only ever wore knee pads or shin pads occasionally. Only wore a helmet once (my mum made me when I got my first BMX in '82 – sold it later that day 😆 . Despite falling off many times each ride, I never once hit my head.

Only took up mountain biking a few years ago and never wore a helmet or pads. Most of the guys I met on the trails were padded up and I decided that I should maybe get a few pads myself (helmets and knee/shin). It took a good few rides to get comfortable with this stuff attached to my body. First time riding with a full-face helmet was scarey – claustrophobic and I found it really hard to breathe. I'm used to all this stuff now and feel naked if i'm not wearing some protective kit, but prefer my pisspot lid to the head chamber.

I guess not having safety equipment for all those years, forced you to learn how to read the signs if things were going pear-shaped, and act accordingly. That, and learning how to minimise the impact when you did crash are lessons that have stood me well over the years (although I still get caught out trying to knee slide on dirt 😳 )

I don't rag on riders not wearing safety kit. They may learn the hard way, but if they're as lucky as I was, they wont learn at all.