Home Forums Chat Forum Wiggo on helmets

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  • Wiggo on helmets
  • captaindanger
    Full Member

    After the death outside the Olympic village yesterday, wiggo was interviewed and wheeled out the motorists old favourite that all cyclists should be made to wear helmets.

    Pretty disappointing Wiggo. There’s scant evidence they will avoid serious injury, and certainly, with the majority of deaths in London involving lorries or busses, I would expect them to do nothing.

    More fundamental change in the way we all use the roads is what is needed, and an attitude change from both sides.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Pretty disappointing Wiggo

    +1

    thepurist
    Full Member

    Olympic medal winner in “Having a different opinion to yours” shocker.

    Vive la difference!

    (But yes, getting to the point of the OP’s post, helmets alone are not the solution to making bikes and traffic play nicely. Wiggo didn’t even mention RLJ’s).

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    “There’s scant evidence they will avoid serious injury, and certainly, with the majority of deaths in London involving lorries or busses, I would expect them to do nothing. “

    i can think of several ways in which they would help.

    mcboo
    Free Member

    I’m not sure he’s right on helmets (I never get on a bike without one FWIW) but I’m sure he’s just about my favourite human being alive.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/01/bradley-wiggins-cycling-gold-reaction

    But there is too much thrill in the air to worry about the view or the narrative – and nobody had to wonder who was winning because, obviously, Bradley Wiggins was. “The great thing about cycling”, Wiggins said afterwards (brace yourself, he is about to become more likeable still) “is that anyone can watch it. We all know about the Olympic ticketing – inside here, it can all become a bit of a prawn sandwich fest. Ultimately, all the real fans are outside the gates.”

    djflexure
    Full Member

    I was hit by a lorry and the helmet saved my head for what its worth

    juan
    Free Member

    You can’t blame him for that can you. First his a dad, and I would bet a coffee that he makes his children ride with helmets.
    Second he has probably crash quite a few of helmets himself and therefore save himself some injuries (small or big ones). Plus as far as I know they are compulsory for racing, so he may even use them quite a bit ;).
    It’s good to see a star take a stance on that. Whether it’s towards your own opinion or not.

    speed12
    Free Member

    I don’t see how wrapping your head in what is effectively a crumple zone can not be a good thing? Ok, it might not help in every situation, but it’s simple physics that it’s going to be a damn slight better than your bare head hitting a bus/pavement/whatever.

    brakes
    Free Member

    his supreme awesomeness should not be tainted just because he has an opinion on helmet wearing.
    helmets might not stop you getting crushed under a tipper truck, but they will save you from a bazillion other injuries.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    On his other note. Idiots wearing headphones in traffic – yes! Stop it.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    You can’t blame him for that can you. First his a dad, and I would bet a coffee that he makes his children ride with helmets.

    I’ll have a double espresso please.

    captaindanger
    Full Member

    There was a study which showed motorists treat cyclists differently if they are wearing a helmet, they drive closer. Certainly they help, but they are definitely not the answer to road safety. Driving and cycling safely are the answer, helmets should not come into that equation and are the last line of defence.

    I always wear a helmet and always will, that is my decision though and should not be enforced.

    ebygomm
    Free Member

    I think it’s a bit rich to advocate compulsory helmet laws when he was filmed riding to his family just after the race without one.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    I was hit by a lorry and the helmet saved my head for what its worth

    It might have saved you from injury or lessened any injury you sustained, but it didn’t save your life. If a truck is gonna kill you, a bit of polystyrene isn’t going to stop it.

    djflexure
    Full Member

    But he does have hold of him
    Edit: referring to pic above

    atlaz
    Free Member

    I went to amsterdam yesterday and only saw one person the entire day with a helmet and that was a little kid riding with parents. The cycle lanes were everywhere and motorists mostly respected them (although, ironically not the footpaths). I also never saw anyone on a bike in full on TdF sprint finish mode like you do in London so often. As such, in my well researched opinion, the problem is our cities are not catering too well for cyclists with lanes that vanish and put riders at risk, everyone is in too much of a rush, cars are ignoring people etc.

    Generally then, the problem is people. If we get people out of cars, cities and cycling there will be fewer injuries, scratched cars and hissy fits.

    atlaz
    Free Member

    But he does have hold of him

    He’s barging him so he can win. Competitive dad.

    djflexure
    Full Member

    It might have saved you from injury or lessened any injury you sustained, but it didn’t save your life. If a truck is gonna kill you, a bit of polystyrene isn’t going to stop it.

    Not true actually – people do die of isolated head injuries, extradural, subdural, subarachnoid haemorrhage etc. Seen it plenty of times. On the other hand some people do get run over in a way where nothing would have helped. Been unfortunate enough to see that too.

    speed12
    Free Member

    But how can you say it didn’t Dave your life? If you are in a crash and come out alive then, in whatever way, your life was saved. You don’t have to be hit hard to sustain a life threatening head injury – even having an ‘SPD moment’ could mean you hit your head hard on a kerb which could potentially cause massive injury. A helmet in that situation would probably do a massive amount to lessen that. Having the logic of “if it’s going to kill you it will kill you’, then why wear seatbelts in a car? Why have airbags.? Why give soldiers body armour? None of those things can guarantee to save your life, but they will damn well do a better job than not having them!

    cloudnine
    Free Member

    It’s a marketing strategy.. have you not seen the new strapless Wiggo helmets held on by mutton chop velcro

    brakes
    Free Member

    well said speed12, it’s common sense.

    RustySpanner
    Full Member

    Deleted. Cba.

    juan
    Free Member

    I think it’s a bit rich to advocate compulsory helmet laws when he was filmed riding to his family just after the race without one.

    On a closed road… I’d like to see him riding with his family on open road

    smogmonster
    Full Member

    This comes up every few weeks on here. The naysayers say that studies show they dont help, the rest of us bang on that you are a cretin not to war one, regardless of the evidence. Certainly the guy who left a fair portion of his scalp on The Stang descent in Arkengarthdale during the recent Richmond Sportive, and not wearing a helmet, would have probably benefited from it, like all the other heroes who are too tough to wear one. I can tell you the Air Ambulance and land ambulance Paramedics who were called to him were not best impressed, nor were the 60 or so guys who couldnt get by when we shut the road so i could spend the best of an hour trying to stop the bleeding and keep him concious until the Paramedics arrived (the road was wide enough for one car only..or one guy sprawled across it, depending on how you want to measure it). Ive also had a few offs where a cracked helmet has been the result, not a cracked skull…my own personal study.

    This will descend into the usual bitching blah blah, but thats my two pence spent…im off for a coffee.

    simons_nicolai-uk
    Free Member

    More Peds killed by cars than cyclists but no-one advocates helmets/lights/highviz/headphones for them.

    simons_nicolai-uk
    Free Member

    Wear a helmet by all means. Just don’t claim it makes the roads safer. Infrastructure not victim blaming.

    emma82
    Free Member

    We did quite a bit of cycling in france on holiday without a helmet (always wear one over here) and they have such a lot of cycle paths it’s so much safer than this country, even big cities seem to have safe ways around them for cyclists, and even when we were on the road which was rare drivers were a lot more courteous and gave lots of room. Perhaps attitudes to cyclists in this country need to change, stop people getting hit so often. Friend of mine got knocked off when someone swerved into her and she went over the bonet, silly bint in the car didn’t even ask of she was ok, just started ranting about ‘bloody cyclists’ shouldn’t be on the road. I’m not sure on whether people should wear helmets as compulsory but I do think we need more cycle paths and a better attitude to cyclists in this poxy country.

    MSP
    Full Member

    The memory of Bradley’s big day may be tainted by the unnecessary death of a cyclist so close. But starting a thread critisising his comments on helmets is just **** retarded!

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    But how can you say it didn’t Dave your life? If you are in a crash and come out alive then, in whatever way, your life was saved. You don’t have to be hit hard to sustain a life threatening head injury – even having an ‘SPD moment’ could mean you hit your head hard on a kerb which could potentially cause massive injury. A helmet in that situation would probably do a massive amount to lessen that. Having the logic of “if it’s going to kill you it will kill you’, then why wear seatbelts in a car? Why have airbags.? Why give soldiers body armour? None of those things can guarantee to save your life, but they will damn well do a better job than not having them!

    So, so many assumptions and half truths in that it’s difficult to know where to start.

    But basically, it can’t be PROVEN that cycle helmets save lives and when someone trots out the old line ‘if it saves one life it’s worth it’ you have to remember that is IS proveable that a healthy and active lifestyle does save lives and that forcing people to wear helmets stops them cycling to some extent.

    Generally, I wear one. But I’d fight tooth and nail to keep them optional.

    Impossible to police anyway, so it’s a mute point.

    And I seriously doubt it’ll ever happen anyway.

    speed12
    Free Member

    Wear a helmet by all means. Just don’t claim it makes the roads safer. Infrastructure not victim blaming.

    don’t get me wrong, there needs to be changes to car drivers attitudes, better PROPER cycle paths etc, but again, if a car driver was killed in a crash because they didn’t wear a seatbelt, then I’m pretty sure the majority of anti-helmeters would be calling them a moron and not praising the fact they had the right to not wear a life saving device (which I realise they don’t, but you know what I mean)

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    lived in holland for 6 months with a bike last year

    the roads are not safer – drivers are just as impatient

    but it is very very very rare you need to use a road.

    cycle paths are segregated from the road. If we had infrastructure like that id bet alot more folk would use the roads.

    the ammount of folk in my office who have been put off cycling by having to negotiate the haudagain round about in aberdeen ….

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    Wot Emma said. Spot on. 🙂

    speed12
    Free Member

    So, so many assumptions and half truths in that it’s difficult to know where to start.

    well, yeah they are assumptions and I’m pret sure I said they were! You are absolute right, in each crash situation where a helmet is involved we don’t know how much it helped. Likewise, in a situation where someone doesn’t wear one we don’t know if it would have helped or not. But, e chances are that strapping something round your head, which down to simple physics will lessen the force of the impact, will certainly help somewhat! Difference between life and death, who knows? Each crash is very different and the tiniest variation in where someone is hit an make a huge difference in the injuries they sustain – but again, doing everything in your power to protect yourself can only be a good thing!

    Woody
    Free Member

    Impossible to police anyway, so it’s a mute point.

    If only it was………3 threads on the front page at the moment 8)

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    Tell you what, wear a helmet if you want. Or hey, don’t wear a helmet if you don’t want to. I wear one for proper roadie-ing or mtb-ing but don’t for a quick pootle into town. Don’t ask me why, it’s just what I do to make me feel better – all the googled & quoted research on here probably isn’t going to make change what I do. Nor am I going to try and force someone else to do what I do either.

    But let’s all stand together in demanding that roads are made safer for cyclists. Arguing amongst ourselves will just distract from the real issues.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Shame many can’t see beyond “what harm can compulsory helmet wearing do” and that old classic “bike helmet saved my live because I crashed with one on and lived”.

    eat_the_pudding
    Free Member

    I disagree with him, (given time to think he might disagree with himself, especially given the picture above) but the most retarded thing about this is the fact that the question was asked at all.

    They don’t ask the rowers and swimmers what they think about the latest child drowned at the beach, they don’t ask F1 drivers about accidents on the A9 at post race interviews.

    He looked ambushed and confused, and gave a poorly worded off the cuff answer. Sadly its now being played endlessly alongside news of this incident where a bus has killed someone.

    If it transpires that the cyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet people are going to start heaping blame on the victim.

    Thats very unfair to Wiggins (based on an off the cuff remark), and more importantly enormously unfair to the victim.

    simons_nicolai-uk
    Free Member

    He’s not wrong about everything

    Wiggins said afterwards “is that anyone can watch it. We all know about the Olympic ticketing – inside here, it can all become a bit of a prawn sandwich fest. Ultimately, all the real fans are outside the gates.”

    donsimon
    Free Member

    Just seen the interview and it looked like a clear example of a guy who’s on the crest of a wave being pushed into the spotlight in front of the press to say something without preparation.
    I’m not sure how much mileage we’ll get out of the “legalise helmets” campaign, I believe they’re already legal, no?
    A little more time, a little more thought and a little more preparation and I’m sure we’ll see his true feelings on the matter.

    globalti
    Free Member

    One hundred cyclists died on UK roads last year; if wearing helmets had been compulsory and had saved even five percent of them, that would have been five lives saved, five families not bereaved and five lots of cost to the country’s services saved.

    Drivers wear seatbelts; why shouldn’t cyclists wear helmets?

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