What persuaded me to start wearing a helmet on the road late last year (apart from heavy duty nagging from 3 generations of my family) was that, in my estimation, the risk of injury without one is greater than wearing one. If I hit a car door or lamp post with my head I expect it to hurt more than while wearing my helmet. However, I am under no illusions about the magic properties of a cycle helmet.

Until research can PROVE wearing a helmet will make then no-one should feel compelled to wear one. I don’t want to attack those who choose to wear/not wear – it’s down to individual choice.

<applause> to SimonE

[blockquote]recon you can save yourself from injuries ar fairly quick speeds, not just gentle tumbles.

“I’ve fallen on my head twice from about 8ft (well 8ft + 6ft), once on the bike wearing a helmet, and once walking home in the dark. On the bike the helmet was written off, but everything was otherwise ok. Without the helmet i had a horrendous headache and a nice big permanent scar to show for it.

At high speed I’ve written off a helmet on Bamford clough, given the crash (40+ mph, over the step) I’d happily say theres no way i’d be typing this if i hadn’t been wearing a helmet.”

You’re saying we should ban helmets? Without helmets, people wouldn’t be doing silly, dangerous things like riding bikes off-road at high speed!
[/blockquote]

where in that did i say helmets should be banned?

im saying that twice ive had nasty accidents with helmets and walked away relatively unhurt (we’ll ignore the state of my legs after the bamford incident). And I’ve had a comparable tumble tot he first incident without a helmet and ended up in A&E and now have a permenant reminded of it.

1st low speed crash,
pointy rock split the helmet over my temple (farly certain that would have been lights out)

low speed walk,
headbutted the tarmack after walking off a 8ft drop in the dark.
nasty forehead injury and one hell of a headache

high speed crash,
helmet written off bashed in in several places, right knee/leg is still a bit fecked.

Helmets should be compulsorary (cant spell), i dont need a statistic to tell me they’ll save my life, surely everyone with any common sense can see they’r a good thing.

Please please make it stop

Helmets should be compulsorary (cant spell), i dont need a statistic to tell me they’ll save my life, surely everyone with any common sense can see they’r a good thing.

So explain why the western countries with the lowest percentage of helmet wearing also have the lowest level of cycling injuries.
Or is the same common sense that says there’s a 50/50 chance of a second child being boy? 🙂