Helmets – Again – I know

So you really think that because it’s only tested for light impacts, it’s going to be useless for anything else?

Funny that no-one argues about people wearing knee pads, isn’t it? Seems perfectly reasonable to want to protect your knees and elbows from being cut up when you hit the deck, but apparently not your head?

what do helmet wearers do with your helmet when you go to the shops?

Mate of mine left his motorbike helmet locked to his bike whilst he was in the shops.
Came out to find someone had put a 99 ice cream in it 😆

Hope he remembered to say thank you 🙂

I organised a socials evening ride to a couple of pubs recently. One participant greated me with “where’s your helmet then?!!” as I arrived and I replied with a friendly “fucksitgottadowithyou?”.
The ride got off to a slightly frosty start but we were all friends again after a couple of pints. The irony of which was not lost on me, but may have been on him.

This is a head v. van helmet. The docs said it saved his life. To a degree how would they know. However the picutre was taken at a centre where they deal with lots of head trauma so I guess they start to build up an idea of what type of impact kills you and what doesnt..

Re knee and elbow pads… just what are they there for? Is it literally just to stop you grazing your skin? They are not going to stop a twisted knee or broken bone etc…

You wear knee pads for riding to the shops? 😯

Funny that no-one argues about people wearing knee pads, isn’t it? Seems perfectly reasonable to want to protect your knees and elbows from being cut up when you hit the deck, but apparently not your head?

Who is suggesting that all cyclists should wear knee pads?

I don’t wear knee pads either by the way for the same reasons I don’t wear a helmet.

having seen a school friend go from being a bouncy happy nutter, to a dribbling vegetable that will need constant care for the rest of his life as a result of crashing a mountain bike without his helmet on, I’ll stick a skid lid on thanks.

A helmet would not have stopped the entirety of the injury, but would have significantly reduced the penetration depth and brain insult.

its everyone’s personal choice and I would never say that any form of compulsory helmet use would be suitable or sufficient as it detracts from personal accountability and the ability to carry out assessment of risks that we all do everyday.

the picutre was taken at a centre where they deal with lots of head trauma so I guess they start to build up an idea of what type of impact kills you and what doesnt..

People who work in these places often have a skewed view, as they only see the serious cases.

How many people cut grapes in half for their kids? Virtually nobody? My mam does, after working in a treatment centre for people with brain damage and seeing several people in their whose brains were oxygen starved after choking on a grape.

Wow, that helmet’s nasty, and to add add insult to injury they’ve eaten his chips. bastards.

having seen a school friend go from being a bouncy happy nutter, to a dribbling vegetable that will need constant care for the rest of his life as a result of crashing a mountain bike without his helmet on, I’ll stick a skid lid on thanks.

I have seen peoples lives ruined by objects falling on them when walking along a street. If this happened to one of your friends would you now be wearing a helmet walking along the street?

A helmet would not have stopped the entirety of the injury, but would have significantly reduced the penetration depth and brain insult.

Did you repeat the crash as a control?

Surgeons are more cautious about what difference a helmet might have made when they give evidence under oath.

http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1054.html

A friend of mine died from a head inury after falling on a stone staircase. My thoughts after that were not that a helmet might have saved him but that it was a pity he wore flip flops while carrying a box that obscured his vision.

There were 4 helmeted cyclist killed in this one accident. The fact is if a car hits you at speed there is a risk of death helmet or not.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/4592412.stm

Avoiding crashes is the important thing but I see helmeted cyclists riding in the doorzone, filtering at speed through traffic queues etc.

I knew someone who died from a head injury sustained falling down the stairs. Don’t recall anyone suggesting that he should’ve been wearing a helmet.

No, but if we are looking at proportionate risk management, then I would on a construction site where the liklihood and consequence both increase. Its the same for cycling, you may never have an off, but the liklihood and consequnces increase with speed and techical trails so at that point I make an assessment based on my personal judgment. Your assessment may be different and your perception of risk may be different dependant upon experience ( for example as a health and safety expert in particularly dangerous industries, there are things I see as fairly common place and straight forward to manage that you would shite your pants over) dont let stop you from making some general and sweeping point about “you can have an accident anywhere so lets all where helmets” like wot you are intimating that I was suggesting 😆

Irc…Hey thats fine.. my mate will be happy in knowledge that some bloke ikn web says its all bollox…if he had any higher mental funtion now.

I’m not sure anybody here is arguing with that point. I think all of us arguing against their blanket use whilst cycling wear one some or even most of the time whilst cycling (I understand even TJ has been seen wearing one). The argument is against those who suggest that you should wear one for all cycling, when some of us assess the risk just as you do and have determined that for some of our cycling we have no greater a chance of head injury than lots of other things we do without wearing helmets.

A helmet would not have stopped the entirety of the injury, but would have significantly reduced the penetration depth and brain insult.

A thin piece of polystyrene isn’t going to stop something penetrating your skull. A helmet only slows down the deceleration of the brain.

What I don’t understand is that I don’t see much safety data evidence / testing from manufacturers, yet we all will happily go and spend £100 on a helmet over a £15 one. The reality is we buy helmets without knowing how safe they are. We buy them because they look nice and feel comfortable. I have NEVER seen a single review or evidence about 1 helmet being better at protecting your head than another one.