I often don't bother wearing one at all, on Sunday four of us were out for a XC/trail centre ride and me and one mate swithered over wearing helmets or not, in the end we did as all being DHers we tend to race/push each other down anything fun/interesting.
During the ride we all crashed at least once on but none of us hit our heads, my crash was later on in the day and a beauty.. hit a compression that caused my sweaty (un gloved) hands to almost leave the bars but managed to save it just before the approaching corner, not wanting to be caught by my chasing mates I put down the power after the corner only to find I had no chain (hadn't realised I'd hit the shifter when my hand slipped) anyway, next thing I know I'm flying over the bars straight onto the edge of a wooden bridge, smacked my chin and jaw pretty hard along with taking the bridge on with my chest, hip, knee and wrist. I got up to find the bike hanging upside down in a nearby tree dusted myself off and we set off again.. crashes like these are a pretty common occurence to be honest so didn't think too much of it but for the rest of the ride I had a bastard headache.. thinking it was just down to dehydration at the time I had a decent drink at the end of the ride and we all headed off for a pump track ride on the way home. after getting home the next 24 or so hours have been hazy and my memory has been ****! eg. I've just had to cancel my cash card as I can't remember where I left it before I went riding. My Girlfriend suggested I had probably got concussion, and having had it many times I think I agree with her. anyway, turns out I needn't have bothered with the helmet .
how much do the experts think the rotational force of my 400g XC lid exaggerated my concussion? 😉
appologies for poor spelling/grammer/rambling