Quick assessment of 2015. Closest I have come to hitting my head;
Fallen over twice – once in garage on slippery wet floor, once outside on wet bird food remnants.
No falls on bike.

I always wear a helmet when in the garden/garage now, why wouldn’t I?

Seriously though, I don’t see why there is ever a debate/question on helmet wearing and certainly shouldn’t be even talking about law.
Only from what I see when riding and driving but it is very rare to see anyone NOT wearing a helmet. It must be in the 95%+ bracket so looks like something is working (rightly or wrongly!)

For UrbEx in old drainage systems….

Yes. My friend fell over twice on that angled mossy floor and both times smacked his head. Luckily he was wearing my spare lid so was fine.

For riding……usually. Here in the Netherlands it’s pretty rare for commuting, though.

I recognise that urge too. I wear one for most of my riding but the very occasional short road rides I will do without. The feeling of riding in just a cap is really quite pleasant.

Thinking about it, I also don’t wear one when I ride my cargo bike to the shops either.

I got us a couple of decent lids (Bell Stokers) and my OH has now started wearing one even for pottering about on the local bridleways which is good. I clonked my head on an overhanging branch on Sunday on a downhill that I’d previously not worn a lid on- I reckon it’d have had me off the bike if I hadn’t had a helmet on.

It’s nice to ride naked, but I do enjoy being able to chew my own food, so it’s a lid for me whenever I’m on the MTB.

We don’t wear a lid for popping to the shops on our shoppers though 😕

I do get the urge not to where a lid out of a perverse desire to not be told what I should be doing. But then I know if I fell off and cracked my head the first thing I would see when I woke up in hospital (assuming I woke up) would be my missus glaring at me with a “why weren’t you wearing a helmet” look on her face. This is enough motivation for me.

monkeyfudger – Member
Rarely wear one in the winter, I’d much rather wear a nice winter cap. Always wear one when riding off-road or in a group.

Moi too.

I’d guess I wear one on about 15% of my rides… I just don’t like it….

I’ve passed a quy on the local trails a few times who has a lid that he keeps on his handle bar! It’s almost like it’s mounted to the stem? I don’t see the point in that at all.

That might be me. I carry my helmet like that, so it’s there for the downhills. Don’t see the point in wearing it when spinning the granny ring for 20mins uphill or long easy sections where I’m not gonna go over the bars though.

I also don’t wear one for the commute and get various comments about it. I love riding without a helmet. I hate wearing helmets, be it work, water, rock or otherwise. As soon as I get t a safe spot it comes off.

I didn’t used to wear one for commuting and the. I got hit by a van. Very lucky to not hit my head badly, I left a sizeable dent in the front wing with my shoulder and only just missed wacking my head. I wear it religiously when commuting or going to the shops now.

Always worn it on the mtb or road rides though.

Sitting by the side of the trail picking bark splinters out of your crash helmet or getting mud and rubble out of the vents no one ever thought hmm wish I hadn’t worn that helmet

As even the (criticised) Transport Research Lab assessment of evidence reckoned helmets would save only 10-16% of fatalities the benefits are marginal. Either cycling is safe or if it’s dangerous reducing the risk by 10-16% is pretty marginal. I think it’s safe.

Statistics are great, but need to be analysed a bit more, before deciding what they mean.
For example, if only ten percent of incidents are fatalities, and helmets only make a difference in 10-18% of those cases (which seems like a large margin of error) then you should consider that it only makes a difference in 1-1.8% of cases – making your argument even stronger.
However, the report (possibly) doesn’t mention how many of the non-fatality cases would be improved by wearing a helmet.
Depending on how high that figure is, there could be a massive percentage benefit in favour of helmets.
Now, I’m not arguing for or against helmets (in this post, anyway) I’m just saying that more consideration should be given to various ‘facts’ that get thrown around.

I do like the freedom of not wearing a helmet. However, after quite a bad concussion last September (rugby) and not wearing my head guard, i realised my head is getting softer. After 20 yrs of getting knocks to the head its a bit squishy.it took me about 2 months before i felt normal. i do take them off if its a long climb though.
i also wear a hardhat every day so they dont bother me really. But like what was mentioned above some peoples heads just dont fit in helmets.

we never wore them ‘when we were kids’ because the environment wasn’t the same

and they didn’t exist…

and they didn’t exist…

Not entirely true.
I remember that nothing was needed for cycling, but if I wanted to use a skateboard then my mum insisted on a helmet and kneepads. In hindsight they could also been used for cycling, but I guess they weren’t because I could ride for more than 10 seconds without falling off.

I almost always wear a helmet. One day I was riding through Edinburgh to get to the station and didn’t think I really needed one. A van knocked me off the bike and I hit the tarmac without having my arms to catch myself.

I have a nice scar to show for it. Think I would have been a bit better off wearing a helmet although I would have still had a sore face.

without having my arms to catch myself

Am I right to take this to mean you didn’t get your arms up in time?

Always wear mine. I cant ride without it. Doing a 3 mile jaunt about 3 months ago to pick up wifes car I went OTB and stoved the front of my helmet in on a log. I reckon it would have knocked me out and probably damaged me neurologically too.

I’ve smashed at least a dozen helmets into the ground in the last 25 years. Wouldn’t think of not wearing it, especially coming back from the pub.

I’ve hit my head quite a few times when falling off and they have’t all be big fast ones. Helmet protected me from damage. I either wear a met parachute or my bigger FF helemt for DH. Don’t understand why people don’t wear a helemt.

I’ve smashed at least a dozen helmets into the ground in the last 25 years. Wouldn’t think of not wearing it, especially coming back from the pub.

I managed to smash myself up pretty badly on the way back from the pub. It may or may not have had something to do with the fact I’d had 9 pints (always remember to stop before you hit double figures) and that I was riding home in a force 7 gale. I was enjoying the sensation of being pushed along by the tailwind but completely failed to anticipate that a tail wind would become a side wind as I went round a bend. I was pushed off the road towards a ditch. I still maintain I could have ridden it out but some **** left a traffic cone at the side of the road so I ended up going over the bars. I used my face and the side of my head to arrest my slide. The upshot of this was that I ended up with four stitches in my forehead and five to sew my ear more or less back together.

I still don’t wear a helmet. I do, however, take the bus if I’m going drinking.

Am I right to take this to mean you didn’t get your arms up in time?

Yes, as I’d bounced off the side of the van I wasn’t able to use my arms to stop my head hitting the ground.

Have to admit when I rode in mid 90’s I never wore one, not many people did back then, probably about the same number who wear neck braces now.

When I started again in 2005 I bought one a few weeks later, the game had moved on, bikes were quicker, but more importantly in the 90s I wasn’t really mountain biking, I was riding a bike about, no rocks, no jumps, just that fine gravel stuff around the local park.

Now I’ve got kids I wear one when my mind tells me I don’t need to, I might be going up the road to find a knock in the suspension or just to the shops – but I can’t be that Dad who insists my Son always wears one, when I don’t.

The only time I ride without one now is when I’m at BPW, long slogs up the fire road in 1st and 2nd gear with my full-face strapped to my pack. I’m old enough to way up the risks and there’s a tiny chance I might fall off, an even smaller one I might hit my head and a tiniest of tiniest chances those things will come together with such force that I could hurt myself.

Have to be careful though, there’s a little trail that runs from the centre to the uplift pick-up, I thought it would be a ‘walking path’ slung my lid on without strapping it for the sake of putting it somewhere, turns out it’s a fast, woopy blue graded trail ha ha.

I don’t wear one on town trips but not because of some strange urge to free my head from the restriction of a helmet. I do it to get a different reaction from motorists.

Absolutely no excuse not to wear a lid. Doesn’t matter if youre on a fire road, cycle path or anything else. If you land on your head and the impact is hard enough you’ll put yourself at risk of damage.

I give my kids a hard time for them not wearing theirs (not cool apparently!!).

experience and/or ability counts for nowt!

I am very pro helmet and have a cracked one from Glentress and one with a flat top from commuting to work to reinforce the value of my choice. It is and should be a choice though.

Remember when there was no excuse for skateboarders not to wear helmets, knee pads and arm guards?

As an aside, I was skiing with a guide a couple of years ago and remarked on his fine bobble hat. His view… 85% of life-changing injuries on the slopes were spinal. His advice… if you want to buy a helmet, do it the day after you buy a spine protector.

Good advice IMO

Absolutely no excuse not to wear a lid.

You’ve never worn one.
You don’t think they’re that effective.
They’re hot.
They’re uncomfortable.
None of them fit properly.
It’s a hassle wandering around the shops with it.
It makes you look stupid.
You don’t want to wear the uniform of a ‘proper’ cyclist.
You think drivers will be more careful around you if you look more vulnerable.
You worry that in some cases helmets can aggravate injuries.
You think that wearing a helmet promotes the idea that cycling is dangerous and you don’t want to put other people off.

And that’s just off the top of my head. There are plenty of excuses even if you don’t agree.

Wouldn’t think of not wearing it, especially coming back from the pub.

My approach is to just not ride my bike when I am pissed.

no legitimate excuse not to wear one

There are plenty it is just that you dont accept them
If I wont go over 6 mph on a traffic free route then I will be as safe as running

poah » no legitimate excuse not to wear one

That’s a poah troll.

My coat? **** off!

Absolutely no excuse not to wear a lid. Doesn’t matter if youre on a fire road, cycle path or anything else. If you land on your head and the impact is hard enough you’ll put yourself at risk of damage.

no legitimate excuse not to wear one

No excuse needed. As it happens I always wear a helmet. I choose to. Tomorrow I might choose to do something different. If that is the case, I won’t need an “excuse”, I’ll just choose to not wear a helmet. The most likely reason for me making such a choice will be the sanctimonious telling me I can’t.

Out of interest, when you say

fire road, cycle path or anything else

by “anything else” do I take it to mean that you always wear a helmet when, for instance, walking up or down a flight of stairs, standing in a potentially slippy shower, standing near an open and potentially bang-your-headable-into garage door?

Seriously, if you land on your head and the impact is hard enough you’ll put yourself at risk of damage. The absence of gyroscopic wheels providing balance won’t reduce the damage in any way. If there’s “no excuse” then presumably, that has to include “but I happen to not be on a bicycle right now” as a non-valid excuse for the absence of head protection?

I feel oddly vulnerable and naked when I don’t wear mine. Even if it’s just a quick up and down the street to test the bit that’s just been changed on the bike.

Never used to use a lid on my BMX, would rather not wear one now, i do always wear a lid now though, i would hate to be in the “if only” mindset of something did happen.

There are plenty it is just that you dont accept them
If I wont go over 6 mph on a traffic free route then I will be as safe as running

still not a legitimate excuse though. I’ve yet to see any reason not to wear a helmet when on a bike. You’re totally free not to though and I respect your choice not to.

I’ve just spent £310 on helmet for rallying (and that’s a cheap one) to use a handful of times a year (at most), so £50 – £70 for a decent MTB helmet that I use week in week out doesn’t bother me.

I had an off at Hopton a few years back that smashed the front corner off my helmet, took the peak off, cut my cheek and left me with slight double vision, from an innocuous mishap on a slab of rock, could have been a lot worse without a lid, so the helmet always goes on for any remotely techy/rocky rides.

Junkyard – lazarus
If I wont go over 6 mph on a traffic free route then I will be as safe as running

I broke my arm* a couple of year back on the commute home from work. I was practically still at a give way line and the bike went from under me on some diesel.

The point being, you don’t expect accidents to happen.

*may or may not have thwacked my head on the tarmac also, I was too bothered by the pain in my arm.

still not a legitimate excuse though. I’ve yet to see any reason not to wear a helmet

FTFY
Some activities on a bike are so low risk they are at the same level as other activities where no one would think it “legitimate” or necessary to wear a helmet

Teasel is propably correct here though so I shall refrain from further discourse.

From the Big Bike Bash this weekend.

A bloke leading two kids down the gravity track – slowish, not showing off…

…slight misjudgement led to a dislocated shoulder and mild concussions.

Any thoughts on what he would have got without the helmet on?

*

Ignore the grinning idiot

Any thoughts on what he would have got without the helmet on?

We will never know, unless he wants to do the same again without a helmet on. And that lack of proper testing is why the protective properties are unknown. Most people assume it is going to help because it is a helmet, like a motorcycle helmet is a helmet.

Over my lifetime I have been involved in many things where the risk of hitting my head on the floor is higher than cycling (i.e. walking down an icy path) so to wear a helmet when cycling but not during any other activity seems odd doesn’t it?

Just a simple case of people not understanding the real risks involved in daily life and over compensating for badly assessed risk of cycling. How many people wear a helmet when driving for example, and why not?