Why people refuse to wear helmets?

This thread =

It’s always my choice tho’. Not subject to the opinion of others.
I reckon it should stay like that

Until you have enough savings to pay someone to wipe your arse for the rest of your life you don’t have the choice. Currently the taxpayer bears that cost so you should do what legislation suggests is the best course of action and that’s the only opinion that matters.

Every day of your life

For as long as you live.

All together now!

Climb every mountain

Ford every stream…

Until you have enough savings to pay someone to wipe your arse for the rest of your life you don’t have the choice. Currently the taxpayer bears that cost so you should do what legislation suggests is the best course of action and that’s the only opinion that matters.

Fortunately the legislation currently favours choice and individual responsibility.

As for the “someone to wipe your arse for the rest of your life” – surely the same applies if you break your neck and damage your spinal cord.

Do you wear a neck brace to help avoid this?

you should do what legislation suggests is the best course of action and that’s the only opinion that matters.

…..i hear tales from history telling me that this blind acceptance of the doctrine of ‘best’ might not always be the most inspired course of action.

I do have the choice by the way. It might not fit with your version of acceptable behaviour, but the choice is something i do have.

Out of curiosity, would you suggest helmet use while skiing/boarding being compulsory? ( i always wear one doing this kind of stuff) …what about running?…. what about climbing?… hill walking? Parkour? Skateboarding?

I think it’s just about having the choice really. You dont feel the need for that particular freedom, thats fine by me.

Until you have enough savings to pay someone to wipe your arse for the rest of your life you don’t have the choice.

I am lucky to have a wife who would fulfil that role. She’d prefer not to, of course but recognises the right for self determination, responsibility, and accountability. Its easier for me, as her arse is nicer than mine.

Hopefully she doe snot talk out of it 😉 – Just a joke nothing more

the argument from some – Graham for example seems to be if you wear a helmet you must wear full body armour to do all activities or else this decision is inconsitsnet or not well concieved
Its a poor argument and reductio ad absurdum* that can be used either way For example you wear a seatbelt I assume but you cycle without a helmet MADNESS why not just take of your seat belt? What you even wear it a car park when you only do 5 mph FFS live a little.

If it proves anything it proves we all make ad hoc and inconsistent risk asesments based on our own perception of risk [ perhaps even the risk of getting caught without a seat belt and fined rather than injury] rather than anything that would stand up to peer review for the journal of statistical risk analysis.

* it is no more stupid to wear a helmet and forgo body armour than it is for you to wear a seat belt and forgo body armour and a helmet in the car- that is we are all guilty of this whatever our helmet view

@ junkyard
You’ve met my wife then…? she really does talk out of it.

All the above is of course correct. But above anything else, choice is the only way IMHO, not enforcement.

It’s not about whether your head is better off with a helmet on it when it makes contact with a tree or whatever- I don’t think many people are really arguing that it isn’t.

It’s about how likely that is to happen, or at least how likely it is relative to, say, having a car crash where a helmet would be useful. If I was going to get shot I’d rather have a bulletproof vest on than not, but I don’t think it’s very likely to happen so I don’t feel the need to wear one. On the other hand, there’s a reasonable chance of coming a cropper mountain biking so it makes sense to wear one- in fact I’d maybe go so far as to say you’d be daft not to.

Riding to work I don’t feel there’s a huge risk I’ll need one, so I don’t wear one. It could happen, but if we were going to do things like deciding who should get care at the taxpayers’ expense based on taking precautions for everything that could happen we’d all be in some trouble I think.

I never knew about the Cochrane review, shame it’s aim was:

“To determine whether bicycle helmets reduce head, brain and facial injury for bicyclists of all ages involved in a bicycle crash or fall.”

Rather than covering the whole lot, i.e. whether they increased the likelihood of a fall in the first place, and whether they generated more of certain injuries than others (and if those injuries where more serious/detrimental), and whether they have an impact on the capacity of a cyclist to protect their own head when falling. The usual stuff that’s thrown up by these threads. Oh well, back to the drawing board for cycle-hlemet-researchers everwhere then!

It is a bit daft not to wear a lid while biking. I am guilty of being daft.
I like that possibility though. I’d like to keep it.

Anyone here ski?
Anyone wear a helmet whilst doing so?

i do. Daft I know, but i just feel safer wearing one.

In fact i have broken two boarding helmets, but only ever one cycling one.

Maybe we should only wear a lid if we are bad at something?

Another 6 hours of posts have passed…

If I don’t want to read all that, has somebody made an amazing point which will sway me from my current position? Or is it the same old same old?

I’m currently working on the assumption that people who still partake in ‘debate’ on helmet threads have recently sustained a head injury.

So, has anyone contributed anything new which will sway me from my current position yet? Or, have you all been wasting your lives?

rusty – snowboard – and got a helmet a year or two ago, but don’t like wearing it doesn’t fit that well (present, I thought it was OK, and coun;t find another better)

Only time I’ve hit my head hard was 10 mins into a race, absolutely knackered, legs gave up, caught my heel edge and smacked the back of my head into the snow. I remember the force being harder than I expected, and the whiplash way worse than I expected. I could have been going faster than I thought I was, but it could be the helmet made some injuries worse. Good job it wasn’t a rock underneath me, helmet or not.

Sorry Mike, continuing a longterm habit of mine, I’m one of the ones guilty of wasting my life.

So, has anyone contributed anything new which will sway me from my current position yet?

Dunno, has it? Are you OK? How many fingers?

Or, have you all been wasting your lives?

I’ve got some route pointers for rides near my house, don’t know about anyone else.

Cycling without wearing a helmet is a like smoking.
It probably won’t kill you, but it could do you some damage.
But it’s a personal choice. 😉

So, has anyone contributed anything new which will sway me from my current position yet? Or, have you all been wasting your lives?

yes you posteed something so condescending we all agreed you were a nobber where as before hand some of us thought you were ok 😉
That question was rhetorical wasnt it 😳

Anyone here ski?

Yes

Anyone wear a helmet whilst doing so?

Always.
Have done for the last 22 years.

(not sure how it’s relevant to a cycle helmet debate though, the risks are entirely different. )

yes you posteed something so condescending we all agreed you were a nobber where as before hand some of us thought you were ok

In which case, this is possibly the first STW helmet thread to ever achieve anything 🙂

I was thinking that the risk of falling on your head is higher when skiing, yet less skiers wear helmets than bikers.
(Boarders are different – anybody going down a mountain standing on an ironing board needs to protect their remaining brain cells :D)

the argument from some – Graham for example seems to be if you wear a helmet you must wear full body armour to do all activities or else this decision is inconsitsnet or not well concieved

Mmm.. that’s not really my point at all. 😕

I’m suggesting that everyone has a level of acceptable risk/consequence and they mitigate against that as they see fit.

There is always something more you could do to prevent the risk (including just not getting on a bike in the first place!)

So we all have to make a decision about where we stand on that particular sliding scale and take precautions as we see fit.

If a grown adult has considered the risks they face and made an informed decision that they don’t need a helmet then fair play to them I say.

Chastising them and calling them names for that decision is daft.

You’ve just decided to wear one more piece of protective equipment than them. Woo hoo.

Tutting quietly behind you on the scale is someone who thinks your mad for not wearing knee and elbow pads. And tutting behind him is someone who wears a full-face motocross style helmet. And behind him is someone who thinks everyone should have spine protectors. And behind them all is a grumpy old sod sat on the sofa with a cuppa, rolling his eyes at all these silly mountain bikers putting themselves in unnecessary danger.

i have a 6 inch scare across my head, i needed 23 interal stiches 18 external lost a fare amount of blood and now have a scare on my brain due to not wearing a helmet.

there is NO DOUBT that i would have come off alot better if i had been wearing a helmet and the corner of the curb would not have left such a life long lasting impression on my head

There is EVEN LESS DOUBT that writing things in capitals doesn’t make them any more true.

Chastising them and calling them names for that decision is daft.

but this is only happening in the pudgy bruised minds of the helmetless..

A lot of people are saying that they choose to wear a helmet because they (rightly) believe it offers them an extra degree of protection..

And the helmetless are replying..

‘no it doesn’t, you’re a loony, you believe in fairies and your logic is bleedin’ mental.. now stop judging us, we can do what we want cos we’re older and wiser and we’ve thought about it an’ evryfing, stop picking on us, we’ve got statistics and we’re not afraid to use them.. so watch out.. right.. yeah.. look how clever we are.. don’t judge us maaan.. it’s you that’s crazy’

and everyone is looking at the helmetless and scratching their heads and going..

‘corrr.. look at that… 😯 ‘

There is EVEN LESS DOUBT that writing things in capitals doesn’t make them any more true.

that may be true but only an idiot would say i would have come off worse with a helmet on

I’m suggesting that everyone has a level of acceptable risk/consequence and they mitigate against that as they see fit.

You were doing it badly till that post or you had had enough of fools by that point 😉

I dont disagree with your post but I dont think I have called anyone names for not wearing a helmet

> “Chastising them and calling them names for that decision is daft.”

but this is only happening in the pudgy bruised minds of the helmetless..

Hmmmm.. Really?

Post number 7: “ignorant and selfish”, post 8: “they are complete and utter idiots. Anyone who tries to defend not wearing a helmet is a moron“, post 9: “selfish”, post 11: “People are dicks” and so on and so on: “low self esteem.. effeminate.. don’t care enough about their children..” blah blah blah

I dont think I have called anyone names for not wearing a helmet

No to your credit you’ve stuck to the facts Junkyard. But others are less polite 🙂

The facts being they are selfish moronic dicks then 😉
I had not realised how much there had been tbh and it is not helpful.

There are a lot of grey areas regarding the ‘helmet’ debate, and there have been some well written and lucid posts regarding the pros and cons of the issue. However it is noticeable that some of the over eager participants resort very quickly to insults, and other manner of obfuscation when attempting to make some point. Often they are repeating mantras that they have absorbed without really questioning their efficacy.

The venomous outpourings seem always to come from those insisting that you do as they say, your personal choice is not valid, as you must be a fool not to wear a helmet (apart from going to the shops )

sorry guys.. I’ve just been flitting in and out of the thread and poking a bit of fun..

sorry for being flippant, I really wasn’t taking it at all seriously and didn’t mean to cause offence

I’m suggesting that everyone has a level of acceptable risk/consequence and they mitigate against that as they see fit.

There is always something more you could do to prevent the risk (including just not getting on a bike in the first place!)

So we all have to make a decision about where we stand on that particular sliding scale and take precautions as we see fit.

If a grown adult has considered the risks they face and made an informed decision that they don’t need a helmet then fair play to them I say.

Chastising them and calling them names for that decision is daft.

You’ve just decided to wear one more piece of protective equipment than them. Woo hoo.

Tutting quietly behind you on the scale is someone who thinks your mad for not wearing knee and elbow pads. And tutting behind him is someone who wears a full-face motocross style helmet. And behind him is someone who thinks everyone should have spine protectors. And behind them all is a grumpy old sod sat on the sofa with a cuppa, rolling his eyes at all these silly mountain bikers putting themselves in unnecessary danger.

If that could be condensed into a media friendly sound-bite it would be a near perfect summation of the issue in my opinion.

It’s not about whether your head is better off with a helmet on it when it makes contact with a tree or whatever- I don’t think many people are really arguing that it isn’t.

It’s about how likely that is to happen, or at least how likely it is relative to, say, having a car crash where a helmet would be useful. If I was going to get shot I’d rather have a bulletproof vest on than not, but I don’t think it’s very likely to happen so I don’t feel the need to wear one. SNIP

I think that sums up the views of many of those of us who are sceptical about the absolute need to wear a helmet every time to get on the bike. A point of view which many of the zealots either seem not to understand or dismiss as incorrect/irrelevant/unimportant.

Apologies for snipping at that point – from there on the post goes into the very sort of subjective risk assessment which not everybody agrees with. For example I know TJ chooses not to wear a helmet for all mountain biking, and I tend to agree with his risk assessment for where he doesn’t – I tend not to wear a helmet for some cycling with similar levels of risk.

Of course the continuation of that argument is what has been pointed out several times – the inaccuracy of people’s risk assessment of general cycling, and that there are several other activities where you are at more risk of head injury than some forms of cycling, but where you’d be laughed at for wearing head protection.

fuds.