Remember kids... always wear a helmet. (The almighty bikeradar helmet thread)

fucks sake

otherwise i would have had to wear my fencing kit to and from training as it would make me safer from a knife attack

don't you have your rapha kevlar woven merino wool baselayer for that?

want^

i need to see the road at least. send a map link to me and ideally would need to ride that section of road.
Could you ride out even further blocking the drivers?

The only way I could completely block the driver is by riding on the wrong side of the road, I am pretty sure no cycle training would be telling me to do that!

Guessing you are in London? I am in the New Forest but if you are ever down that way I will gladly show you the main problem areas. Can also give you a bit of off road training too :-)

The view from Google earth/other maps doesn't show the blind hill (just looks straight) and the two blind corners don't look it from the air, but they are both blind (I also drive so know this)

dan i occasionally play cricket, i use a box when i bat, and you're right , it's probably a good idea to wear it on my way to the ground... just in case :p)

Just in case someone bowls a ball at your genitals whilst cycling to the ground?

As that is the thing which it is designed to protect against, whereas Dan's point is that if you are cycling with your helmet attached to your bag you are not taking advantage of it.

Therefore, using your cricket box analogy, you would have it clipped to your belt in a jaunty fashion for some of the match, as your ability on the cricket field is obviously much better than most cricketers, especially "nodder" cricketers, so you don't really need to wear it, certainly not all the time.

don't you have your rapha kevlar woven merino wool baselayer for that?

Sssshhhh!

This is what makes me feel safe screaming "cunt" at everyone else on the road. Don't blow my secrets.

.

Love these helmet/no helmet brake/no brake debates on cycling website it always seems people feel they need to justify their actions. Do what you want I say & leave others to do their thing because they rarely listen.

Ooh ooh i have a little story.

Once upon a time a little boy, lets call him 'Raga' was riding, a jag pulled out, little agar went flying over bonnet of said jag landing on shoulder and head just missing the kerb. Driver said something like 'you dented my fucking car you little shit' before driving off. Bleeding little Raga hobbled home vowing to buy a new front wheel, fork and a helmet. 15 years later he rides wearing a helmet (on his head) looking a bit of tit due to peanut shaped head.

Well, the whole of this rhetorical helmet issue comes back to the fact you cannot say the helmet wouldve helped agar in the slightest. You just dont know.

The only way I could completely block the driver is by riding on the wrong side of the road, I am pretty sure no cycle training would be telling me to do that!

Guessing you are in London? I am in the New Forest but if you are ever down that way I will gladly show you the main problem areas. Can also give you a bit of off road training too :-)

The view from Google earth/other maps doesn't show the blind hill (just looks straight) and the two blind corners don't look it from the air, but they are both blind (I also drive so know this)

will let you know when in the area

if by riding on the wrong side of the road going round a bend gives you better visability so you can see oncoming vehicles as well as prevent dangerous overtaking why not?. If something is coming towards you have room left to move back into your lane...you may get hooted since drivers may struggle to understand your position in the road but one day they'll get it

@dammit 1+for your editing

Well, the whole of this rhetorical helmet issue comes back to the fact you cannot say the helmet wouldve helped agar in the slightest. You just dont know.

From experience it helps deaden the blow [a lot] and saved me some blood. Also if pros trust it, its good enough for me. Plus motor cyclist friends of mine certainly have benefited from helmets so although not the same type of helmets Skin and hair certainly offer less protection that high density foam.

But no helmet protects your head from being under the wheel of a truck or snapping your spine etc etc, so careful driving and riding is the best protection.

Pros do not, by and large, choose to wear helmets; they are obliged to by the UCI.

Ive read research papers which said that bicycle helmets should be much harder and have some penetration protection. Some sort of compromise that helmets are the way they are. If I wore a helmet (I do sometimes actually) it would have to be hardshell/skid lid type. I can only imagine soft road helmets disintegrating when your head is sliding across the concrete or when your head gets stabbed by part of your bike.

Ive read research papers which said that bicycle helmets should be much harder and have some penetration protection.

Like motorcycle helmets?

I was shown the collection of damaged helmets worn by a pro team for half their season.

Each one was destroyed by a single impact, the idea being that the helmet disintegrates thus dissipating the force of the impact. Racing by its very nature of being andrenalin charged with people riding in close proximity at speed is likely to cause more crashes.

It made it clear to me that given the higher risks involved in racing there is a strong argument for wearing a helmet.

Pros do not, by and large, choose to wear helmets; they are obliged to by the UCI.

Just because the they are required to doesn't mean they would not wear one if they weren't required to.

Ive read research papers which said that bicycle helmets should be much harder and have some penetration protection. Some sort of compromise that helmets are the way they are. If I wore a helmet (I do sometimes actually) it would have to be hardshell/skid lid type. I can only imagine soft road helmets disintegrating when your head is sliding across the concrete or when your head gets stabbed by part of your bike.

Isn't that how they dissipate the energy from the impact tho, by breaking, much like a cars crumple zone, or are they supposed to spread the impact from a small surface area (impact point) to larger surface area. OR, is the polystyrene supposed to compress to absorb the impact. Sod it, I'm gonna look it up.

Incidentally, I had a fairly big spill just before easter this year whilst wearing a helmet. I landed right on my nose and forehead, helmet didn't have a scratch, my face had 35 stitches and mad swelling so if you are gonna wear a helmet try and crash properly.

Just because the they are required to doesn't mean they would not wear one if they weren't required to.

You started it; citing professionals' wearing of helmets as a reason we should too. Before it was compulsory most pros did not wear them; that is a fact. Everything else is speculation and neither here nor there.

I not going to pretend I'm an expert in cycle safety or what ever but from my personal experience and from crashes I've seen, you rarely whack your head, but when people or myself have that extra bit of protection seems to always help. If anyone who has banged their head hard on the ground [or even softly] wouldn't have preferred something softening the blow then they must have a lot of head meat.

Its a shame that only people who try to sell helmets have done any research on the matter, some rigorous testing would help clear the matter up a bit. Anyway as i said in my first post let people wear/not wear at their discretion, but bad drivers have thought me it helps.

You started it; citing professionals' wearing of helmets as a reason we should too. Before it was compulsory most pros did not wear them; that is a fact. Everything else is speculation and neither here nor there.

Didn't say we should all wear it, i said if its good enough for them etc etc. my first post said people should do what they want. I have many friends who don't wear them and unfortunately its not because they dont believe it helps just because they look silly. But I leave them to themselves.

It's rather more complicated, agar. If it interests you, read this thread, although it's got quite long by now (helmet debates repeat over and over, with only slight variations, to the extent that even I can't really be bothered having them again and again, although I do my best). http://cyclehelmets.org/ is worth reading.

Fair enough, you did say it was good enough for you, not for everyone. But I still think what pros do, with regard to helmets or most everything, is rarely relevant to the rest of us.

Fair enough, you did say it was good enough for you, not for everyone. But I still think what pros do, with regard to helmets or most everything, is rarely relevant to the rest of us.

what about padded shorts for long rides. Or riding off and pretending your didn't notice that your opponent has dropped a chain. Pros do that. with regards to the latter i though it best to push the person you were racing into the hedge, it guaranteed me wins throughout my childhood.

I've come off 4 times. One time I hit my head on the ground and needed 7 stitches. I'm pretty sure that had I been wearing a helmet I would just have been a bit dazed (and had to buy a new helmet).

That and two other times were people opening doors (yes, yes, I should've been further out and do cycle out in the road all the time now). The 4th was due to me not replacing my worn cleats and having a foot fly out of the SPD at the A10/A406 roundabout (much fun - I can't recommend it enough).

I now wear a helmet for almost all London cycling and all long rides. Having 2 flatmates rush down the road to tend to me as well as getting my girlfriend all worked up (2 days of TLC and since she's self-employed, that cost her real money) was Not Cool(tm). I don't find it particularly inconvenient to wear and it provides something to strap a video camera to if I CBA. Plus I did buy the damn thing - might as well wear it.

Bit like buying a lock and then not taking it out with you IMHO. It boils down to a risk assessment and it's been demonstrated many times that people are shite at assessing risk.

I may be a classic case I suppose - having had an injury which would have likely been less severe had I been wearing a helmet I'm now more biased towards wearing them.

Then again since I don't see that you're causing me harm by not wearing one, I don't really mind if that's what you choose to do. So long as your choice is informed it's yours to make.