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

Ivan, this thread is by now admittedly getting a bit long, but all of your concerns have already been discussed--you'll find plenty of facts to assuage your worries upthread. That said, everybody recognises that this debate will probably go on forever.

There is no real debate here, theres just 1 side stating the fact and using statistics to show that incident A will occur, the factor being time.

Then theres the other side; "were too cool to wear helmets"; "my hair gets messy if I wear a helmet"; my favorite quote: "helmets discourage people from riding bikes" - Where the fark did you get that assumption from? That is the most stupidest case of reverse psychology I have ever seen. Should airbags or seat belts discourage people from driving? This side is arrogant, ignorant and when the time comes, and they do lost a good portion of their face to the tarmac, they will no doubt learn the hardway.

For the gentleman, who explained the art of colliding into a car, yes skidding, nice, been there done that. I am not an idiot to collide head onto a car. There are other factors, for example the stupidity of the guy driving the car.

You would not believe how many times I would find myself in the situation where a car is about to pull out of the alleyway, the driver LOOKS AT ME, LOOKS the other way, waits until I am close to him and going at high speed; sees the opportunity in turning perpendicularly into my direction at the opposite lane and grabs it just as I am mere meters away from him.

The sad reality of the situation is; most drivers assume your breaking distance on the bike is measured in centimeters. Most drivers assume you are going at 10mph. Most of them never drove a bike in a London road before.

In the end of the day, as I have mentioned before there is no debate or argument. Theres responcible cyclists who are aware of the risks, and then there are the others who think they are too good, or they havent grown out of puberty and want to live life on the wild side. I respect both parties, but if you want to live dangerously dont go about making up stupid sh*t like "wearing a helmet discourages others from riding a bike" or "the helmet wont make any difference in a collision" and again, my most favorite; "a helmet only increases the danger during the collision".