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

Cycling is very different in Holland though, you are generally on seperate bike paths with no cars and on upright bikes going way slower than most people ride on normal road and track bikes.

I used to only ever wear a helmet when riding offroad.

The my girlfriend built herself a bike and said that she would not wear a helmet because I didn't.

So I started wearing one- and at 199 grams for the helmet it's not really a massive hassle for a little peace of mind.

Guilty, but not when I'm out with said child.

I generally only wear my helmet when off roading.

I do not know why.

I am with that, i'd be sure to wear one when with a child (to encourage them to) and when ride in dangerous conditions - long rides, races, off road etc

but commiting around town i don't see the need, i have fabulous hair and want to keep it that way.
I also don't take stupid risks when commuting as i am only going/from work/drinks/football etc..

if your numbers up your numbers up and personally i'd like to go with fresh pants and amazing hair

Well, lets just wait 'til Oliver shows up.

Wear a helmet for the daily commute (26 miles round trip). It has saved my head from nasty bumps and grazes a few times over the past 3 years. However, for local short trips I often ride without it. Also helps keep your head warm through winter.

yeah, oliver will layup the smackdown.

now I just need to find that scrubs hairmet video.

You take your chances. A helmet never protected me when I fell 3 stories through a roof, of got hit by a car at 50mph on the north circular, or had a mass skiing wipeout, or when I had the shit beaten out of me by a load of pissheads, or when I fell 15 feet out of a tree and landed on my head...... etc etc the list goes on. When its your time its your time and there's fuck all you can do about it in my opinion

@ crispin glover ........ PS. I don't let my brother or sister ride a bike in London for purely selfish reasons.

why do you have them locked up in your cellar or something ?

Some Oliver bait- what harm can wearing a helmet do?

Not in the sense of enforced helmet wearing as in Australia with the concomitant drop in bicycle usage.

I take Tricity's point about cars giving less room to cyclists wearing a helmet on board also.

My initial question also assumes that the helmet is worn correctly- not as VV says like a beret.

EDIT: I am perfectly willing to admit that when I hit the deck this year the helmet that I was wearing did nothing.

thats cause you tried landing on your chin.
you should have worn it like a beard net rather than a beret

drivers tend to give female cyclists more space, and you look more obviously like a female cyclist if you're not wearing a helmet - yes it's sexist and lame and it pisses me off that people assume female cyclists need more space but at the same time... that's how things are).

To all females:

It is very naive and dangerous to assume that drivers will give you more space, just because you are female.

I doubt the minicab drivers speeding down fast roads in London, way to close to cyclists, give a shit whether you are male or female.

I used to only ever wear a helmet when riding offroad.

The my girlfriend built herself a bike and said that she would not wear a helmet because I didn't.

So I started wearing one- and at 199 grams for the helmet it's not really a massive hassle for a little peace of mind.

That's interesting, you started wearing a helmet because you wanted your girlfriend to wear one. Damo makes sure his girlfriend puts on her helmet properly but he does not wear one.

Anyone else feels that way?

I have 2000 condoms under my work desk, of a frankly baffling and bewidlering choice, with various flavours, colours, hypoallegenic / non latex, textures, in a range of sizes with compatible lubricants.

Given that 1 in 10 young people have an STI, and I work with the fuckers, which do I put on my helmet?

Oh and Greasy, I used to have to wear a beard net. But it was sort of ER blue so we could pretend to be doing important work and not just messing around with ice cream.

thats cause you tried landing on your chin.
you should have worn it like a beard net rather than a beret

I did think about what would have happened should I have been wearing a full face helmet- however the chap I spoke to whilst I was going in and out of the MRI scanner said that if my jaw had not broken thus absorbing the force it was a distinct possibility that I would have fractured my cervical vertebrae, or the back of my skull where the tendons attach.

I cant really accept the argument of cars giving more space to riders not wearing helmets as forming the basis of a decision not to wear one. Surely the decision needs to be made based on your opinion of their effectiveness in the event of an accident, rather than their perceived effect on other road users.

They do look wank though.

You take your chances. A helmet never protected me when I fell 3 stories through a roof, of got hit by a car at 50mph on the north circular, or had a mass skiing wipeout, or when I had the shit beaten out of me by a load of pissheads, or when I fell 15 feet out of a tree and landed on my head...... etc etc the list goes on. When its your time its your time and there's fuck all you can do about it in my opinion

fcuk me, Major Accident and General Disaster all rolled into one

Are people who choose to travel in buses and coaches and black cabs also being selfish by travelling in a vehicle that is as likely to be involved in a crash as any other road going vehicle knowing that they won't be using seatbelts?
Or the underground or overground trains for that matter?
There are even HGVs still on the road with no seatbelts.

Do we all cross the street rather than walk past a building with scaffolding on its side incase a workman should have an accident and drop his tools?

I see people that have been cycling for a long time answering their phones whilst they ride...i've seen plenty of forum members riding when drunk and weaving all over the road and ploughing through crossings shouting at pedestrians who get in their way.

People take risks all the time...thankfully i've never had an accident on the roads since i was 6yrs old.That doesn't mean i never will...thankfully i've never lost a relative due to a car crash, but again that doesn't mean i never will.

As has been mentioned already, not everyone who chooses not to wear a helmet does so because they think they look 'cooler' without one.
I wear one every time i ride off-road for the simple reason that i'm far more likely to crash riding on muddy, rocky, rooty, uneven surfaces than i am riding on predominantly smooth tarmac.
I know that if i'm going to be involved in an accident on the roads it's more likely to be due to a careless driver than to my own actions...but at the same time, i don't put a helmet on every time i cross the street incase a careless driver should crash into me either.

Had a big crash on Tuesday night, I was sprinting away from some lights on my SS bike, out of my seat, and my left pedal arm sheared off the end of the bottom bracket, suffice to say i with all my weight and balance on that side of the bike I went down into the road like a comet. The next thing I knew (half an hour after the accident) an ambulance driver was getting excited because I suddenly could remember my name and I remembered my wife's name so he could call her on my mobile. We have just had a baby girl (which I remembered after half an hour of amnesia) and as such my wife was in a state when the ambulance driver spoke to her to say they were taking me to get a CT scan etc. (he told her I couldn't remember who I was). Smashed my face up nicely by going face/head first into the road, my helmet had some lovely grazes / bangs on it. Pretty sure without it I wouldn't be talking to my wife and daughter again.

I always wear it on my Richmond to Waterloo commute, but I often pop down the shops without my helmet on (much to my wife's annoyance). The thing about this particular accident, is that it could have happened on a 5 minute pop down the shops. I'm gonna wear it all the time now.

By the way, according to the ambulance guys, whilst I was down and out (with blood pouring out of my face) I was surrounded by loads of other cyclists who stopped the traffic and looked after me (calling the ambulance etc).

I don't know who they are, but I'd like to give them and any one of us that helps another cyclist out after an accident a big thanks.

Mart

Some Oliver bait- what harm can wearing a helmet do?

Not in the sense of enforced helmet wearing as in Australia with the concomitant drop in bicycle usage.

I take Tricity's point about cars giving less room to cyclists wearing a helmet on board also.

My initial question also assumes that the helmet is worn correctly- not as VV says like a beret.

EDIT: I am perfectly willing to admit that when I hit the deck this year the helmet that I was wearing did nothing.

There is the argument that helmets increase the risk of torsional brain injury, because they whip your head round if struck. I haven't examined the evidence for this, but there is one guy, mentioned in that Oz article I posted, who has set up a company to develop helmets that dampen rotational impact to reduce this.

the helmet-as-a-personal-choice debate has been played out elsewhere on this forum and i chucked my two cents/pence in there, so i'll leave that one be.

Maybe I can help create the trend that wearing a helmet is the only way to ride and helmet hair is the coolest 'do in Shoreditch.

but i will say if anyone's going start a helmet hair trend, mike's a good a choice as any

witness the fitness:

get on it, cool kidz

[/IMG]

(coz' clapton is the new surebitch)

To all females:

It is very naive and dangerous to assume that drivers will give you more space, just because you are female.

I doubt the minicab drivers speeding down fast roads in London, way to close to cyclists, give a shit whether you are male or female.

This is based on a study that I am too lazy to find the link to... so shut it.

It's an interesting thing about kids. The Cycle Proficiency guys insist on a helmet, but when they hang out with their mates they never wear them (except occasionally on the handlebars). On the road when we go on a ride I make my kids wear helmets. When they hang with their mates they don't - and some of their mates do crazy things.

The adults I ride with, when I joined them, never wore helmets except one or two. The other day someone pointed out I was the only rider without a helmet. In two years everyone's perception of risk has changed, but none of the facts have. Weird huh?

I'm with Scoober on this one.

Are there any stats for the damage that helmets have caused that would/could otherwise have been prevented?

There was a post about parents who ride without helmets...

One could point out the risks inherent in pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy. And the slightly scary statistical evidence regarding birth abnormalities might suggest that with every year past 30-years-old, mothers are increasingly 'selfish' for wanting to procreate.

But, people take their chances; including every time they have a bath without a helmet on.

I've got gripes with my emotionally bereft parents over loads of things, but not for letting me ride without a helmet throughout childhood and adolescence, in a wide variety of traffic conditions. I know there'll be some serious discussion surrounding my son's helmet use, as he grows older, and ventures further afield. He's not currently wearing one whilst riding his trike or balance bike around the estate or the pavements of EC1.

Just more tired shit for a tired old debate that won't go away...

It's an interesting thing about kids. The Cycle Proficiency guys insist on a helmet, but when they hang out with their mates they never wear them (except occasionally on the handlebars). On the road when we go on a ride I make my kids wear helmets. When they hang with their mates they don't - and some of their mates do crazy things.

The adults I ride with, when I joined them, never wore helmets except one or two. The other day someone pointed out I was the only rider without a helmet. In two years everyone's perception of risk has changed, but none of the facts have. Weird huh?

I'm with Scoober on this one.

As for the CYCLE TRAINING (Bike Ability) guys, the wearing of helmet is down to the individual council policies.