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

^ he predicts the football scores doesn't he?

Have you never met Andy "The Octopus" W.?

andy.w in his day job.

My day job is not that exciting.

You're kraken me up Oliver.

you are a sucker for a good pun.

YouTube - [0-60] Ken Block's snowboard/rally bit from DC's Mtn.Lab 1.5

YouTube - Snowmobile hill climb crash (GoPro camera)

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I pop back into this thread every so often, and to be honest I read a page or two, see the same arguments rolled out, lose interest, and the will to live and head out to do something more interesting instead. But just want to pick up on one point, that Jeez keeps mentioning.

As far as I'm aware no one who doesn't wear a helmet, ever tries to get others not to.

All of the anecdotal evidence which wearers of helmets come into this thread and tell you, points out that those who don't wear helmets are putting themselves at risk, because i fell/was knocked off my bike, and the helmet i wore saved my brain, it could have been so much worse if I wasn't wearing one (not me obviously, just paraphrasing the content which is usually here).

I assume and I'm willing to be proved wrong, the underlying message of this statement is that you should wear a helmet, it may/will protect you.

Well I don't want to. Let that be an end to it, but no, it can't be let go of. I personally just don't want anyone to tell me I HAVE TO WEAR a helmet. Why should I? But the roll call of those who have had something worse averted through wearing one grows ever longer and the need to witness this fact and tell me and others how it was only averted through the use of the holy helmet bugs the shit out of me.

My anecdotal evidence is that I've ridden in london and around for a long time, had accidents, the majority not my fault. And haven't hit my head on any occasion in which I've come off my bike. Realistically I should wear knee pads, because thats what hits the ground most often and I'm sick of waiting for the scabs to heal, so I can pick them off.

obviously this isn't the end of the debate, it rolls on and on, as new followers pick up the baton for helmet use and those that don't wear helmets just want to be left alone to continue to do so in piece...

less talking more riding..

This concept of the risk gap from freakonomics ,

We worry about some things more than the evidence warrants (vaccines, nuclear radiation, genetically modified food), and less about some threats than the evidence warns
so we spend more money/worry on terrorists rather than the much more hazardous obesity problem. Seems this is true of the way society assesses risks around cycling by focusing so prolifically on misguided messages about protection from (Very unlikely) head injury hence all this helmet nonsense , rather than spend that energy of real safety measures like ride away from the (fairly common) car dooring area,

Why are we prone to this 'risk gap'?
Why is it easier to believe myths rather than truth?

I hope they have railings around that risk gap.

...and a countdown to hurry you across that gap

freakonomics was a surprisingly good book.

I know, it's largely because of the council urging the trainee to wear a helmet than the instructor themselves.

contract an' all.

(I don't work for merton at the moment though, so I'll tell you to ditch your helmet in that pathetic little river near the Savacentre).

The wandle I beleive, and not likely to happen as I don't have a helmet... despite 20 years of riding like an idiot (including seeing the underside of a bus and going over the bonnet of a taxi) and the last three years of polo.

Actually I've got an american football helmet...

less talking more riding..

this and everything in that post before it are the words of a prophet.

This thread is like toothache, I fucking hate it, and it causes me pain, but I can't stop playing with the damn tooth.

Khornight, Remember my offer of free cycle training a while ago? it still stand and helmets aren't allowed*.

dont get me started.....

Alright, you're a helmet.

Jeez, something we can agree on. I too don't want to see a day when wearing helmets is compulsory either.

Those who don't wear helmets, only rail against the helmeted in relation as you mentioned to the misplaced belief that cycling is inherently dangerous. Because this perception is what pushes the desire for sometime in the future everyone to HAVE to wear helmets, rather than it being a personal choice. And the anecdotal information given by helmet weares just reinforces that attitude.

Most of the reaction to people wearing helmets is that if you are going to wear one, wear it properly, make sure it's the right size and be consistent in it's use. Don't drape it over your handlebars or have it swinging from your backpack.

Like I said previously, I feel no need to walk the corridors of this forum proselytising for the non use of helmets and how I've had x amount of accidents whilst not wearing a helmet and walked away scot free. Just get on with riding your bike in a safe and efficient manner, with a smile on your face, whether you wear a helmet or not.

As a helmet wearer I get the impression from this thread that non-helmet wearers think that the helmeted are wasting their time *and *undermining cycling by making it appear more dangerous than it is *and *contributing to a day in the future when the helmet becomes compulsory.

James, the most important factor you have to consider is that a lot of people think that a helmet makes them safe at the expense of virtually every other possible safety measure they could take. Helmet 'information' and discussion is omnipresent and creates a lot of noise. Much more important safety advice is comparatively ignored.

Quite frankly, I don't care if someone wants to wear one (although at various points the Government have said that with a certain level of wearing rate, compulsion might be considered), but as I talk to people about cycling all the time, I find it distracts immensely from more important safety advice. The level of ignorance is such that people even say things like 'he/she was/wasn't wearing a helmet' where someone has just been crushed by a lorry. This is a real problem.

Perception! . . . . . . .
Anyway, back to my reaslisation of a couple of days ago - this thread has nothing to do with wearng a helmet, it has everything to do with helping to ensure that - for the good of cycling and the country - helmets are never made compulsory. My decision to wear one does not alter my belief that it would be a disgrace if they were made compulsory.
You got it!

Now what happened to the Kraking puns?
I thought this thread was going to get interesting today :(

The level of ignorance is such that people even say things like 'he/she was/wasn't wearing a helmet' where someone has just been crushed by a lorry. This is a real problem.

But not quite as much as a problem as the fact that people are continuing to be crushed by lorries and other vehicles.

Quite right.

This thread is shite n pointless.

However I have been unable to go to work for 6 weeks after crashing my bike and suffering a fractured skull.

In the future I may or may not wear a helmet.

Have you considered cycle training?

That box is ticked, in fact hell I'm a trained instructor.

So am i a trained instructor.

Yet both of us have been hospitalised as a result of cycling fuckups recently.

I will not be wearing full downhill body armour when I get back on my bike.

I will not be wearing full downhill body armour when I get back on my bike.

I saw a guy hurtling down Hornsey Road this morning, full downhill style knee and shin guards, elbow pads, helmet, lights during the day, on a relatively serious mtb. He was doing some pretty sketchy tailgaiting, furiously pedalling in top gear to draft a car.

/cool story bro etc

Always!

dont get me started.....

You don't appear to have started, as you have not used a capital letter, a bourgeois convention for the initial letter in a sentence I know, but it helps one appear sane.

There is always the possibility that you are posting in CAPS and the forum software is changing everything to lower case, which on reflection may well be what is happening.