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What’s wrong with bicycle helmets?

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  • September 25, 2015 at 11:15 am #24857
    PizzImperfect

    Hi all,

    Well, after a few years of messing around on a mountain bike, i’ve taken the plunge and shelled out a nice £800 on my first serious bike, the Genesys Croix De Fer 20, which i’ll commute and play on each day.
    I get this on Monday, so i’ve been doing a lot of research on staying safe on the road. The articles i’ve found are fantastic, and there’s a wealth of information which I feel will help me stay safe and keep others safe out on the road.

    HAANNGG OONN…

    http://bicyclesafe.com/helmets.html

    Then I found this article, which has thrown me. Don’t wear a helmet? Really?
    As a previous motorcyclist, this is sacrilege to me.
    The writer makes excellent points… I’m just, not sure…

    What do you more seasoned riders think of this?

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  • September 28, 2015 at 1:34 pm #860705
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    pjclinch

    What’s wrong with them?
    What’s wrong with them? intrinsically there is nothing wrong with a bike lid, but the problems are all the perceived baggage that come along with them, notably failure to realise that:
    – cycling as transport is not particularly productive of crashes or head injuries
    – cycle helmets can only be expected to mitigate *minor* injuries in low injury collisions
    So if you’re, for example, in a peloton where crashing is very common, and you’d be expected to get back on if you possibly could with a minimum of delay, they’re probably a pretty fair idea. But actually not many of us are doing that.
    Given that the biggest cause of brain/head injury is trips and falls, if you’re wearing one on a bike “just in case”/”it’s only common sense”/”you can’t be too careful”/”safety first!”/”it might save my life” etc. etc. then you really ought to be wearing one to walk places. Especially if you ever use stairs or bathrooms with hard, occasionally wet floors.

    If someone falls down the stairs or slips in the bath and brains themselves (as they frequently do) then that’s a shame, and shit happens, but if you fall off a bike and brain yourself (not especially more likely for those not particularly pushing the boundaries) then it’s madness not wearing a helmet and you’ve only yourself to blame etc.. Yes, you might fall off a bike and hit your head and it would hurt less with a lid on, but the same goes for trips and falls when on foot. It doesn’t make any sense to use completely different trains of logic for similarly risky situations.

    September 28, 2015 at 1:21 pm #860703
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    tomturcan

    Haven’t read the thread yet
    Haven’t read the thread yet but I’m an ex-motorcyclist too and very concerned how poor the EC standard is for cycle helmets. This Swedish company appears to put in a bit more effort:

    http://www.pocsports.com/en/14/wheels-helmets

    Happy and safe riding!

    September 28, 2015 at 12:54 pm #860701
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    CygnusX1

    Paul J wrote:Beefy wrote:is

    Paul J wrote:
    Beefy wrote:
    is not wearing a helmet a deliberate act of self harm? :?

    Given the data and science available, no, not at all.

    Hmm, given the smiley at the (bell?) end of his comment, Beefy may have been making a smutty innuendo (or that could just be me).

    September 28, 2015 at 12:23 pm #860699
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    Kapelmuur

    It’s a comfort to learn that
    It’s a comfort to learn that drivers are vigilant enough to check whether we are wearing a helmet before deciding how close to pass us.

    September 28, 2015 at 12:01 pm #860697
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    Scoob_84

    After banging my head into
    After banging my head into the back of a lorry, i’ll be sticking to wearing a helmet. There’s no proof to suggest i would not have survived the accident had i not been wearing a helmet, but circumstantial evidence from the golf ball swelling to my head and the decompression on my lid suggests that i could have been worse off had i not been wearing the lid at the time. There’s also a case that riding skills and decision making was not on par at that moment in time prior to the collision. I can blame the lorry driver for close over take and then sudden breaking all i want, but it was my decision to try and get behind the back of him for a free ride.

    September 28, 2015 at 11:36 am #860695
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    giskard

    I’ve nothing to add to this
    I’ve nothing to add to this helmet debate, except to congratulate PizzImperfect on an excellent choice of bike

    September 28, 2015 at 11:20 am #860693
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    richardc412

    i always wear a helmet whilst
    i always wear a helmet whilst riding wether that be on or off road for the simple reasoning that id rather be wearing one and not need it than need one and not be wearing it

    September 28, 2015 at 10:32 am #860691
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    brooksby

    “What’s wrong with bicycle
    “What’s wrong with bicycle helmets?” – =)) =)) =)) – who would seriously post that question on any cycling website/forum???

    September 28, 2015 at 5:50 am #860689
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    antigee

    “To helmet, or not to helmet
    “To helmet, or not to helmet – the choice is yours.”

    I moved to Australia (a choice) but the law says I have to wear a helmet – even for a 5 minute ride to the nearby shops or for an amble on a car free shared path – last week was in New Zealand and rode for a few hours on traffic free trails with some road sections – averaged less than one meeting per hour with a vehicle – the possibility of me falling off through operator error existed but to be honest on the type of terrain it was pretty near zero – walking back to the hotel room from the bar had a higher chance of injury.

    I often choose to wear a helmet when I believe it will mitigate some injury – when mountain biking I can be prone to misjudging stuff.
    On the road I choose to wear one not because it “will make me safer” I can’t recall when last fell off a road bike.
    I wear a helmet because the actions of other road users potentially endanger me and there is a possibility that wearing a helmet will mitigate some injury.
    There is a big distinction between mitigating injury and making an activity safe – I know what would make road cycling safer for me and others and it isn’t wearing a helmet. The only reason to have a helmet debate in the UK is to push the topic where it belongs and that is way down the cycling safety agenda.

    I recall discussing allowing children to ride to school with parents in the UK and nobody told me they thought it would be safe if the kids wore helmets. They talked about fast traffic, narrow roads, poor junctions, lack of segregated cycleways, bad driver attitudes.
    Can’t think of a single survey that has shown that not having access to helmets is a barrier to more people cycling.

    September 28, 2015 at 1:44 am #860687
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    Must be Mad

    To helmet, or not to helmet –
    To helmet, or not to helmet – the choice is yours.

    I would suggest thinking about where and how you are intending to ride your bike, and work from there.

    Personally I choose to wear one, but then I tend to zip up and down country lanes at high speed (will zip down at any rate). To me, wearing a helmet doesn’t bother me at all, and feels natural. I try not to take to much risk, and hope never to test out the helmets protection – but you never know when a pothole might have your name on it, or get caught out by an unseen oil slick, or suffer a mechanical failure etc, etc.

    September 28, 2015 at 12:27 am #860685
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    Toro Toro

    Paul J wrote:
    However, there

    Paul J wrote:

    However, there are many people who … don’t understand statistics

    Fair play, I about laughed up a hipbone there.

    September 28, 2015 at 12:25 am #860683
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    Toro Toro

    Paul J wrote:
    As for the

    Paul J wrote:

    As for the rest, helmets clearly are wonderful devices. This is why cycling is so safe in countries where helmets are often used (UK and USA) or even mandatory (AU, NZ, parts of CA?), – and where cycling is especially popular amongst those who just want to pootle around or get to places, rather than get sweaty climbing hills on epic rides for fun. This, of coure, is in stark contrast to places like the Netherlands, where very few people wear helmets and hence cyclists are being slaughtered at incredible rates (except for the few helmet wearing sports cyclists, who end up in hospital at much lower rates than the other roadkill).

    Clearly, we need to do more “tut-tutting” at all those crazy unhelmeted riders. Maybe the oh-so-safe-for-cycling Anglo-phile countries should put pressure on the Netherlands to do something about its dreadful cycling safety record. Clearly the low helmet use rates must be a factor, and the Netherlands should consider following the shining safety example set by the Anglo-philes..

    You’re an innumerate idiot. That is all.

    September 27, 2015 at 9:54 pm #860681
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    Northernbike

    Beefy wrote:is not wearing a

    Beefy wrote:
    is not wearing a helmet a deliberate act of self harm? :?

    no but carrying on riding a bike when you keep falling off might be

    September 27, 2015 at 8:34 pm #860679
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    Paul J

    Beefy wrote:is not wearing a

    Beefy wrote:
    is not wearing a helmet a deliberate act of self harm? :?

    Given the data and science available, no, not at all.

    However, there are many people who don’t understand science and don’t understand statistics/risk, either through a lack of education (not everyone has the opportunity – though it’s still possible to self-educate and some of the brightest people I know have little formal education); or they just are susceptible to emotional arguments (some people just are, even despite education that should inform them otherwise); or, finally, some people are just thick (including some very well educated people).

    Sorry to be so blunt, but that’s how it seems to me. 😉

    Not covered: some people have an agenda, for professional or emotional or whatever reasons.

    September 27, 2015 at 6:31 pm #860677
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    Beefy

    is not wearing a helmet a
    is not wearing a helmet a deliberate act of self harm? 😕

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