Should you wear a bike helmet?

hawkinspeter wrote:

Zeesy wrote:

I couldn’t agree more with those who have written in supporting the use of helmets. I watched the video, which tries to give a balanced view. I feel some things are so self-evident that they do not require evidence! In any type of impact to the head, the better protected the head the less severe or absent the head injury. Accidents do not occur only in road traffic situations. A fall can occur while swerving, sneezing or failing to see an obstruction. In such a situation I know I’d rather be with than without a helmet!

Many years ago I watched on a children’s programme a watermerlon being dropped on the floor from a height and spattering all over the place. Another melon was dropped from the same height inside a cycle helmet. It came out intact!

Do you wear one whilst walking?

I’d be tempted to wear one while walking if I could walk at the speed I cycle.   

Chris Boardman speaks sense.

Chris Boardman speaks sense.

Mungecrundle wrote:

This is the 3rd helmet in some 30 years that I have smashed, and I am quite willing to testify that each helmet went to it’s demise whilst saving me from considerable head injury. The first was on an MTB going down steps, over the handle bars and onto the top edge of a brick wall, that one pretty much split across the top. The second was downhill in the rain, sliding out and colliding with the curb, that was mostly abrasions. The one pictured was from last years Tour of Cambridge. I overlapped a wheel whilst racing and went down very heavily head first at about 25mph. Avoided a trip to A&E but did actually suffer the mythical rotational neck injury which took a few weeks to settle.

This last crash was the one that convinced me to NOT wear a helmet for my daily commute. Not because it failed to protect my head, not because I got a neck strain, but because it happened while I was taking risks. After the crash I got checked out by the paramedics and continued. I slowed right down partly because my chance of qualifying was out the window, partly because I had lost a fair bit of skin elsewhere but mostly because I did not want to risk crashing again with a damaged lid. I realised that wearing a helmet causes me to ride in a more aggressive manner, however sub-conscious that may be. Each of my helmet destroying crashes have been self inflicted whilst partaking in risky behaviour.

Then you get into the whole statistics and studies where it is actually very difficult to find convincing real world evidence either for or against helmets. After as much research as is reasonable without becoming obsessed my personal conclusion is that a helmet can save you from some injuries in some circumstances, and I’m going to stick with my personal anecdata on that one. However what does come through consistently is that wearing a helmet is not a one sided equation, as in you may as well wear one because there is no downside. There is plenty of evidence about increase in personal risk taking and in the way that other road users treat a helmeted v non helmeted rider and that is even before you get into the whole mandatory helmets reducing cycle usage and the wider impact on public health scenario.

Bottom line is that commuting round town or pootling about on a bicycle is a low risk activity that should not and does not require personal safety equipment to reduce risk to an acceptable level. There is no evidence that cycle helmets are car proof or prevent fatalities should a lorry be driven over your body. Conversely, part of the fun of cycling for me at least is in pushing my cardiovascular limits and riding as fast as I can or seeking an endorphine rush. This means that riding in a group (racing, training or even the weekly club ride), time trialling, MTB where any level of technical ability is required (I have very little), I shall be strapping my helmet on and you had best be aware that I may well be a little more psycopathic whilst wearing it.

you made valid points re your own behaviour and yet fly in the face of what you beleive to be so by wearing a helmet for the riskier activity which by definition increases that risk which in turn increases the chance of any injury including one to the head.

By wearing a helmet and indeed that by your co-riders too you are increasing the chances of a spill,  then if you add in the inability of a helmet in best case lab controlled enviroment to actually reduce the forces enough in higher speed/riskier activities to even prevent a basic consussion and with a split/broken helmet will have absorbed a tiny fraction of the forces involved (even less than at slower commuting speeds) I simply don’t understand why you would continue to wear one for what you to percieve to be the riskier activity when by doing so you only make matters worse?

There is no logic in what you’ve done especially since you identified the behaviour pattern and will no doubt know the limitations of the helmets you posessed.

I am able to max myself out on a ride and have done so hundreds if not thousands of times over 30 years, have I crashed/come off a few times of my own doing, yes, would a helmet have made a positive difference in those crashes and over the circa 185,000 miles I’ve done, not one bit. For me my anecdata says I wouldn’t be writing this now. I see no benefit of wearing and even less so in higher risk activities and for those that are easily influenced (like children) because this simply makes those scenarios even more riskier as you already identified.

best of luck.

It’s worth remembering that
It’s worth remembering that none of the people who have lost their lives after being involved in an accident whilst riding bikes and wearing a helmet, are able to add their anecdata to these discussions.

Munge and RJ, some very

Munge and RJ, some very reasonable  responses there. Though some might say ancedote is not evidence; well weather isn’t climate, but mass up the data and they become one and the same. We can’t do double blind tests by getting people to crash without a helmet. I’ve had some falls on ice, birdshit and kerbs which appeared from nowhere (another story; poor infrastructure, cycle lane moving from road to pavement,) and mostly come down on my substantial arse/hip, but just once I scraped my temple on the floor. No harm to me, but helmet was scratched, but saved me a big headache.

I am sure some of the naysayers just think they have a superior level of skill that protects them. I just wish that half the energy some people put into debating the subject on this site was put into actual cycling and the world would be a better place.

The first helmet I had was a

The first helmet I had was a bell hard shell.  A heavy fall mountainbiking in the Pyrennes shattered the inside and sent it to the bin.  I’ve been pro helmets ever since.

This is the 3rd helmet in

This is the 3rd helmet in some 30 years that I have smashed, and I am quite willing to testify that each helmet went to it’s demise whilst saving me from considerable head injury. The first was on an MTB going down steps, over the handle bars and onto the top edge of a brick wall, that one pretty much split across the top. The second was downhill in the rain, sliding out and colliding with the curb, that was mostly abrasions. The one pictured was from last years Tour of Cambridge. I overlapped a wheel whilst racing and went down very heavily head first at about 25mph. Avoided a trip to A&E but did actually suffer the mythical rotational neck injury which took a few weeks to settle.

This last crash was the one that convinced me to NOT wear a helmet for my daily commute. Not because it failed to protect my head, not because I got a neck strain, but because it happened while I was taking risks. After the crash I got checked out by the paramedics and continued. I slowed right down partly because my chance of qualifying was out the window, partly because I had lost a fair bit of skin elsewhere but mostly because I did not want to risk crashing again with a damaged lid. I realised that wearing a helmet causes me to ride in a more aggressive manner, however sub-conscious that may be. Each of my helmet destroying crashes have been self inflicted whilst partaking in risky behaviour.

Then you get into the whole statistics and studies where it is actually very difficult to find convincing real world evidence either for or against helmets. After as much research as is reasonable without becoming obsessed my personal conclusion is that a helmet can save you from some injuries in some circumstances, and I’m going to stick with my personal anecdata on that one. However what does come through consistently is that wearing a helmet is not a one sided equation, as in you may as well wear one because there is no downside. There is plenty of evidence about increase in personal risk taking and in the way that other road users treat a helmeted v non helmeted rider and that is even before you get into the whole mandatory helmets reducing cycle usage and the wider impact on public health scenario.

Bottom line is that commuting round town or pootling about on a bicycle is a low risk activity that should not and does not require personal safety equipment to reduce risk to an acceptable level. There is no evidence that cycle helmets are car proof or prevent fatalities should a lorry be driven over your body. Conversely, part of the fun of cycling for me at least is in pushing my cardiovascular limits and riding as fast as I can or seeking an endorphine rush. This means that riding in a group (racing, training or even the weekly club ride), time trialling, MTB where any level of technical ability is required (I have very little), I shall be strapping my helmet on and you had best be aware that I may well be a little more psycopathic whilst wearing it.