Riding without a helmet

[Escapee..]

http://images.catchnews.com/uploads/images/2015/07/29/derp-lead-gif-hurr-durr-derp-face-err-nurrr-terrnnis-burrrll.gif

[DJR]

http://images.catchnews.com/uploads/images/2015/07/29/derp-lead-gif-hurr-durr-derp-face-err-nurrr-terrnnis-burrrll.gif

I feel like that this time of year!

[Tumbleweed]

Is he British or Scottish in that pic?

[DJR]

I don't think there is any argument about a helmet being better or worse preventing damage. Its about why people feel the need to tell people what to do / wear.

Agreed. Btw, I have no issue with people not riding with a helmet and I have never told anyone, except my own children, to put on a helmet.

 

But, what I have a big issue with, is people convincing impressionable newbies and youngsters that riding without a helmet is cool, or safer, or not needed, compared to doing what is obviously the right thing, which is to ride with a helmet in 99 % of the situations. Yes, there may be places and times where even I could see the sense in riding without a helmet. Say, along a safe separated cycle lane around the block to the coffee shop for breakfast, or in Holland. Not zooming down the single track, in a bunch or along a busy road.

 

I feel exactly the same when I see people advocating rubbish like not using malaria prophylaxis, or seat belts, or vaccinating kids. Promoting these dangerous notions on public forums may well have dire and deadly effects on others!

 

That is why I will voice my opinion here. But at the end of the day, it is still up to the individual to decide to use it or not, and that I have no issue with

[guidodg]

you guys are seriously discussing whether people should wear bike helmets and you live in a country where they are allowed to load 15 workers in the back of an open bakkie???

[DIPSLICK]

you guys are seriously discussing whether people should wear bike helmets and you live in a country where they are allowed to load 15 workers in the back of an open bakkie???

Yes this is a cycling forum, maybe check the department of giveavaaark for more info on a totally unrelated issue

[SwissVan]

One recent court case in the UK found that in the case of a cyclist who was brain injured from what was essentially a fall from their cycle without any real forward momentum would not have had their injuries reduced or prevented by a cycle helmet. This event involved contact against a flat tarmac surface with an impact energy potential of no more than 75 joules.

 

So in at least one case now, a High Court has decided that the balance of probability was, in the matter before the Court, that a cycle helmet would not have prevented the injuries sustained when the accident involved simply falling from a cycle onto a fl at surface, with barely any forward momentum.

 

In this same case, the QC under whose instruction I was privileged to work tried repeatedly to persuade the neurosurgeons acting for either side, and the technical expert opposing me, to state that one must be more safe wearing a helmet than would be the case if one were not.

All three refused to do so, claiming that they had seen severe brain damage and fatal injury both with and without cycle helmets being worn. Cycle helmets, in their view, were too complex a subject for such a sweeping claim.

 

No helmet can prevent damage inside the head  i.e  brain.

Even a simple fall over sideways while standing still can be fatal if your head hits the ground or something first without anything else to break the fall or slow it down...

 

What a lot of people don't realise is its the sudden stoppage that kills or does serious damage i.e. the head stops when it hits the ground but the brain carries on moving and hits the skull resulting in potentially serious damage / bleeding etc.... (simple layman's description I'm not a Dr). A helmet wont help much in the sudden stoppage case.

[Christie]

Imo: Dont interfere with the helmetless. The earth is over populated, cheers to Darwin.

[KingTJ]

Agreed. Btw, I have no issue with people not riding with a helmet and I have never told anyone, except my own children, to put on a helmet.

 

But, what I have a big issue with, is people convincing impressionable newbies and youngsters that riding without a helmet is cool, or safer, or not needed, compared to doing what is obviously the right thing, which is to ride with a helmet in 99 % of the situations. Yes, there may be places and times where even I could see the sense in riding without a helmet. Say, along a safe separated cycle lane around the block to the coffee shop for breakfast, or in Holland. Not zooming down the single track, in a bunch or along a busy road.

 

I feel exactly the same when I see people advocating rubbish like not using malaria prophylaxis, or seat belts, or vaccinating kids. Promoting these dangerous notions on public forums may well have dire and deadly effects on others!

 

That is why I will voice my opinion here. But at the end of the day, it is still up to the individual to decide to use it or not, and that I have no issue with

Dito, well said....

[Moriarty]

We can easily settle this debate scientifically: Here is how:

 

1. Get 100 riders that believe in wearing helmets to volunteer

2. Get 100 riders that believe helmets are useless to volunteer

3. Get them all to ride into a wall at 30 km/h

4. Count how many end up dead, fractured, concussed or with a headache. See who remember their own names. Perhaps even do a few brain scans?

5. Do the sums, make some pie charts and graphs

6. Never argue about it again

 

Oh, you say no medical ethics board want to OK your study? No wonder! Until then, accident and medical injury data, is the best yardstick we have. Oh, unless you use common sense! Which, sadly, is all too uncommon!

I don't know about the rest of you but for me it's not common practice while riding to look out for walls to ride into..................................

[CAAD4]

That example proof that you can get killed if your chair break and tip over at a sidewalk coffee shop. Do you see any cyclists keep their helmets on during coffee stops?

Yes normally in everything with a big "S", except for their cute Zeygo runway glasses. They are the often the ones ordering a "Skinny Lahtay please chief"

[NotSoBigBen]

I don't know about the rest of you but for me it's not common practice while riding to look out for walls to ride into..................................

Most of us not but Tumbleweed on the other hand .... the less said the better ????

[Groenkloof1]

No helmet = no brains. Simple

 

I have been run over by a car. Cracked skull and two days in intensive care. Was 1978, pre helmet days. Its a no brainer

[andydude]

Is he British or Scottish in that pic?

Depends if he is winning or losing

[devocean]

I once did a ride with a friend that was new to cycling and riding clipped in for the first time. They arrived having forgotten their helmet, so I lent them mine and I rode without one. I got so much verbal abuse from other cyclists. Although I'm confident in my bike handling, I accepted there were risks (slightly more riskier than riding on the road is anyway). I didn't think it was necessary for other people to be so aggressively rude.

[SwissVan]

I once did a ride with a friend that was new to cycling and riding clipped in for the first time. They arrived having forgotten their helmet, so I lent them mine and I rode without one. I got so much verbal abuse from other cyclists. Although I'm confident in my bike handling, I accepted there were risks (slightly more riskier than riding on the road is anyway). I didn't think it was necessary for other people to be so aggressively rude.

 

They cant help it, getting confused with std 6 maths they are 

 

2 negatives make a positive....not