Originally Posted by
zerogravity
I rode last Wednesday at the Local trails with a helmet..i always ride with a helmet. At the last downhill, i was going down and my front tire got caught between a crack of the hardened clay. It sent me flying off my bike, doing a forward roll, scraping my arms and legs. As i rolled, i hit my head and my helmet flew off and rolled down to the bottom of the hill. Needless to say, if it weren't for my helmet, i could have been seriously hurt..or worse.
I ran a poll on BF recently asking how many people believed they had had their lives saved by their helmets. More than half the respondents thought they had. We know the sport did not have a 50% fatality rate prior to helmets, so the obvious conclusion is that people are vastly overrating the dangers of cycling and vastly overrating the protective properties of helmets. So while it's possible your helmet really did save you from serious or fatal injuries, it's also quite likely that you're one of those "fifty percenters".