skye

The studies that have been done already demonstrate that cycling is quite safe without a helmet. Spending money on more research would be chasing after extremely small safety returns. Instead, we should spend the money on education & enforcement.

canklecat

Helmet threads are like debates about politics and religion, only the price for being wrong carries much higher personal costs. Unless the assertions are backed up by personal experience in emergency medical and rehab care, the assertions of helmet scoffers should be taken with a huge dose of salts.

If you're wearing a helmet, keep doing so. If not, see you in rehab. Eventually. Hope you have good insurance and a deep support system among family and friends, because you have no idea how much a burden you'll be with brain damage.

AlmostTrick

On what do you base these comments? I have not seen any data showing that non-helmeted riders end up in rehab and being a burden on their families any more than those who wear helmets. This thread should be sent to Helmet Heaven any moment now...

canklecat

Personal experience caring for patients with head injuries. And witnessing more examples of head knocks than the average bear.

Many folks overestimate their reflexes and resistance to the consequences of head knocks, and underestimate the consequences of blows to the noggin. But if you're comfortable with your choices, carry on.

79pmooney

I never heard that that MIPS was designed to reduce neck pain. I did hear that it is designed to reduce the whiplash of the skull and consequently the damage the brain suffers being tossed around. Most of my brain damage in my big crash years ago was due to that whiplash. (Granted, my crash happened at a much higher speed.)

Ben

AlmostTrick

Thanks!

Robert C

. . . Probably. It seems that one person wanted to comment on his helmets performance and the vendor support. Others wanted to use it as a new venue to continue their, somewhat tired, helmet debate.

We will eventually create an environment where no one is comfortable saying the "H word." However, I will put forth that is is possible to discuss helmets without having the, unending, helmet debate.

Back to MIPS, I will comment that one thing I didn't like about my MIPS helmet was that it was hard to scrape the "MIPS" logo from the helmet itself. I am a bit branding phobic and tend to "de-brand" my goods (a bit of the Cayce Pollard syndrome).

mconlonx

MIPS is a slip plane insert designed to move with your head in the event of a crash with oblique forces acting on the helmet. Not designed to mitigate direct blunt force, perpendicular to your skull, that's what the polystyrene liner is supposed to deal with in a helmet system.

So in the case of this crash, The MIPS assembly could be easily examined to see if it might have made a difference or not. It's held in the shell by a few shear pins -- if the pins sheared and the MIPS assembly was loose in the helmet, it may have contributed to injury mitigation where rotational forces were involved. If it is still attached to the helmet, then it didn't do a damn thing.

While it addresses some of the fears helmet wearers have regarding rotational forces acting on the brain which are a leading cause of concussion, it should be noted that practically speaking it merely provides more of the same kind of protection that your hair and scalp also provide.

Wilfred Laurier

****

I am a very cheap person by nature, but nothing makes me feel like I spent money well more than crashing and hitting my head while wearing my new $200 helmet. Whether I believe getting a not-inexpensive helmet gave me more protection, or was more comfortable and better ventilated and thus more likely to be worn, I don't know. And I don't care. Money well spent.

A colleague bought a new motorcycle helmet for ~$900 last year and had an accident the first time he wore it. His exact words were 'best $900 I ever spent!'

CrankyOne

Personal experience in medical and rehab care is actually fairly meaningless in this context unless it includes considerable research and study of helmet engineering, real world probability and risk analysis, and statistical analysis of helmet effectiveness. In theory helmets should significantly lower incidents of TBI or Traumatic Brain Injury, in practice they have not done so. Significant increases in helmet wearing have not reduced head injury rates of any type nor have comparisons of societies with high helmet use with those of low or no helmet use. So yes, your experience can say that TBI is quite awful and something that we really want to avoid but I'm not seeing how your experience lends itself to actually lowering the incident rate which is fairly consistently about 34% across every population group and time study.

Leebo

OP, great to know that your helmet did the job. You got up and walked away. Good for you. As a mountain biker, most of us off roading tend to to have many more " off bike moments" than your casual road biker or commuter. As some who has dented, split and cracked helmets, I was able to get up and walk away. Every time. One involved a low branch that I didn't see, cleaned me right off the back of the bike. Another involved over rotating (looping out backwards) and landing on the back of my helmet, totally crushed. This is my experience, not stats , risk analysis, or population studies. YRMV. Regardless of riding style or experience, it's called and accident for a reason.

genec

So every rider wearing a helmet reports every crash and detail to a database so that said data can be compiled... wow, I had no idea.

CrankyOne

That would be nice, though many clubs do track this as does the UCI and USAC. More important though is that TBI and other types of injuries and their cause is tracked any time any medical care is involved from a EMT at the scene to any doctor or hospital visits or admissions. A macro cause (eg, bicycling) is nearly always tracked and increasingly additional data such as if they were wearing a helmet, type of encounter (behind, t-bone, car, no-car etc.), road / off-road, and other elements are included.

GlennR

Some of you guys need to get a life.

Arguing on the interweb and thinking you'll change anyone's mind is insane.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Wear a helmet or don't wear one... I just hope you can live with your decision.

CYA on the road (i'll be the guy with a helmet on)

Korina

Yay for the OP limping away from his crash! Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, right?

Er, what's a MIPS?

Also, what's with the everlasting helmet debate? What's to debate? Either you wear one or you don't. Is it argument for its own sake? There's a saying that you can't reason with a true believer, and that seems very apt here.

::wanders away, shaking head::

vol

So was the fall due to your speed and failling to realize the damp surface? (asking because I'd like to focus more on the prevention of accidents that necessitate wearing a helmet)

GlennR

I fell because I lost traction.

The morning was cool and the roads damp early, but as the sun came up the road dried... except I hit a section that was in the shade and was still damp. So as I turned the wheels slipped out and down i went, sliding about 15 feet.

I've put 4000 miles on my road bike, but i was running errands and using my MTB with too much pressure in the tires. So off road tires, over inflated, going too fast on a turn on damp pavement was all my fault.

I blame no one but myself. After 5 years of riding, I still have a lot to learn.

vol

Thanks for sharing. Glad you are OK. Hope you will never have a similar accident and the new helmet will remain intact.

kickstart

Skepticism can be a good thing. Safety equipment can make stupid hurt less, but optimistic expectations of its capabilities can encourage stupid.

Yes, I wear a helmet most of the time, No, I don't have strong opinions one way or the other.

GlennR

Are you implying that having safety equipment give a false sense of security and people take risks?

Do you think people that wear seat belts, have cars with air bags and ABS take more risks that people did 30 years ago? Or do they don't even think about them and just drive the way they do no matter what car they're in.

genec

Studies have shown that people do tend to take more risks while employing "safety gear."

two seconds on the internet found this:
Read more at Wearing a helmet makes cyclists take more risks, study indicates - Cycling Weekly

mr_bill

You might want to read the unpublished paper here.

You'll also want to learn about the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART).

I can hear Paula Poundstone laughing already.

-mr. bill

kickstart

Sort of, if one feels safe and secure they may not be as cautious, or maintain as high a level of situational awareness.

When it comes to things like cycling, skiing, motorcycle riding, and other such activities, I've known some who use all the safety gear available so they can take things "up a notch".

I'm not making an argument against safety gear, but saying its a good idea to recognize, and keep its limitations in mind.

Butchchr

I had a nice crash last year that caused the foam crack and a lot of other damage to the helmet. It never occurred to me to check about a crash replacement program. I just went down to the LBS and picked up a new one at full price!

GlennR

OK, you convinced me, i'm going to return the replacement helmet since i'll be less likely to have have an accident.