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-   -   The helmet thread (https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-safety/771371-helmet-thread.html)

closetbiker 10-15-11 05:10 PM


Originally Posted by mconlonx (Post 13369255)
Unless you're talking about more than links, then, nope...

nope that's not it. just can't (or don't want to) get it, can (will) you?

rando 10-15-11 05:21 PM

so we should wear a helmet for any and all activities where we might possibly hit our heads, no matter how slight the chance? that's crap, and you know it, elek. or is it just for riding a bike because, you, know, something could happen.

electrik 10-15-11 05:30 PM


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13369468)
yeah, yeah. go ahead, promote injury. After all things have worked out so well in the last 20 years or so, right?

Helmets don't promote injury, this sort of conclusion only proves how messed up your thinking is.

electrik 10-15-11 05:34 PM


Originally Posted by rando (Post 13369506)
so we should wear a helmet for any and all activities where we might possibly hit our heads, no matter how slight the chance? that's crap, and you know it, elek. or is it just for riding a bike because, you, know, something could happen.

Wear a helmet while riding your bicycle. That is it. Very simple to wear a helmet while riding. Very easy and almost no burden to protect yourself.

mconlonx 10-15-11 05:52 PM


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13369472)
nope that's not it. just can't (or don't want to) get it, can (will) you?

Care to spell it out? I'm having a slow-brain decade...

How's that repeal of the MHL coming along?

FastRod 10-15-11 08:13 PM


Originally Posted by chasm54 (Post 13368473)
Interesting. Given that you're in Australia, do I assume that the helmet law is not really enforced?

It is law but it is not enforced strictly, some just come up to you and tell you to wear a helmet next time you go riding some don't really care.

FastRod 10-15-11 08:17 PM

You are probably right about the 68%, a lot of people do wear a helmet in Australia. Wow you know your stats.

closetbiker 10-15-11 10:24 PM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13369531)
Helmets don't promote injury, this sort of conclusion only proves how messed up your thinking is.

It's not my thinking that's messed up, it's the results of injuries to cyclists once they started to wear helmets.

closetbiker 10-15-11 10:30 PM


Originally Posted by FastRod (Post 13370076)
You are probably right about the 68%, a lot of people do wear a helmet in Australia. Wow you know your stats.

I've been following the issue for some time. My province was the first in North America to pass a province (State) wide MHL shortly after Australia passed theirs.

I wish we would have waited a little longer before we did in order to understand the effects of passing such a law. It turned out our experience has been quite similar to yours; a drop in cycling and an increase in injuries to those who continued to cycle.

Now we're going to repeat the Melbourne and Brisbane publicly shared bike experience. Wait and watch. I wouldn't be surprised to see it underperform as well

electrik 10-15-11 11:08 PM


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13370437)
It's not my thinking that's messed up, it's the results of injuries to cyclists once they started to wear helmets.

Haha, that doesn't mean the helmet CAUSES the injury. Typical you fail to present any balanced view as to which injury the helmet has prevented since cyclist started wearing them. I am speaking about a reduction of head injury here. Not a very honest way for you to go about things.

Hippiebrian 10-15-11 11:48 PM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13369543)
Wear a helmet while riding your bicycle. That is it. Very simple to wear a helmet while riding. Very easy and almost no burden to protect yourself.

More ignorance. Bicycle helmets were designed to fit average heads and average ear sizes. I have large ears. I have tried on dozens (yes, more than "just a couple") and all of them rub my ears no matter how the straps are adjusted. With that irritation, it would actually be dangerous for me to be riding on the street, as the attention would be elsewhere.

That's not it. There is just not enough danger in bicycling to require helmet use. Use a helmet for football (American style), hockey, motorcycles, car racing, etc. etc. where the risk is high enough to warrant it. Let the wind fly through your hair (or over your scalp if that applies) or over your hat and just ride your bike. No special personal safety gear necessary!

electrik 10-16-11 12:11 AM


Originally Posted by Hippiebrian (Post 13370634)
More ignorance. Bicycle helmets were designed to fit average heads and average ear sizes. I have large ears. I have tried on dozens (yes, more than "just a couple") and all of them rub my ears no matter how the straps are adjusted. With that irritation, it would actually be dangerous for me to be riding on the street, as the attention would be elsewhere.

That's not it. There is just not enough danger in bicycling to require helmet use. Use a helmet for football (American style), hockey, motorcycles, car racing, etc. etc. where the risk is high enough to warrant it. Let the wind fly through your hair (or over your scalp if that applies) or over your hat and just ride your bike. No special personal safety gear necessary!

Spare me the bit about your ears, just an excuse.

There is enough danger on the roads to warrant the lids.

Hippiebrian 10-16-11 12:21 AM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13370677)
Spare me the bit about your ears, just an excuse.

There is enough danger on the roads to warrant the lids.

Evidently you really don't care about the real reasons people decide to not wear helmets and are more interested in promoting your closed-minded religious promotion of them no matter what. Sad, really...I thought these forrums were for intelligent debate, but I guess I was wrong.

Evidentally you think that it is better to be distracted with a styrofoam hat on than to pay attention to traffic. I hope you thought that opinion out thouroughly...

chasm54 10-16-11 12:39 AM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13370541)
Haha, that doesn't mean the helmet CAUSES the injury. Typical you fail to present any balanced view as to which injury the helmet has prevented since cyclist started wearing them. I am speaking about a reduction of head injury here. Not a very honest way for you to go about things.

But if you are talking about a reduction in head injury it Is you that is being dishonest, because more helmets have not resulted in fewer injuries.

As to your earlier point, many years ago I did crash into a van, at speed, making contact with the van with my head and putting a considerable dent in the vehicle. Had I been wearing a helmet I may have been convinced that the helmet saved my life. Fortunately, I wasn't. I was fine.

Does this prove that helmets are useless? Of course not. Do all the "my helmet saved my life" anecdotes prove they are useful? Of course not. The facts are that mandating the use of helmets has tended to reduce the numbers of people cycling, without reducing the already low incidence of injury to those that remain. That is inconvenient, to say the least, for those of you who insist that helmets are necessary.

sudo bike 10-16-11 02:21 AM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13369531)
Helmets don't promote injury, this sort of conclusion only proves how messed up your thinking is.

If the scalp helps reduce rotational injury to the brain by helping the head slide along pavement rather than catch, and a helmet reduced this effect, doesn't it stand to reason that at least in these sorts of accidents a helmet mitigates the effect of the scalp?

Again, why do you think they are now trying to replicate this "scalp effect" in new helmets? What would be the purpose if it were not effective?

(link is a cited Wikipedia article)

"It has been suggested that the major causes of permanent intellectual disablement and death after head injury may be torsional forces leading to diffuse axonal injury (DAI), a form of injury which usual helmets cannot mitigate and may make worse.[68]"

"A bicycle helmet with its own synthetic "scalp" has been designed with the aim of mitigating rotational injury.[71]"

Unsurprisingly, we're discovering a lot of things we felt were improvements to our bodies are, in fact, fighting against a well-tuned evolutionary machine. Older shoe designs are now thought to be detrimental to our natural arch. And now we're finding helmets may fight against the natural helmet we developed to protect our weak brain.

Honestly, do you think we would have made it through this far if our brain, the most important key to our success, was so vulnerable that a 3-4 foot drop at a dead run (which we are also designed for) could easily kill us? We never would have made it this far... evolution inevitably deals with these weaknesses.

I'm not saying that we can make no improvement to our bodies; but those improvements are usually compliments to what we already have, not the hubris of thinking we can do better. And now we're looking at helmets that compliment the head's design. These helmets may actually be useful (I don't really think they are necessary still, but at least they'll be effective for those who choose to wear them as opposed to the mostly ineffective helmets of today).

You can stick your fingers in your ears if you don't want to confront the possibility that what you thought to be true isn't, but I'd rather change my position based on the facts at hand, thanks all the same.

closetbiker 10-16-11 08:41 AM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13370541)
Haha, that doesn't mean the helmet CAUSES the injury...

You'd really be better off if you read the links I provided: Focusing on helmets distracts people from what's more likely to actually save their lives: Learning how to ride safely. It's not that I'm against helmets, I'm against all the attention placed on helmets at the expense of safe riding skills.

Here's another link for you to read and consider (like yeah, you're going to do that. It'd involve giving the issue a bit of thought)

one of the most powerful laws in the universe is the law of unintended consequences

closetbiker 10-16-11 08:46 AM


Originally Posted by sudo bike (Post 13370863)
If the scalp helps reduce rotational injury to the brain by helping the head slide along pavement rather than catch, and a helmet reduced this effect, doesn't it stand to reason that at least in these sorts of accidents a helmet mitigates the effect of the scalp? ...

and of course this was the reasoning when an Australian judge sided against a helmet law and with a cyclist who argued wearing a helmet caused more harm than it prevented

''Having read all the material, I think I would fall down on your side of the ledger,'' the judge told Ms Abbott after she had spelt out her case against the laws that exist in few countries other than Australia and New Zealand.

''I frankly don't think there is anything advantageous and there may well be a disadvantage in situations to have a helmet - and it seems to me that it's one of those areas where it ought to be a matter of choice.''

He found Ms Abbott had ''an honestly held and not unreasonable belief as to the danger associated with the use of a helmet by cyclists'', and quashed her conviction...

FastRod 10-16-11 08:53 AM

This arguement can go on forever ... lol

closetbiker 10-16-11 09:32 AM


Originally Posted by FastRod (Post 13371418)
This arguement can go on forever ... lol

Well, fear is a primal emotion and as long as people will continue to exploit fear the argument will continue

If there was little or no fear of cycling, there'd be little consideration given to helmets

Six jours 10-16-11 10:18 AM


Originally Posted by electrik (Post 13369175)
You know, you'd think you be smart enough to take the advice of somebody who has taken a few tumbles about where protection counts. Frankly i've got more experiences than you on the matter, but you're a PRO right. A pro who has never had his nose bloodied... that is how you people can sit there going on about how helmets don't work, helmets are unfair, you don't want to clean up your room. Laughable.

Frankly, I still have you pegged as very young. It's the most charitable way to excuse the stuff you post here.

At any rate, no, I'm not a pro. I'm a fat, bitter ex-pro. I also made a living coaching national and world class track racers, one of whom is a two-time world pursuit champion. And I've ridden a bicycle almost daily for more than thirty years. So I've done my share of crashing, and I've seen my share too, both in the pre helmet and post helmet eras.

As a result, I know for an absolute fact that riding a bicycle is simply not that dangerous, or at least doesn't have to be. You can make it dangerous by entering a cat. 4 criterium, or a downhill mountain bike race. You can also make it dangerous by being incompetent, which is a very common choice these days, and, I suspect, the reason so many cling to helmets as a necessity. But a competent cyclist, riding well within his limits, is simply not exposing himself to significant danger. That you apparently can't stop falling off your bicycle and landing on your head doesn't mean that everyone else is similarly handicapped.

mconlonx 10-16-11 10:27 AM

Thread link summary:


Originally Posted by chasm54 (Post 13335409)
Have you tried this? I know many will not regard it as neutral because it is very clear about the flaws in the pro-helmet position, but it does offer a fairly dispassionate analysis of the available evidence.



Originally Posted by sudo bike (Post 13335471)
If you insist...
Head injuries and bicycle helmet laws

D. L. Robinson

AGBU, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Accepted 6 February 1996. ; Available online 26 February 1999.
Abstract

The first year of the mandatory bicycle helmet laws in Australia saw increased helmet wearing from 31% to 75% of cyclists in Victoria and from 31% of children and 26% of adults in New South Wales (NSW) to 76% and 85%. However, the two major surveys using matched before and after samples in Melbourne (Finch et al. 1993; Report No. 45, Monash Univ. Accident Research Centre) and throughout NSW (Smith and Milthorpe 1993; Roads and Traffic Authority) observed reductions in numbers of child cyclists 15 and 2.2 times greater than the increase in numbers of children wearing helmets. This suggests the greatest effect of the helmet law was not to encourage cyclists to wear helmets, but to discourage cycling.

Author Keywords: Bicycle; Head injury; Helmet; Legislation


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13336380)

A far more realistic site that addresses the helmet issue is the first one I provided on this new version of the thread,

http://bicyclesafe.com

If one is interested in studies and analysis, far more qualified anaylsis and opinions can be found at http://cyclehelmets.org/

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

a worthwhile read is the wiki entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet <-- Grand-daddy/mommy mother/fatherlode of helmet study linkage in the text and references at the bottom



Originally Posted by buzzman (Post 13336169)
...I would suggest going to this site, which provides objectively collected data, some pro-helmet interpretations and links to sites which counter their views:

http://www.bhsi.org

For researched rational responses to many of the negatives about helmets I would suggest this site:

http://www.bhsi.org/negativs.htm


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13365621)


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13366843)
It's not common to receive head injuries on bikes any more than it is to receive them off a bike, which is, not not common.

Here's another link....


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13369468)
[helmets/helmet advocates] promote injury.


Originally Posted by sudo bike (Post 13370863)
If the scalp helps reduce rotational injury to the brain by helping the head slide along pavement rather than catch, and a helmet reduced this effect, doesn't it stand to reason that at least in these sorts of accidents a helmet mitigates the effect of the scalp?

Again, why do you think they are now trying to replicate this "scalp effect" in new helmets? What would be the purpose if it were not effective?

"It has been suggested that the major causes of permanent intellectual disablement and death after head injury may be torsional forces leading to diffuse axonal injury (DAI), a form of injury which usual helmets cannot mitigate and may make worse.[68]"

"A bicycle helmet with its own synthetic "scalp" has been designed with the aim of mitigating rotational injury.[71]"


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13371730)
don't forget the paper the Australian judge read prior to rendering a decision:

The testing and design of standard helmets continue to reflect the discredited theory that linear acceleration is the dominant cause of brain injury and to neglect rotation.

and another study examining a vital lack of coverage by the bicycle helmet

The common designs of commercially available bicycle helmets do not prevent direct contact loading on the temporal and zygomatic arch region and this contact loading is potentially harmful.

has been shown in court to be common knowledge in the helmet industry

It has been known for years by the helmet industry that the majority of head impacts occur below the "test line," and that the majority of injurious impacts are concentrated in the front or temporal region.

but this issue of protection (or lack thereof) may be completely moot because

1) On a per-mile basis, the odds of being killed or sustaining a serious head injury while riding a bicycle are about the same as the odds of being killed or injured while out for a walk.

2) On a per-capita basis, the odds of being killed while riding a bicycle are nearly the same as the odds of being killed by a bolt of lightning (this author has, in fact, been struck by lightning -- albeit indirectly -- so he is well aware that "extremely improbable" is not quite the same as "impossible"); the odds of sustaining a serious head injury while riding a bicycle are about half the odds of sustaining a serious injury while out for a walk.


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13371730)
if you continue to be worried about hurting your head from falling over, you may want to wear your helmet while walking as well because,

The tests that cycle helmets currently go through mean that they should offer similar protection to a pedestrian who trips and falls to the ground.


See, now there's more links. I knew you could do it! Actually, more like I knew you couldn't help yourselves.

mconlonx 10-16-11 02:38 PM


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13371730)
sometimes we can't.

still, if you continue to be worried about hurting your head from falling over, you may want to wear your helmet while walking as well because,

The tests that cycle helmets currently go through mean that they should offer similar protection to a pedestrian who trips and falls to the ground.

I'm sorry, you seem to have me confused with some kind of pro-helmet advocate. While I do wear a helmet for most rides, I don't proselytize or evangelize about them. It's a personal choice and while I think helmets are way cool, like Jesus, I'm perfectly OK with the choices others make.

I.e. Please indicate where in this thread I wrote that I might be worried about hurting my head from falling over.

sudo bike 10-16-11 02:43 PM


Originally Posted by mconlonx (Post 13371687)
Thread link summary:

See, now there's more links. I knew you could do it! Actually, more like I knew you couldn't help yourselves.

Truthfully, it would be useful if a mod could stick all these links in the first page somehow. But how to do it and make everyone happy would be a nightmare and not something I'd want to deal with, so I don't really expect anyone else to. :p

closetbiker 10-16-11 03:19 PM


Originally Posted by mconlonx (Post 13372489)
I'm sorry, you seem to have me confused with some kind of pro-helmet advocate...

it was part of the narrative you edited into your post. No comment on you. I removed it as you placed the link into your listing

electrik 10-16-11 04:39 PM


Originally Posted by Hippiebrian (Post 13370699)
Evidently you really don't care about the real reasons people decide to not wear helmets and are more interested in promoting your closed-minded religious promotion of them no matter what. Sad, really...I thought these forrums were for intelligent debate, but I guess I was wrong.

Evidentally you think that it is better to be distracted with a styrofoam hat on than to pay attention to traffic. I hope you thought that opinion out thouroughly...

The REAL reason you hate helmets has NOTHING todo with your ears, but what is between them. Paying attention to traffic will only get you so far, that is why i think some people here just got lucky enough to never get sense knocked into them.


Originally Posted by chasm54 (Post 13370731)
But if you are talking about a reduction in head injury it Is you that is being dishonest, because more helmets have not resulted in fewer injuries.

As to your earlier point, many years ago I did crash into a van, at speed, making contact with the van with my head and putting a considerable dent in the vehicle. Had I been wearing a helmet I may have been convinced that the helmet saved my life. Fortunately, I wasn't. I was fine.

Does this prove that helmets are useless? Of course not. Do all the "my helmet saved my life" anecdotes prove they are useful? Of course not. The facts are that mandating the use of helmets has tended to reduce the numbers of people cycling, without reducing the already low incidence of injury to those that remain. That is inconvenient, to say the least, for those of you who insist that helmets are necessary.

Helmets reduce head injury. You've taken some correlation study and implied causation - FAIL!


Originally Posted by closetbiker (Post 13371384)

Are your intended consequences to get people hurt? BEcause that seems like what you're doing trying to white-wash helmets as no good(even CAUSING injury)! IT is well known your links belong mostly to the anti-helmet brigade and it's well known one can prove what they want by referencing "sites" and links on the internet. The truth however is that helmets DO prevent head injury... i suggest you stop wasting time.


Originally Posted by Six jours (Post 13371662)
Frankly, I still have you pegged as very young. It's the most charitable way to excuse the stuff you post here.

At any rate, no, I'm not a pro. I'm a fat, bitter ex-pro. I also made a living coaching national and world class track racers, one of whom is a two-time world pursuit champion. And I've ridden a bicycle almost daily for more than thirty years. So I've done my share of crashing, and I've seen my share too, both in the pre helmet and post helmet eras.

As a result, I know for an absolute fact that riding a bicycle is simply not that dangerous, or at least doesn't have to be. You can make it dangerous by entering a cat. 4 criterium, or a downhill mountain bike race. You can also make it dangerous by being incompetent, which is a very common choice these days, and, I suspect, the reason so many cling to helmets as a necessity. But a competent cyclist, riding well within his limits, is simply not exposing himself to significant danger. That you apparently can't stop falling off your bicycle and landing on your head doesn't mean that everyone else is similarly handicapped.

Oh, thank you for excusing my behaviour. I like how you freely admit cycling can be dangerous and cite a "Cat 4" crit... well take a look around you on the road, that is right nobody is Cat anything... cat 5 plus even!

If i'm too young then you must be an some relic from the early 1900s who thinks new fangled styyroofoam helmets and seatbelts are for wimps... do i have that right? Why don't you stop trying to insult me. Riding within your limits is where a LOT of accidents occur, do you fail to understand what the term "Accident" means? It means you don't know it's going to happen! Smart people do something to mitigate that risk, like ooo say, wear a helmet. :thumb:


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