Advocacy & Safety - Always wear a helmet

Thanks to wet railroad tracks, I had a wipeout this afternoon. Nothing serious, just some road rash on my thigh & shoulder. My helmeted head conked the pavement --- I'd probably still be laying there if I didn't have it on.

I know this isn't the safety forum, but thought I'd remind you guys to keep your noggins in one piece! :D

Yes, I see that happen at lease once a year. Glad to hear you are ok.

a little run-in with some dry railroad tracks last summer persuaded me to put my helmet on and keep it there; you could here my noggin hitting the road--it sounded like somebody dropped a coconut from fifty feet--for blocks around. Had a headache for a couple of weeks and some nasty road rash but no concussion; luckily I was going about 3 mph but still had no time to react as I somersaulted over the bars....glad you were wearing your helmet.

+1.

I hit some black ice this morning. I must have slid for 30-40 feet. Actually, it was quite fun. Without the helmet though, the light tap of my head on the pavement/ice would have sucked.

Been there, done that. Fell on my road bike twice in 07. Both times the old helmet hit the asphalt.
Funny, as a mountain biker I've fallen many times. But I never thought of dirt as "soft" or as a lubricant until I hit asphalt. It doesn't give and rubbing against it just tears your skin.

3 weeks ago I cracked my helmet in a banal slow speed crash, of the kind that shouldn't even cause a bruise. Without the brain-bucket I possibly would have sustained massive head injuries.

Funny, right before that wipe out I was entertaining thoughts of enhancing my coolness factor by going helmet-less...

Jan

You fell, so I should wear a helmet?

Of course I have only been riding bicycles for 55 years or so, but then I walk my bike across oily wet railroad tracks.

Guys, we need to know how the bikes handled the trauma! Otherwise I might have to move this to Advocacy & Safety :( .

As for me, yesterday I hit a patch of ice and managed to hit the ground. I hit the very same spot on my hip as in my last fall :notamused:. Fortunately I did not hit my head, nor my elbow.

East Hill

You fell, so I should wear a helmet?

Of course I have only been riding bicycles for 55 years or so, but then I walk my bike across oily wet railroad tracks.In a perfect, happy, world the roads would be free of cars and have no tire grabbing cracks, dogs intent on chasing bikes, or children running into my way and all would be good.

As it is, I'll ride with a helmet. You do as you wish, within the law, but don't expect the government to try to pour what's left of your brains back into what's left of your skull after some idiot hits you.

I hate helmet arguments, but feel the need to chime in.

I've been riding over 50 years, and have only needed a helmet twice, neither time through any fault of my own. I can type this because I has a helmet on both times. YMMV

*yawn*

All you safety nannies should learn not to go banging your head on stuff...

*yawn*

All you safety nannies should learn not to go banging your head on stuff...

But then what would all of you safety-nanny nannies complain about?

Been there, done that. Fell on my road bike twice in 07. Both times the old helmet hit the asphalt.
Funny, as a mountain biker I've fallen many times. But I never thought of dirt as "soft" or as a lubricant until I hit asphalt. It doesn't give and rubbing against it just tears your skin.

Yes, this is my first real spill on a road bike. I used to fall all the time on the mountain bike --- this is much worse!

Oh yes...people who go helmetless are SO cool....come on people...I never get on the bike without a helmet...life means too much to worry about what I look like while riding...

You fell, so I should wear a helmet?



+++


I don't wear a helmet.
I've never fallen over when I go across railroad tracks.
Implies not wearing a helmet keeps you from having accidents?

-hey, its the same kind of correlation that all the people who argue for helmets use

Well, they have shown that a helmeted head is more likely to be hit in a fall (twice the size and rather heavier), so maybe not wearing a helmet does prevent accidents. Without a helmet on I find I'm very good at not hitting my head on stuff, some kind of protective instinct maybe?

For me, I don't wear a helmet to walk, despite having fractured my skull twice walking around when I was a kid. I didn't wear a helmet when I went ice skating, but I fell over and banged my head really hard (yes, it hurt!), and won't do next time either. Life is full of these spills and tumbles, which is why the human head is quite a robust design. I don't feel the need to go around dressed up in expanded polystyrene "just in case", especially when the expanded polystyrene has such an ambiguous evidence base as the bicycle helmet.

I've fallen a number of times over my 40+ years of riding. I've fallen a number of times when walking, working around the house, at work, etc. over the last 40+ years too. Never had a helmet on in any of those cases. I'm still here. Go figure.

Wear em if you want to, don't if you don't and, if you feel the need to comment on the choices of others either way, kick yourself and STFU.

Thanks to wet railroad tracks, I had a wipeout this afternoon. Nothing serious, just some road rash on my thigh & shoulder. My helmeted head conked the pavement --- I'd probably still be laying there if I didn't have it on.
I know this isn't the safety forum, but thought I'd remind you guys to keep your noggins in one piece! :D

This is the best argument for wearing a helmet. Given any crash where you hit your head on the pavement, no reasonable person can disagree that the injuries would be at best the same, but more likely much worse, if the person were not wearing a helmet.

Its a matter of playing the odds. Its not if you will crash while riding a bike, its when. If you think otherwise, you're not riding enough.

And now Chip, I will STFU.

... Nothing serious, just some road rash on my thigh & shoulder. My helmeted head conked the pavement --- I'd probably still be laying there if I didn't have it on...

I'm assuming your opinion is it was only non-serious because of the helmet, but I'd guess based on years of research of bicycling collisions and falls that the incident wasn't serious at all. Most likely you would have got up a little bruised and scraped up even if you weren't wearing a helmet.

I always wonder why people assume something different would have happened to them when circumstances with everyone else indicates otherwise.

FWIW, I had a spill on some ice last week. My helmet was fine because it was hanging in the closet. I was fine too.

Oh yes...people who go helmetless are SO cool.......

Some are...

http://www.cyclinghalloffame.com/riders/pics/Merckx%20large2.jpg

some aren't...

http://members.aye.net/~gharris/blog/PeeWeeBike06.jpg

(or are they?)

Thanks to wet railroad tracks, I had a wipeout this afternoon.

A couple of years ago I was crossing some wet tracks at walking speed - fell at light speed. Bent the rear derailleur hanger, broke a pedal. Kept my helmet off the ground tho.

It is amazing how fast you go down on tracks, even being careful. I have crossed a million of them no prob. Then one day - :eek:

A couple of years ago I was crossing some wet tracks at walking speed - fell at light speed. Bent the rear derailleur hanger, broke a pedal. Kept my helmet off the ground tho.

It is amazing how fast you go down on tracks, even being careful. I have crossed a million of them no prob. Then one day - :eek:

I always pop the first wheel over the tracks. I think if you do that and pop over the second track, you'll be ok.

This is the best argument for wearing a helmet. Given any crash where you hit your head on the pavement, no reasonable person can disagree that the injuries would be at best the same, but more likely much worse, if the person were not wearing a helmet.

Its a matter of playing the odds. Its not if you will crash while riding a bike, its when. If you think otherwise, you're not riding enough.

And now Chip, I will STFU.

A fall like this is what they're made for but it would be reasonable to agree on the definition of what is worse.

The likely scenario in a case like this is an injury you can get up from, bump, bruise, cut. Something you can't get up from, a significant, non-recoverable injury - the benefits are much more murky.

You fell, so I should wear a helmet?
Lawls logic fail.


People are ridiculous.:rolleyes:

And now Chip, I will STFU.

I won't holler at you for running lights while wearing your helmet, if you don't holler at me for not running lights while not wearing my helmet. :D

This is the best argument for wearing a helmet. Given any crash where you hit your head on the pavement, no reasonable person can disagree that the injuries would be at best the same, but more likely much worse, if the person were not wearing a helmet.

True, though I do wish to note - just for the record - that most helmets (with exception to some skater/BMX type helmets that hang low over the brow) will not adequately protect one's forehead if they end up plunging face first to the ground - nor will any helmet (with exception, perhaps, to full-face) protect one from road rash below the forehead.

Just wished to point this out. Not trying to say that one is any safer without one (or for that matter, with one) - there is a limit to its usefulness. It isn't a cure-all.

-Kurt

Given any crash where you hit your head on the pavement, no reasonable person can disagree that the injuries would be at best the same, but more likely much worse, if the person were not wearing a helmet.


I disagree, and I'm a reasonable person. The problem is that it's not reasonable to conduct an experiment to verify your claim. I don't suppose it's even possible to fairly replicate a crash that happened with a helmet without one. In the absence of true side by side, what you are left with is conjecture. That's why these anecdotal evidence pro/con helmet stories are worthless. Any reasonable person should understand that.

I did an endo on my bike when I was a kid. I wasn't wearing a helmet and was, except for my pride, uninjured. Does that prove helmets are worthless? I certainly wouldn't attempt make that claim on the basis of that single experience.

Speedo

I always pop the first wheel over the tracks. I think if you do that and pop over the second track, you'll be ok.

The front wheel made it, the back one caught a knobby so the rear wheel followed the track.

I was crossing a set of tracks at an impossible angle. They cross the road at probably 10-20 degrees (almost parallel with the road). So my usual technique is to pop the front wheel over one track landing it between the two rails, then hop the rear wheel over and ride momentarily inside the tracks. Then I pop/hop my way over the second track. Then lather-rinse-repeat over the next two pairs of tracks (3 total tracks all parallel to each other).

It's a beautiful thing when it works.

I wouldn't want to go hopping at all over railway tracks. Maybe crossings in the UK are different, but I just aim as straight on as I can, bend my elbows and knees a tad and pedal evenly over the tracks. If the wheel slips a bit I recover it as I roll on over. On a fixed you can always feel every little slip, but it seems even more stable.

I believe in going full bore

http://www.defensetech.org/images/F-35-helmet.jpg

This autumn a riding buddy showed up in all black with his black Time bike and a black woolen thing on his head. I wanted to say something but didn't. Just the two of us had anice ride on quiet country roads. Mostly we were going side by side chatting about this and that. On a small incline he was behind me and without thinking I rose to climb out of the saddle. Strange sounds behind me, and he was down. I just did not know that he was so close to my back wheel and when I rose he made contact and fell. He hit his head and luckily in the next car coming was a bunch of really nice nurses on a sunday outing who took him and his bike to the nearest hospital for a checkup (it was not a concussion just a surface wound). I felt really bad about causing this incidense but had he worn his helmet it would have meant a trip to the LBS for a replacement instead of to the hospital.

This autumn a riding buddy showed up in all black with his black Time bike and a black woolen thing on his head. I wanted to say something but didn't. Just the two of us had anice ride on quiet country roads. Mostly we were going side by side chatting about this and that. On a small incline he was behind me and without thinking I rose to climb out of the saddle. Strange sounds behind me, and he was down. I just did not know that he was so close to my back wheel and when I rose he made contact and fell. He hit his head and luckily in the next car coming was a bunch of really nice nurses on a sunday outing who took him and his bike to the nearest hospital for a checkup (it was not a concussion just a surface wound). I felt really bad about causing this incidense but had he worn his helmet it would have meant a trip to the LBS for a replacement instead of to the hospital.

If you're trying to prove the utility of helmets with yet another anecdote, this is a colossal failure.

Lemme see if I have this straight...unhelmeted cyclist falls and hits head, and as a result suffers -- gasp -- ONLY SURFACE WOUNDS!

OMG!!!

Yet, your conclusion is that he should have worn a helmet because...umm...because...oh yeah. If he had been wearing a helmet, he would have had to buy a new one.

Dear lord.

If you're trying to prove the utility of helmets with yet another anecdote, this is a colossal failure.

Lemme see if I have this straight...unhelmeted cyclist falls and hits head, and as a result suffers -- gasp -- ONLY SURFACE WOUNDS!

OMG!!!

Yet, your conclusion is that he should have worn a helmet because...umm...because...oh yeah. If he had been wearing a helmet, he would have had to buy a new one.

Dear lord.

Keeps capital in circulation...

I'm assuming your opinion is it was only non-serious because of the helmet, but I'd guess based on years of research of bicycling collisions and falls that the incident wasn't serious at all. Most likely you would have got up a little bruised and scraped up even if you weren't wearing a helmet.

I always wonder why people assume something different would have happened to them when circumstances with everyone else indicates otherwise.

FWIW, I had a spill on some ice last week. My helmet was fine because it was hanging in the closet. I was fine too.

Arguing over this is pointless, but yes, if I didn't have my helmet on I do believe it would have been more serious because I did feel my head hit the ground as I slid across the pavement. My shoulder is so sore right now that I can't lift my arm without being in pain. I can only imagine the nice bump and road rash that I would have on my head right now, and I'm glad I'm not dealing with that.

So yes I will always wear a helmet (and I won't try to cross any more wet tracks). If you don't wear one, that's fine. Good luck with that.

This autumn a riding buddy showed up in all black with his black Time bike and a black woolen thing on his head. I wanted to say something but didn't. Just the two of us had anice ride on quiet country roads. Mostly we were going side by side chatting about this and that. On a small incline he was behind me and without thinking I rose to climb out of the saddle. Strange sounds behind me, and he was down. I just did not know that he was so close to my back wheel and when I rose he made contact and fell. He hit his head and luckily in the next car coming was a bunch of really nice nurses on a sunday outing who took him and his bike to the nearest hospital for a checkup (it was not a concussion just a surface wound). I felt really bad about causing this incidense but had he worn his helmet it would have meant a trip to the LBS for a replacement instead of to the hospital.

If your friend had been wearing a helmet would that have made him pay more attention to the wheel he was following? The fact that he was right on your wheel and not watching what you were doing is the root cause of the crash. The helmet, or lack thereof, is incidental to this story.

Speedo

... If you don't wear one, that's fine. Good luck with that.

Thanks.

Based on the vast majority around the world who don't and the results of the small slice of those who do, I think luck has very little to do with it, but I appreciate the sentiment.


:D

I believe in going full bore

http://www.defensetech.org/images/F-35-helmet.jpg

Lord Vader, I am your son.

Oh yes...people who go helmetless are SO cool....come on people...I never get on the bike without a helmet...life means too much to worry about what I look like while riding...

Actually, IMHO, helmetless cyclists don't look cool.. they look like they are in need of education concerning keeping their skulls in one piece... and, as an aside.. do you think they should shave their heads so their road rashed scalps are easier to debride and they can go faster? bwahahahahahahaha....

If I had cool hair like E Merckx, I'd be more likely to skip the helmet too.


Then again, eddy smoked too.


not that either practice hurt him any


then again, I am NOT Eddy Merckx

I smoke when I'm not on the bike, and I wear a helmet when I'm on the bike. That's my choice.

You should do whatever you want.

I never ride without a helmet BUT . I say LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE its up to the individual .

I disagree, and I'm a reasonable person. The problem is that it's not reasonable to conduct an experiment to verify your claim. I don't suppose it's even possible to fairly replicate a crash that happened with a helmet without one. In the absence of true side by side, what you are left with is conjecture. That's why these anecdotal evidence pro/con helmet stories are worthless. Any reasonable person should understand that.

Right. So you are left with a new cost-benefit analysis - is it worth finding out the hard way that you needed a helmet if you do crash to avoid the cost of wearing one? The answer is still no.

Right. So you are left with a new cost-benefit analysis - is it worth finding out the hard way that you needed a helmet if you do crash to avoid the cost of wearing one? The answer is still no.
I'll sell you a magic feather for $75.

There are no conclusive studies showing that it will do anything but lesson minor bumps in very controlled situations. But any reasonable person should agree that carrying a feather to prevent bike injuries is at least as safe as no feather, and very possibly safer.

Also, I know a guy who fell, while riding with the feather in his pocket. The feather was crushed. Had he not been wearing the feather, I shudder to think what would have happened to him.

Another guy was riding drunk and fell. Good think he had the feather, because his injuries turned out minor.

It might sound like voodoo to you, but so what? The cost is $75. The cost of losing your head can be millions of dollars in a care facility.

But you don't have to buy one. Overpopulation, and Darwin, and all that.

I'll sell you a magic feather for $75.

There are no conclusive studies showing that it will do anything but lesson minor bumps in very controlled situations. But any reasonable person should agree that carrying a feather to prevent bike injuries is at least as safe as no feather, and very possibly safer.

Also, I know a guy who fell, while riding with the feather in his pocket. The feather was crushed. Had he not been wearing the feather, I shudder to think what would have happened to him.

Another guy was riding drunk and fell. Good think he had the feather, because his injuries turned out minor.

It might sound like voodoo to you, but so what? The cost is $75. The cost of losing your head can be millions of dollars in a care facility.

But you don't have to buy one. Overpopulation, and Darwin, and all that.

Bash your head on concrete with a big blob of styrofoam over it, and you'll probably live. Bash your head without it, and you have a much higher chance of dying or severe injury. Period. Feathers are things birds have.

Bash your head on concrete with a big blob of styrofoam over it, and you'll probably live. Bash your head without it, and you have a much higher chance of dying or severe injury. Period.
How much higher of a chance?


Feathers are things birds have.
Pillows also have them.

I want one of those tiny umbrellas like the kind Wile E. Coyote uses right before the giant boulders drop on his head. It saved him plenty of times that's for sure.

Bash your head on concrete with a big blob of styrofoam over it, and you'll probably live. Bash your head without it, and you have a much higher chance of dying or severe injury. Period. Feathers are things birds have.

Maybe. But I have not seen anyone wearing a big blob of Styrofoam on their head while riding.

Just bike helmets that are are a thin, vented styrofoam layer under a plastic shell.

Your comment has little relevance to helmet safety.

To debate whether it is beneficial to wear a helmet if your head hits the ground seems more than sligthly weird to me. Riding PBP in 2007 I did not see a raised line of cobblestones in the street of a small town at night and went down. I cut my elbow and my head hit the stones. I blacked out momentarily but was able to go on and finish PBP. Without a helmet I am quite shure that I would have been unable to ride on.
The (maybe unclear) point of my story about the riding buddy of mine this autumn was that I think you have a responsibility towards those you ride with as well. Accidents happen when we ride in groups and we should all do what we can to avoid gettting seriously hurt. Wearing a helmet is a cheap insurance against some head injuries.

[QUOTE=zeytoun;8135499]How much higher of a chance?


Enough that I will wear one and think they are important. But thats just me, you do you I could care less.

oh and to add to the helmet saves head stories...one night we where pulling each other on a snowboard behind a pick up on some un-plowed streets with a good couple inches of snow on them. A buddy catches an edge gets slammed backwards on to the pavement, and his head smacks the pavement. I heard the crack from the back of the pickup, over engine noise and Christmas music. Had he not been wearing the motocross helmet, it would have been a sure fire trip to the emergency room with most likely some serious injuries. As it was, he had a head ache for a couple days after.

Skulls aren't that strong, don't fool yourself. A buddy of mine recently got a champange bottle shattered on his head, he's fine but he had a fractured skull and mild bleeding on the brain.

stories, stories, stories.

I've heard all kinds of stories where the helmet wearer had quite a bad head injury while wearing the helmet, yet for some reason the helmet was still credited for preventing an injury.

Never have heard that maybe the helmet had failed, the impact was above the rated force a helmet was intended to withstand or that the injury was the type that a helmet was not able to provide protection.

Seems there's just no dampening the spirit of some.

Actually, IMHO, helmetless cyclists don't look cool.. they look like they are in need of education concerning keeping their skulls in one piece... and, as an aside.. do you think they should shave their heads so their road rashed scalps are easier to debride and they can go faster? bwahahahahahahaha....

OMG, how have I survived 40+ years riding & commuting without an 'education'? :rolleyes: