SaiKaiTai

As I was out riding around last night, I saw all these Moms and Pops out with the kiddies.
Being the exemplary parents they no doubt are, all the kiddies had their helmets on and snugged up.
Not one of the parents, though... not ONE. I realize it's all personal choice but what are they thinking? What goes through their minds? Do they think that, as adults, they can't get hurt if they fall and land on their heads? Do they think that their kids'll be fine when mommy and daddy die with their brains & blood spilling down the gutter? I mean, they're taller, they sit on bigger bikes... they have farther to tall to the pavement below than their kids do. Idiots.

I just don't get it.

I feel better now. Thanks.

zonatandem

Do as we say kiddies, not as we do!

Beverly

I see a lot of this, too.

Our volunteer bike group works with the local children's hospital to give and fit helmets to children. The past couple years we've included their parents as many of them weren't wearing them. One reason was after buying the bikes, other equipment and helmets for the kids they tried to cut some expense by not buying helmets for themselves. Having raised four very expensive kids I can relate to that

Beverly

You knew my mother This was her favorite saying and just drove my sister and I crazy.

Terrierman

Note the tire tread marks on the helmet. The guy in the picture was wearing it when it was run over by a delivery truck and he lived to tell the story. I was resistant to wearing a helmet too. They're hot. They're expensive. They're dorky as all get out. They beat the living hell out of drooling for the rest of your life.

You are right, parents need to set the good example, pull those kids along, not push.

Tom Bombadil

On the dirt bike trail I was riding last weekend, about 10% of the riders were wearing helmets.

I do think it is less necessary on a dirt rail trail. It isn't as hard as asphalt and you aren't moving that fast - most people cruising along at 10-12 mph. It would be rare for a fall on that surface and at that speed to cause a severe brain injury that a helmet would have prevented, although it is possible.

vulpes

I never wore a helmet when I was a kid. I don't think they even had them then. I never wore a helmet as a young adult, either, when my Schwinn Continental was my only transportation for years. I don't wear a helmet now. I have one, but I haven't worn it yet. Not sure I ever will. I have never had a head injury. The vast majority of riders in other parts of the world that use bicycles as normal everyday transportation don't wear helmets.

SaiKaiTai

I don't think they're all that hot - they're incredibly well ventilated compared to what I was wearing 20 years ago. And I don't think they're dorky looking at all. My helmet looks cool.

All I know is I had no use for one 20 years ago until I clipped my (future) wife's front wheel with my rear at 20-25 mph and the ONLY thing that saved her was that her forehead hit hand or arm which was between her head and the road. That's all it took. Changed MY mind toot sweet.

The Weak Link

Not too long ago I had to put in something called a "G-tube" in a nice looking older gentleman who was riding his bike slowly, ran into a grate, and hit his head on a concrete curb. He can't talk or swallow anymore.

My daughter lost a professor at school who was riding around campus, hit a curb, and ended up with a severe closed head injury.

Riding without a helmet is just plain foolish.

Then again, we all know people who smoked cigarets for 70 years and never had a bit of problem from them.......

Digital Gee

Wait...are you saying that cigarettes are bad for you? Or that you should wear your helmet if you smoke? I'm so confused...

Hermes

As a kid, helmets were not available. In 1979, I bought a Skid Lid helmet which was similar to the early baseball helmets. Then Bell came out with a real helmet that met an impact standard and now we have the miriad of helmet choices. I cannot ride without one. It just does not feel right. When the pros were here for the Tour of California, many that we saw training did not wear helmets, but they do wear them in races. For me its habit and I hear about far too many crashes with cracked helmets (not heads) to ever think about not wearing one.

The Weak Link

For goodness sake, don't smoke your helmet.

stapfam

We have the same problem over here. Kids with helmets and parents without.

I have a riding partner with a daughter that hit a kerb and over the top. Grazed the side of her skull and she still has a bald patch 5 years later. She never rides her bike now without a helmet. In fact she is so adamant about it- she no longer rides a bike.

Then in out group we only have two rules. You wait at the top of the hills or junctions and you wear a helmet. In fact we have occasional riders that have taken up wearing helmets because we make them. No helmet- No ride.

Terrierman

Come ride in Mid Missouri in July and you'll change your tune about whether they are hot or not, great ventilation be damned. And about the not dorky looking comment. Dude, I saw your picture. Yours is ALMOST as dorky looking as mine. Not quite, but almost. However, not one of those objections matters because we do not know when or if we will ever need the protection a helmet offers, and when and if that time comes, we won't get the opportunity to say, wait a second here, I want to put my helmet on. To steal Chipcom's line,

Sign me,

The guy who saw the light (not that bright white one at the end of the tunnel) and now always wears a helmet, whether I need it or not.

stapfam

I regularly have to replace helmets due to damage to them. I know that is offroad but I never know when i am going to fall- or what part is going to hit the deck first. Thanks to my first riding partner- I have got so used to wearing a helmet- I am naked without one. As to the ventilation- The only time I realise how much mine has got is in the rain. The large heavy drops still manage to find my bald spot when I am head down- trying to look through the visor. As to Dorkiness- I don't care what it looks like but I will not wear fluorescant colours. Gives the Seagulls something to aim at.

bobby c

Man - that's almost the biggest tragedy I can imagine - who would make us the rhubarb pie you have been promising? We'd have to invent a time machine to go back and prevent that.

Beverly

I always wear a helmet. I witnessed their worth a couple weeks ago when the fellow riding with me hit some debris on the trail and did a face plant on the road. Luckily his helmet did its job and protected his head. He lost a tooth and needed a few stitches above his lip but no concussion. This happened so fast he didn't have time to put his arms up to break his fall. He landed with his arms at his side so the head took the full impact of the fall.

SaiKaiTai

Hey now, wait a minute! She doesn't know what she's been volunteered for...

T'Man - You're right about that. The heat, I mean. Pacifica coastal heat at its worst ain't nothin' like midwest heat, for sure. Except that when it does get that hot, we are woefully ill-prepared. As to your other comment, I do NOT look dorky in my helmet. It even matches my Kaitai's color scheme

Tom Bombadil

You know, you should take that thiing off when you go to bed!

Digital Gee

I dunno, I always hear it's important to have protection in bed.

maddmaxx 

I don't think that we knew anything about helmets when we were kids. I didn't learn about helmets untill I first got near race cars (and those were old fashoned helmets). I think that I might have mentioned that I raced for a while.

I actually drove a Funny Car in the late 60's when they were still coming of age. (nothing like today). I've been up to 194mph. I've been on fire, and upside down etc. I became a true believer about helmets, seat belts, roll bars, anything that would improve your survival factors by even 1%. People who won't wear this stuff just don't understand the risk.

Artkansas 

I got a good lesson on helmets when I dropped my motorcycle. I was taking off easily for a left turn when the light turned green and the bike just high-sided. It was confusing for a moment. Then I realized that my field of view was shifting. My helmet was shifting as it made contact with the pavement. In a flash I realized that it was my helmet on the pavement, instead of my face being scraped off by the pavement and I thought that was pretty cool.

The visor took all the damage, but I never figured out what caused the accident.

Skipper

"I do think it is less necessary on a dirt rail trail. It isn't as hard as asphalt and you aren't moving that fast - most people cruising along at 10-12 mph. It would be rare for a fall on that surface and at that speed to cause a severe brain injury that a helmet would have prevented, although it is possible."

Riiiiight.

I got a concussion last Monday (14th) after bumping my head on a warehouse rack at work. I didn't even have a bruise to show the doctor where I hit my head. Lots of people have been telling me for years that I have a hard head. Not as hard as they thought.

I choose to wear a helmet. For me, an ounce of prevention is worth way more than the tons of excuses I've heard for not wearing a helmet. If it does nothing more than preventing me from having to pick gravel out of my scalp after a slow speed tip over, it will have served its purpose.

Whether one wears a helmet or not is their choice.

Digital Gee

You're prolly right, Skipper.

guybierhaus

In PA it's the law, "all children under 12 to wear an approved helmet while riding." So I suspect in addition to the car seats, the parents will get the helmets for the kids. However, PA just a year or 2 ago repealed the helmet law for adults on motorcycles, so the state apparently doesn't care what you do with your head.

I was wearing mine for the ride I was participating in on Sunday as the organizers required helmets. Helmet certainly wasn't hot. Although since I saw no one in 30 miles I could have rode without the helmet, as I do in my normal solo rides.

You can certainly argue otherwise but I clearly remember my youth, and with the scares we are subjected to today, I guess it's miraculous I survived my youth. White trim paint in house was lead based, and of course so was the fuel. My mother's smoking filled the house with a cloud. Bike helmets weren't invented, neither were car seats or seat belts. I enjoyed standing on the floor behind dads seat while he drove his Desoto with only a single brake system. Gee, I even played baseball without a batting helmet. My crib had too much space between the slats.... Clearly I was one of the lucky ones.