Stert

Anyone here not wear a helmet when you ride?

and if not do you wear anything else (sweatband, cap, ect.)?

dgasmd

I would say a lot of the french don't judging for a lot of the pictures surferbruce posts. Locally, I only see a roadie guy not wearing a helmet. He looks too cool for it. Typically, the ones I see around here with no helmets are older folks or the weekend warrior fat guy with the sweat band, high socks, short shorts, riding a beach cruiser at 12 MPH with his arms stretched over the handle bars and elbows fanned out as if he is about to take off. Death wish if you ask me. Reality is another as they will all end up in a nursing home as moosh instead of dead when they get hit hard enough.

Cycho

Eh, what?

kindablue

When I am commuting on my old steel (target) mtn bike no. When I am riding my road bike that I occasionally fall off of because I have yet to figure out how to work my pedals; yep I always wear a helmet.

Dion Rides

Went MTB'ing today and I stopped to talk to a few young guys where the trail intersects with a good hill (I usually climb on my roadie). We see this guy come FLYING down the hill doing a good 40mph+ without a helmet. All three of us looked at each other and we're like, "Holy sh*t!".

I oppose the helmet law for motorcycles, even though I wear full leather gear and a helmet (or off road apparel when I'm off road) when I ride. I just don't think grown adults should be forced to wear one if they don't want to - the same with bicycle helmets.

I do, however, think we need to keep laws for minors to wear helmets.

pacificaslim

I almost always wear a cycling cap, and sometimes I wear a helmet, and sometimes I don't. I can't imagine why anyone else cares one way or another, but people do seem to question why I'm not wearing a helmet.

dgasmd

I would agree with you ONLY if you could get the same adults to sign a release that says that if they have an accident they are not to be treated at all. They can be left on the side of the road as is. The reason I say this is because they cost millions a year to you and me in medical treatment and disability that could be avoided if they just wore the helmet. Insurance or not, it costs everybody, not to mention the human loss factor. See, the problem is that people think they would just rather die if they have the accident without the helmet, but the reality is they are more likely to end up as a veggie in complete medical dependance than they are to die on the spot. In the meantime, who is going to raise and love the child that you are so happy to obligate to wear the helmet?? You and I, that is who.

mzeffex 

I always do. But today I forgot mine when I left for work. I felt naked. Whenever I see someone without one I feel compelled to fly past them. They're usually old/fat anyways.

markwebb

Heck, most people can run faster than I can cycle, so I don't get this helmet thing.

Seriously, I do get a laugh at all the over-protective parents who put helmets on kids riding training wheelers or Big Wheels. Anybody over the age of 40 should recall the days when no one wore helmets. Folks my age that started cycling way back in the day we never wore helmets, and I never saw anyone die from a wreck.

When I started racing they made us wear those leather hair net sorta leather helmets.

I think riding a bike 15mph and wearing a helmet is a little over the top nowadays, but I am now a conformist and wear one 100% of the time.

fabio

I don't majority of the time. I'm saving for one because my cheap walmart one is not working. I usually wear a hat and a wet shirt under it for keep from getting burned on my commute to work. The wet shirt also keeps me cool during the 100F ride to work(only 6 miles).

TVS_SS

well soon that problem will go away... once obama care passes, its free healthcare for everyone!!!

maddyfish

I do not wear a helmet for my commute. Less than a mile.

I wear a helmet most of the time when road biking, but on long, hot climbs often take it off and hang it on the left brake lever for the climb.

"Reality is another as they will all end up in a nursing home as moosh instead of dead when they get hit hard enough. "

This is far from reality. Millions in Europe ride without helmets and their nursing homes are not filled with bike crash victims.

maddyfish

Reading this thread I think a lot of you seriously over estimate the abilities of a little styrofoam hat.

Stanger

I'm just getting into road cycling, but I don't wear a helmet. I always wear it when I MTB, but never on the road trails. I would definitely wear one if I were riding alongside passing vehicles, but I am riding dedicated bike trails right now and rarely get over 35mph(mostly just 15-18mph avg on flats, only in 35 range on descents and I take it easy).

dgasmd

Yep, they also don't have the stupid and fast american drivers on hummers doing 75 MPH on a 45 MPH zone tossing bottles at cyclist or passing them by really close as they hit the horn just 'cause it funny.

You obviously have not seen first hand the difference between someone that wears one in a minor accident and someone that does not. You would be amazed how much a little styrofoam makes in those cases. But it is your choice. More veggie for you!!

No such a thing as free buddy. You and I will still pay for it. One way or another.

That is also the same generation that remembers how smoking a cigarette was the cool thing to do, how dying during childbirth was a common and "normal thing", and how cancer was a way for god to take away the good people.

mzeffex 

I also do this, but have not yet found a place to put it on my drop bars. I've tried clipping it around between the left brake lever and the stem, seems okay, except when it gets jammed between the two and I can't turn

xg43x

I have been wearing a helmet since I joined the local cycling group. Even when I dont ride with the group. Its better to be safe than sorry. It also helps I got a helmet that doesnt make my head look like a mushroom.

pgaulrapp

I don't wear one.

I see by your post that you haven't read or heard anything about what they're trying to pass. Or were you being sarcastic?

Danv1317

Attached is a good reason to wear your helmet. That was from last week when i went over the bars on my road biking when i got hung up on another rider in a pace line at approx 35mph. Cracked the helmet, shattered my oakley glasses and broke my nose. The helmet hit so hard it actually left a ring on my forehead (as seen in the picture) and half way around my head and behind my ear from it (the helmet) hitting my head so hard. I can't even imagine what would have happened if i didn't have it on. This is a few hours after coming back from my head cat scan. The next 2 days my eye was so swollen i could barely see through it. Helmet was a LG carbon titan. Wear your helmet and make sure it is tight enough. I think mine was too loose and slid up on my head a little when it hit the ground.

VA_Esquire

Always wear one. When you crash at 20+mph and slide across the pavement on your helmet and think "hmm, that could of been my head" and you realize that helmet hair is worth it.

travhartman

Is there a way to actually sign one of these types of agreements? I'm scared to death of getting brain damage whether it be on a bike with or without a helmet, or in a car, or even tripping over a twig and face-planting into an everlasting stupidity.

After working with people who have had this type of thing happen to them, seeing the environment that they have to live in and not being "smart" enough to have an opinion about anything, being in a bad accident scares the shids out of me.

The people I worked with did have opinions about things by the way. No one in positions to change things would listen. Health care sucks. It's all about money and working as little as possible in care giver industry.

Helmets are definitely worth not being put into a terrible nursing home where watch TV and suck down meds.

DataJunkie

OOooOoo! Another freaking helmet thread!

I ride my fixed gear backwards without a helmet, gloves, and blaring my ipod at full volume. I do wear a mirror so it is all good.

Machka 

Where I currently live, it is illegal to ride a bicycle without wearing a helmet.

531Aussie

Exactly! The "all or nothing" argument people use annoys me. It goes something like this: "a helmet does nothing in a minor tumble, so I don't wear one; and a helmet is totally useless in a major impact, so I don't wear one."

There are a lot of levels of impact between 'not much' and 'severe', where a helmet can help. Even if a helmet stops the skin on half of your scalp getting torn off, then it's worth wearing one.

531Aussie

Are you now in Vic? Where are ya?