Originally Posted by
Liddy
Okay Guys, let me first say that I am a newbie to the Forum and a complete beginner to cycling (like I can't ride a straight line yet!). I have seen a reasonable number of brain injured individuals in my time, although I don't specilise in Neuro. I have also ridden horses and would under no circumstances get on the the back of one, even with the intention of me and the horse just standing still, without a riding hat. I am very protective of my brain.
All that said, at the risk of triggering WW3 (having seen another thread discussing this topic from a different angle), I am mulling over the whole cycling helmet debate. I have read the following and found it thought provoking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_helmet Even before reading that, I had decided that cycling away from traffic does not, for me, require use of a helmet. If and when (last week I'm afraid it was when) I fall from a bike, it will be a fall from more or less my own height sideways at a low speed. Even as I get faster, I doubt it would be merrited. I think if I venture onto roads, I will probably wear one as a car hitting a bike, can after all, propell the rider through the air and, in so doing, produce a very different type of impact. I'm not sure about racing if not in traffic. I am very unlikely to ever want to do that, so I probably will never need to decide about it.
Anyway, I am interested in the considered, mutually respected opinions of other. Any takers?
Like you say there has been lots of sprited debate on this issue. So, I won't bore you with any opinions, respected or otherwise. I'll just tell you my experience that converted me.
I had a cheap Huffy, have no idea what it was made of, I can tell you it wasn't very heavy and I primarily used it around the neighborhood at low speeds. More to learn how to ride after not doing that since Jr. High. So, I didn't wear a helmet. There was a sale on them at a local store so I had bought a cheap Bell helme because the local military installation required them and I wanted to use their light traffic area.
A short time later I was riding with my helmet because I was going to go on the military installation. Had I not been planning on going there I would not have had the helmet on my head. I was hit, head on, by another cyclist while I was going down a fairly steep hill and he was going up. I went head over heels obliquely onto a gravel strewn MUP and and slid into gravel on the shoulder. The sliding impact ground through the plastic on the helmet, broke the metal frame on my glasses, put a part of the frame into the eye socket but below the eyeball, put rash on my chin and down my back. Had I not been wearing the helmet the impact would have abraded all the flesh from one side of my head and face starting above the ear and continuing down to the chin. The helmet kept my head off the ground except for a glancing rash on the chin.
The other cyclist accepted responsibility and paid for all bills. But, I was the one who had to heal.
So, make your own choice but I am an example where the helmet probably didn't save my life but did save my appearance. One could argue I suppose, but to me death is not the worst thing that can happen. Being disfigured in a major way ranks right up there with the worst.
Just my experience for your decision making.
By the way: A key, if not The Key, in this kind of decsion is whether a person can accept the worst consequence they can reasonably conceive. I wear a helmet because I cannot accept the consequences of potential injury of not wearing it.