Originally Posted by
Liddy
Thank you. That's thought provoking. I haven't entirely decided not to wear one. I am just tootling around my local small Victorian Park at the moment. There is nowhere for anything to come out of the blue there and (having only just learned to pedal), I don't have the bottle to ride down hill yet
Someone asked if it occurred to me that posters here all have a lot of cycling experience. I do get that and I am listening. I still don't think I need a helmet for the tootling, but I am open to taking account of others' reasonably presented views and I may well decide to wear one when I venture further.
As a beginner you're at higher risk of an "over the bars" crash than an experienced cyclist. In that scenario the most likely point of impact is your head. Beginners, if they need to stop quickly, tend to grab the brakes, which often results in a crash, either from not knowing how to manage their forward momentum, or from locking up the front wheel. Modulation of the brakes in a quick stop is a skill that takes practice to master.