Originally Posted by eippo1

Glad it protected your melon. As far as helmets working or not, they work with basic physics principles. They are designed to take an impact load and distribute the force vector in many different directions, thus dissipating the energy and at the same time redirecting the energy.

Helmets can fail for different reasons as well: They are only so good at dealing with secondary and tertiary impacts. The impact can simply overwhelm the helmet's ability to dissipate and redirect the force. The point of impact is so narrow that it slices or punctures though the helmet (or air holes).

They can also fail because the foam inside has begun to break down and it will crush too quickly. Another issue with age that affects secondary impacts is when the adhesive that holds the shell to the foam breaks down, thus hurting the helmet's ability to hold together after the first impact.

Originally Posted by eippo1

I'm so strapping a huge hunk of cheese to my head for my next ride. Will I be compromising my safety if I eat some of the cheese while I ride?

Originally Posted by rooftest

It's you in this case. The time I spent in college working at a lab that studied head injuries in motorcycle accidents and testing the effectiveness of Motorcycle and bicycle helmets is what I'm speaking from.

As somebody mentioned earlier, this is just like the seat belt argument in terms of "rational" thought. Like the CEO of a helmet company once said "It's obvious that it's better to have something between your head and the ground when you hit. That's not even worth arguing about."

Originally Posted by Dan The Man

What irks me most is the public attitude about helmets. It is basically treated as the first and last word in safety, responsibility, and whether you are a good person or not.

If you are not wearing a helmet, expect drivers to give you lectures at stop lights, expect yells of "Where's your helmet?!" from complete strangers. I know people who will not ride with someone who doesn't wear a helmet. Online you mostly get comments like, you are stupid, or you are guaranteed to end up brain damaged if you don't wear a helmet. I mostly think of a helmet as an anti-heckling device nowadays.

If you want to voice your opinions about other peoples' risk and choices, start heckling fat people on the street. I have never heard of someone refusing to ride with a cyclist that chooses to eat red meat because they might have a heart attack.

Originally Posted by coasting

how can people get so passionate about not wearing helmets.