Up until last May, I thought much like Merriwether. I had been in several accidents, and my head had never touched ground. This included significant accidents--crashes. I felt my judo and parachute fall training would keep me from having a head injury. Tuck your head, chin into chest, and roll; usually your head won't touch the ground at all (and that protects you from the type of neck injury which causes paralysis too). On one fall, I rolled several times, and ended upside down in a bush, all without my head hitting the ground. I wore my helmet as an example to my kids, but with the same almost contemptuous attitude that if a fall came my way, I wouldn't need it.

That changed in May, with my most recent accident when for the first time in over 40 years my head hit the ground in a bicycle accident. I now know that we cannot control all the circumstances dealing with a crash, and therefore it is a big unknown as to whether a head hit would occur.

Merriwether, I wish you well, and hope that you have the good fate and luck not to know the feeling of waking up, dizzy and disoriented in the hospital with an hour missing from your memory, or worse. You see, to me the statistics and studies don't matter anymore. Wearing a helmet a matter of survival, and me continuing to bicycle. Besides, where would I put my mirror without a helmet? (I lost my bar-end mirror this week, and didn't even miss it for a day.)

Bumbaclat, stop it! What you are saying is not appropriate to this forum, and adds nothing to the discussion.

John