Originally Posted by corrado33

This is an odd study. For those of you too lazy to click the link, they measured how much people blew up balloons while wearing helmets vs. baseball caps. The people who wore bike helmets inflated the balloons more. Considering the proximity of the balloons to people's faces, I can see why they got the results they did. I'd like to see the same study done with the balloon blow up via a tube near their waist.

Empirically, I'd say this is true, but not for the reasons of protection. I'd bike (mountain) a heck of a lot more slowly if I forgot my helmet that day. Wearing a helmet doesn't make me go faster than I normally would, it just makes me bike normally. So yes, I agree with the study, but not with the same reasoning. I bike more SAFELY when I don't wear a helmet. I bike NORMALLY when I wear a helmet.