Originally Posted by
Squeezebox
I live in a mostly black neighborhood, 90% or more. The larger area is generally poor. The black adults and their kids generally have beat up dept. store bicycles and don't wear helmets. The white folks who ride through the neighborhood tend to have somewhat better bicycles and wear helmets. Mostly commuter cyclists. I'm just curious what the difference is about.
Ignoring the completely racist undertones to this question: millions of people in the Netherlands ride rickety bikes with no helmets. I can't wait to finally get my GoPro footage edited and compiled into a video, but one person I was following had their back wheel on so loose it was wobbling sided to side a few inches with every pedal stroke. When one gets around on a bike exclusively, helmets become more of an annoyance than when doing point to point riding. Plus, all the same thoughts ElCruxio is displaying about people thinking what they are doing is safe, so a helmet is pointless. When one is biking out of necessity, rather than pleasure, maintenance and prestige of chosen bike is as careless as comparing an average motorist to a vintage car enthusiast or weekend club racer.
Originally Posted by
elcruxio
People here like to rave about useless weight but no one questions a helmet. If touring was a dangerous form of cycling like DH or Freeride I'd get it but usually it's not. My touring is typically relatively slow with a ridiculously stable loaded bike. It's safer than my commuting, which also is extremely safe
I've had two "bad" crashes. Worst was mountain biking on a track I had no business being on (your first example), and the other was on my slow tourer in safe Europe biking back to the hotel after dinner (your second examples), that nearly ended the trip the night before it began and did end up cutting out some distance and sights we had planned on. Thing about crashing? You don't generally expect it to happen, or you'd take measures to counteract it in the first place. I've had the fortune of learning my helmet lessons on both bikes and motorcycles without any permanent damage, but it isn't hard to see how all those situations could have turned out completely different.