I'm gonna say this, then bow out. As "the bike guy" in my neighborhood, I take a lot of beginners and very inexperienced riders out with me on various occasions. Because most of them do not know what they are doing on a bike or on the road, I INSIST that they wear a helmet. I simply do not want the responsibility for a serious accident on my watch.

I guess I should have said that in the beginning, but the comment about "insisting" wasn't even the meat of my post, so I didn't think twice about it. I was simply saying that "this is my opinion, but read this article for another view." I don't think you can get much more open-minded than that, so yeah, I reject any of these replies accusing me of being arrogant or disrespectful or whatever.

For the record, I wear a helmet because helmets have been there for me when obstructions that could have seriously injured me have suddenly come across the road or path and because I've watched people crash to the ground and walk away because they were wearing one. I hate the look and feel of a helmet and I wish I lived in a more bicycle-friendly place where people don't feel the need to wear one. My insistence that those who tag along on my rides wear one is completely selfish, as I explained earlier. However, when I watched a beautiful young woman on one of my rides fall face first off her bike to the ground one day and come up without a scratch because her helmet took the impact, I felt a lot less selfish.

These helmet debates always suck. They make people who otherwise have some semblance of respect for one another start flinging ca-ca at each other for no good reason. Going forward, there are now two things I will not discuss with strangers. One is bike helmets.