I was riding at the weekend and had just had to stop suddenly as some people coming the other way came downhill and round a corner fast and as I pulled away it felt like my brakes were still on so I was looking down at the wheel instead of ahead of me as I gathered speed again and didn't see a tree branch that was drooping down into my path and smacked it with a hefty impact ... all I can say is thank goodness I was wearing a helmet.

It's broken the covering in a couple of places but it seems to be superficial and there doesn't appear to be any other damage .... if I push hard in the areas where the covering's been affected it seems totally solid ... would you replace the helmet as a matter of course or would you think it's OK???

I only started wearing a helmet a coupe of years ago when I became a "more serious cyclist" but the number of people I know that have had accidents that if they weren't swearing one could have been really quite serious ... a friend of my parents ... their son wasn't and he has to be permanently looked after / can't hold a job or anything .... can't believe how stupid I was for so many years!!

Interested to hear people's thoughts on the helmet although I'm erring towards it'd probably be stupid not to replace it.