Originally Posted by
madcalicojack
1) Only one of us is tossing personal insults around. I was clear from my first post that I think intelligent adults can make whatever choice they want. I don't care if YOU wear a helmet or not. But I wanted the OP to know actual figures instead of the orders-of-magnitude-inflated energy number you through out there to justify your decision.
This would leave one to believe that actual figures are forthcoming. Hopefully your readers have gotten over their dissapointment...
BTW, anyone with a calculator can figure out that a 5000 pound SUV traveling at highway speeds does, in fact, generate a half-million foot pounds of energy.
You're the one who threw out the "But the helmet doesn't have to absorb all of it!" strawman.
Originally Posted by
madcalicojack
2) Physics and statistics suggest otherwise. Your post history in defense of your decision appears to be based only on your own intuition. As I mentioned, energy absorption is a poor metric for helmet performance. Even so, the band of energies between "helmetless severe brain injury" and "overwhelming the helmet's capability" is sufficiently large to include the energy of a fall to the ground which is the most statistically probable mode of head injury on a bike. This is true even when the collision is the result of collision with a vehicle. You might suffer a lot of internal organ injuries from the actual collision, but if you bust your noggin, it will almost certainly happen when you hit the ground.
That's an awful lot of unsubstantiated opinion, coming from someone whining about "intuition". Do yourself a favor and actually research the statistics. If you're an honest man, you'll discover that in the big picture, helmets make a very small difference.
Oh, and speaking as an old paramedic, I'm here to tell you that when a human body is struck by a motor vehicle at 40+ MPH, the coroner can choose from a dozen different causes of death. Anyone who has actually seen the results of such a collision truly understands how futile a few ounces of styrofoam are.
Originally Posted by
madcalicojack
If you want the "pro-helmet" folks to leave you alone, don't make up numbers which have nothing to do with the type of injuries that helmets are meant to protect against.
Seems to me that decent, thoughtful people don't need a reason to let grown-ups make their own decisions in peace.