Originally Posted by
madcalicojack
Pretty lofty assertions that fly in the face of people who have devoted their lives to studying these pheomena. Look at all the studies listed in the UW link I gave earlier and notice the simliar conclusions. These are not articles out of bicycling magazine; these are published, peer-reviewed, funded studies performed by people trained in science and statistics. If you want to summarily dismiss them as "less than bright", you better have equally credible publications to support such a dismissal.
Both sides of this 'debate' falsely rely on anecdotal evidence and personal intution. If you look at the enormous amount of published literature, it is clear that wearing a helmet significantly reduces the probability of a severe head injury. Anyway, this thread is now quite off topic. Since I have no suggestions to give to the OP for what type of helmet to buy, I'll go over to the safety forum if anyone wants to discuss it further.
C'mon, join the helmets cramp my style thread. It's been going on for
years
I was just reading a thread about the Dutchs' attitude towards helmets and kendall had a good reply,
"I just learned don't argue with people who feel a helmet is the total solution to prevent injuries, you get nowhere fast."
Agreed.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing a helmet and they even do provide a certain amount of protection in certain situation, and if the OP wanted to get an idea of what others thin what is "cool" that's cool, but if helmets contained all the properties many people claim they contain, there would be much more widespread use. But there isn't. Even in legislated areas there is mixed use. Only in heavily enforced areas there is widespread use. Most people have a realistic assessment of what they are and how much they are needed and they go without. Those who make outrageous claims about others who choose to go without reveal their ignorance but that's OK too because you can always learn. I did. I used to be firmly in the camp of "wear your helmet all the time" but I learned and changed my stance. I'm much more tolerant now.