Originally Posted by
makeinu
Considering that those same cyclists don't wear helmets when driving or walking down the block I have to wonder whether smarts has anything to do with it or if they even know what the CPSC certification tests for.
Helmets make you safer, no doubt about it, but the kind of danger they protect from is not one that concerns me. Call me a fool, but I do not wrap my head in styrofoam when I sleep even though I got a minor concussion a few years ago when I fell out of bed; Do you?
With respect (I mean that) that is irrelevant and a bit silly.
I don't wear a helmet except very rarely if I am cycling in a very risky place, but it is mad to suggest that it would not be of advantage to be wearing a helmet if one was involved in many bike crashes.
I tell you what - let's do an experiment in which I hit you on the head using a hammer and moderate force. We can do it twice - once with a helmet on and once without and see which you think did you less damage.
Of course it is obvious that a foam helmet will not save you in every circumstance, but it will in many others. It is the same with the much tougher motorcycle helmets. Cyclists only rarely achieve great speed on their bikes and many crash at sub twenty miles an hour and strike their heads on roads or much worse, on kerbs, but these falls can be life changing for some of them. It would be a huge advantage to have something that would absorb some or part of that energy rather than the full force being applied to a bony enclosure a few mm thick which contains everything that makes you who you are. Landing on your head at twelve miles an hour could give you serious brain damage. It just depends how you fall and you really can't control that much, no matter how agile you are. This is especially true if your bike is unexpectedly nudged or hit full on by something else on the road. You'll have no time to react.
Like I said at the start - I don't usually wear a helmet, frankly, because I feel like a dick wearing one. However, when I said once to someone that I felt foolish in one, he said, 'Helmets are a bit unfashionable, but not as unfashionable as brain damage.'
By the way - I know two people who have serious trauma induced brain damage. One was punched and fell over and knocked his head on the ground and the other fell a few feet (about six) off a ladder and struck his head on a low wall. Neither of them can work and you know why immediately on meeting them. I also know someone who suffered severe personality problems after being knocked out in a game of rugby and come to think of it, my own father has suffered epilepsy for 72 years since he was kicked in the head in a game of football at the age of fourteen. His fits started the day after his accident. The effects on all of these people have been catastrophic although the last two much less so than the others. It doesn't need your brain to be all over the road to change your life completely.