No, John, I'm not. ***Because I never quoted it and my argument isn't based on it.*** I simply said that you should look at the LINKS on the wiki page. Logic is something that happens to other people for you, isn't it, John?

However, your own source - The Polymer Foams Handbook - explicitly says that current helmets WON'T have a protective effect in collisions with cars or in collisions at greater than the design speed of the helmets (12-15mph). This is precisely what we have been trying to explain to you. It is remarkable that you can pervert a source to try to use it to argue for what it explicitly denies. For example, take a look at the end of the helmet chapter.

Once again -

- Helmets DO protect in low speed (below 12-15mph) incidents where a rider simply falls off his bike. Of course you're not very likely to be brain damaged by such a collision, but if you're worried about this, then yes, wear a helmet. I probably would for mountain biking, where it is more than imaginable I could fall off going slow. However, I wouldn't put off a day of mountain biking just because I didn't have a beer-cooler hat handy.

- Helmets do NOT protect in situations likely to lead to serious head injury.

- Cycle riding is in any event much safer than John imagines, with each death representing something 30,000 years of non-suicidal bike riding. Even in NYC, one of the worst cycling environments imaginable, 92% of rider deaths are suicide-by-bike.

- The risk of rotational damage - the most serious neurological risk - INCREASES when a helmet is worn. But so what? The chances are extremely low anyway.

Bottom line: If wearing a helmet makes you feel better or you think that you're likely to have a low speed fall and value a helmet because it will make a cut up face or concussion less likely, then wear it. Just don't fall for John's bs that it will protect you in one of those (really unlikely) serious accidents. Otoh, if you feel that a helmet even marginally reduces your balance or hearing, then tell John and his ilk to feck/frack/frell themselves, depending on the cult TV on your choice.

Oh - and if you wear a helmet, make sure that it fits and that you're wearing it properly. Because (according to expert testimony) virtually no one does, and if you don't you'll get all the negative effects and none of the positives. And check out the various standards and go for a helmet certified to a decent one, and don't make the mistake of thinking the more expensive helmets necessarily protect more.