Originally Posted by Kojak

Simple expirement 1. Go home tonight and whack one side of your head against the corner of a door jamb, sans helmet. Then, put on a bicycle helmet, and whack the door jamb corner with the other side of your head. I would be willing to wager that the whack on the helmeted side is less painful in most cases.

Simple experiment 2. To simulate the occurrence of getting hit in the head by a rock coming off of a car tire, hire the neighbor kid to pick up a golf ball size rock, and with a moderate toss, have him hit your head with said rock, again, sans helmet. Repeat this exercise while wearing a helmet. Again I would wager that the helmeted portion of the experiment will hurt less and be less likely to leave you with a bleeding head wound (head wounds bleed like a sunnofab$%%ch).

These experiments are not intended to persuade one who wishes not to wear a helmet to do so. Nor will there be reams of scientific documentation to validate how effective and complete the testing methods were.

At the end of it all, I will still say; if you don't want to wear a helmet, don't. Easy as that. But for people to say they don't work, I have provided you with two simple tools to determine whether a helmet can be an effective tool to minimize the consequences of a head impact, or if it's just a silly hat.