Nightshade

According to a leading neurosurgeon bike helmets a to flimsy to really protect the head/brain.

Cycle helmets are useless, says brain surgeon - Telegraph

This I can agree with.......to a point.

The problem is, as I see it, is weight and cooling that can't be had with heavier materials. All other type of helmets use plastics ,and padding, that had pounds, not ounces, to the rider to supply the energy to move. I guess it comes down to "thinking" you have protection when you really don't know for sure.

mrodgers

It may weigh a bit more, I'm sure enough for racers or racer wannabees to notice, but certainly not for me to notice, but I've never seen or heard of a bicycle helmet made from EPP. They are all EPS. EPP would have a bit more energy absorption properties than EPS.

Military helmets are the only ones I know of made from EPP. I work in EPP manufacturing. I'll have to ask my ex-boss why we aren't going after bicycle helmets. He's my ex-boss because he recently moved to vice president. He can't be vice president and have a peon like me working under him, LOL. Now I work under the engineering department, so I have lots of folks to ask about this.

Shimagnolo

"By combining polypropylene resin with magic dust, and applying heat, pressure and CO in an autoclave, the material is formed into small plastic beads."

Source: EPP: A Leading Plastic Foam Material that Solves Design Challenges

CourtJester

Well a bike helmet may not be a cure all but it beats a blank.
This was at about 15 mph with no helmet. It may not have saved the face, but according to the Dr. it would have saved me from a fractured skull. Never ride without one now.

Homebrew01

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vol

OP, by all means please (also) post this to the Helmet thread.

I find this quote of the Olympic medalist James Cracknell quite hypocritical:
"Even if you don't care enough about yourself to wear a helmet other people care about you." I highly doubt that those who want to force everyone to wear a helmet on the bike do so out of genuinely caring about others.

(Btw the reader comments are quite entertaining )

CourtJester, sorry for your injury--looks bad; hope you are completely recovered. The injury notwithstanding, would like to know how you fell.

CourtJester

Thanks, I'm good now. That was about 7 years ago and I didn't ride much at all at the time. I lost a few memories, staggered dizzy for a while, and didn't have the balance to ride for about six months but everything but the memories came back. I still have zero clue what happened. I remember ridding out of the garage and the next thing I remeber is getting my shoulder and head exrayed but couldn't see anything.
I will say that it’s gotten me off the hook for forgetting my anniversary more than a few times.

loneviking61

This surgeon is talking about car vs bike accidents, and in those cases helmets are largely useless. I worked for several years at a hospital in a resort area and saw plenty of bike wrecks come in.

Where the helmet was useful was in wipeouts at less than 20 mph. Road riders hitting something and being catapulted over the handlebars or hitting gravel and going down. Mountain bikers bombing down trails and wiping out into granite boulders and trees. In those cases, a helmet may save your life.

gpsblake

I always tell people to do this to see if helmets work or not.

Take a hammer. Put on your helmet. Tap your helmet on your head a few times with the hammer... Then take off the helmet and do the same with the hammer.... It hurts a lot more without the helmet doesn't it**********??

Helmets aren't perfect but they do offer a level of protection... They can prevent you from being de-scalped in an accident. Or having a blunt object enter your skull....

Bike helmets are a compromise though, a much better helmet would be a full face helmet but it's rather bulky and wouldn't be worn.....

elcruxio

It's a good thing I don't ride around hammer swinging maniacs then. If I did I might consider a helmet more useful.

Btw. I do the same thing to people who are going into houses. I take a wooden object with an edge and ask people whether it would be less or more painful to be whacked with said object with/without helmet on. The times I would have been spared a bump or a bleeding head wound if only I had worn a helmet inside buildings.

LesterOfPuppets

Many forms of cycling involve practically no head contact, or even de-biking.

I went out on some new - to - me mtb trails the other day. Crashed 3 times. Helmet a pretty good PPE choice. Tomorrow morn I ride to store and back. 10 miles @ 13 mph average. Helmet is overkill in the PPE department for that ride, in my opinion. Tomorrow evening is STXC race. Can't race without a lid and it's a pretty good PPE decision also, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll never understand the hammer and baseball bat clowns. What point do they really think they're making?

LesterOfPuppets

I got knocked out exiting the shower in 2009 or so. Still showering sans-lid.

-organ donor.

joshnc

So I went out for my Sunday road ride and noticed I wasn't wearing my helmet. I said oh well one time shouldn't kill me. So I wanted to see if cars reacted any different. The amount of room I was given when the cars passed me was considerably more. Does anyone ride without a helmet all the time?

Velo Vol 

No.

I'm dumb enough to road cycle, but I'm not that dumb.

elcruxio

Constantly. When going to the shops, Uni, bar, post office etc I never wear one. When road riding or mountain biking I usually wear a helmet if there is nothing stopping me.

I have to point out that my riding habits are quite different when doing day to day stuff and when I'm doing it for the fun of it. Daily day is just getting around slowly and calmly. Fun stuff is an adrenalin filled boost of speed, daring curves and scetchy city riding.

Lazyass

I used to go with no helmet back when no one did. Started wearing one when I got into mountain biking in the early 90's. Seems like that's one of the things MTBing brought to the road scene.

Dudelsack

ibtm

OldsCOOL

I've only worn a helmet 3 seasons now and never during a casual ride.

This thread will get moved.

RPK79

+1

wphamilton

I thought about this thread this morning (welcome to the official quarantines helmet thread btw) when I stopped at the store and hung the helmet on the bars for the rest of the trip in.

The helmet on the bars is there to be potentially worn when you need it. The helmet is on your head for when you potentially need it. Since the potential is so slight in either case there objectively isn't a whole lot of difference.

Incidentally we have a city code requiring a helmet on the MUP I sometimes use, and no requirement for city streets. I am a good citizen and try to be a good example so I wear one on the MUP. On the roads it's a distinct decision on a given ride whether I'll take one. Taking one, I'll usually wear it but if I decide at some point to take it off I'll do that without hesitation. These are all decision points based on risk evaluations and other factors - it's no big deal either way, and it's not at all illogical.

mrodgers

Gonna have to talk to Steve about that one. Not so professional looking on our site trying to look professional. I'll tell him the guys discussing bike helmets on a cycling site were laughing and making fun of that descriptive statement.

FIVE ONE SIX

the only wear one if i go on a group organized ride, where they're mandatory, otherwise i never wear one on the road. and it's been a proven fact for years that motorists will respect a ride without a helmet more than a rider with a helmet. and that's strictly because they think the helmet will save a rider from pretty much anything, which any real road cyclist knows is not true, while they don't want anything to do with a rider not wearing a helmet because they feel they have a higher chance of getting hurt or worse in an accident and they don't want anything to do with that...

Shimagnolo

This is the first thing I thought of when I read that: Cheech and Chong - Santa and the Magic Dust - YouTube

Huffamoose

As a new guy here, And one that has no Set opinion on helmets one way or the other. The Non helmet wearing side has no solid ground to stand on when calling the Helmet crusaders zealots and nasty. Granted I didn't read the thread that was locked that lead to this one but there is at least an equal amount of vitriol from the non wearing side from what I read. If this comes from them being outnumbered I'm not sure. My gut says that if a car backs into me and I head butt a parked car the helmet can only help. Will it help me if I am hit by a car doing 65? Harder to tell but most likely not. For full disclosure I just started riding and I have been wearing a helmet. I came here to learn if it was worth it.. I still don't know.

Nachoman

10% of you never wear helmets?
Are you yahoo renegades?