rydabent

The idea that people ride less safe if wearing a helmet just doesnt hold water. While your head may be safer what about the whole rest of your body?? My biggest argument against the silly theory is the fact that once I have my helmet on I really do NOT give it a second thot. I really dont think-----------gee since Im wearing my helmet I guess I will just go ahead and run that red lite.

HardyWeinberg

I guess blinkies and reflectors empower aggressive riding too then.

RGNY

seldom.

typically only for racing or group rides where the organizers request/require them.

i do bust out my Skid-Lid occasionally. first helmet i ever bought.

jrickards

I wouldn't say that I ride more aggressively with a helmet but certainly, more cautiously on the rare instances that I ride without one (ie. testing recent adjustments to the bike on my residential street).

chasm54

This discussion belongs in the helmet thread in A&S.

manapua_man

Hardhats and steel toed boots promote aggressive construction.

I-Like-To-Bike

It means that they are riding at all, otherwise it would be too dangerous. If the wearing of the helmet is not to make a too dangerous to ride situation, safe enough to undertake, then what is it?

I-Like-To-Bike

Agree

manapua_man

It doesn't mean that at all. Again, the only real thing that it indicated was that they'd rather wear a helmet. I ride motorcycles with a helmet. It hardly makes me or anyone else I ride with "more aggressive".

Unless you have some metric for "aggressive" riding compared to some baseline with some actual numbers, I don't buy it. Otherwise, we're making assumptions.

kookaburra1701

I wear one. I do not ride aggressively.

Then again I work in an emergency room, and I know that the amount of **** I will catch from my co-workers if I am brought in after being injured doing something stupid will outweigh the "inconvenience" of a helmet. But I've never even considered an inconvenience, probably because I grew up riding horses, and so wearing a nice light bike helmet (instead of a heavy black velvet hunt cap) came pretty natural to me. There are times I haven't had a helmet available, and I have ridden anyways, and I rode in the same goody-two-shoes manner. (Just last week I rolled a stop sign at 3am on a deserted residential street. I felt so rebellious. My alignment is Lawful Neutral, can you tell?)

Because of my work in a hospital with a specialty geriatric unit, I also support people over 65 and/or on Coumadin wearing helmets in the shower.

manapua_man

It seems to me that the average person who is going to wear a helmet is probably at least somewhat risk-averse to begin with, but it'd be interesting to see if there are any decent studies on the subject. (I'd be curious as to how they try to quantify everything.)

I-Like-To-Bike

Last time I will explain it to those who don't understand the concept.

Riding at all in any manner is the action taken but only with helmet protection, is the meaning of "I wouldn't ride this or that road without a helmet, or ride on trails without a helmet, or ride anywhere without wearing a helmet."

Such a person fears the dangers are so great that he/she will not undertake the risk riding in any manner and only the helmet allows riding on the dangerous streets, roads, paths, trails or wherever else the person may fear riding without a helmet.

mconlonx

Lots of the same bare-head brigade conjecture that we rehash here; light on any kind of actual figures which mean anything. Good to get the sentiment out and start a discussion, but nothing to back up any of their suppositions, nothing to really further the argument if anyone really wanted to take it up at the public level.

'Chatterji and Markowitz concluded that "the net effect of [bike helmet] laws on health outcomes is actually not straightforward."'

Gee, thanks...

chasm54

Those who are convinced that helmets protect them from serious injury would do well to read some of the evidence here: https://www.cyclehelmets.org/

But I say again, this thread should be incorporated into the helmet thread in A&S

manapua_man

So, the simple act of getting on a bike makes them more aggressive then, by your definition when using not riding at all as a base line. Doesn't seem like it'd make them more or less aggressive than people who often go without helmets, if you use them as your baseline. When they're already both on the bike, I'd like to see who's actually being more gung-ho.

stayfed

When do you buy a new helmet? I had my helmet for a few years and just bought a new one. The old one is still perfectly good but it's well used and going to keep it for guests that come stay and ride my bikes.

harshbarj

I don't and am a staunch advocate for not wearing one. I have seen too many real world examples of the helmet not providing significant protection AND having serious harm to the numbers of cyclist to ever support the helmet. All one has to do is look at Australia for an example of the harm mandatory helmet wearing causes and the lack of protection it provides.

I have noticed, with me, that when I had a helmet I road more recklessly and much faster. I was willing to put myself at greater risk because of the helmet.

manapua_man

For some reason this reminds me of people who wear armor when playing paintball and neglect wearing a cup when they're at it...


Link to the Australia thing? It sounds interesting. Were they recording data all that well before they implemented anything?

If you noticed that you were putting yourself at greater risk, you could have just stopped doing whatever you were doing instead of ditching the helmet. Just sayin'.

agent pombero

those who wear their bike helmet get to enjoy their fleshy helmet. This isn't possible after a massive brain injury. Do you want to continue enjoying your fleshy helmet? Then wear your bike helmet.

cbike

OK, I'll bite again.

There are so many other things that should be discussed and educated about that can improve bicycle safety much more than helmets. But for some strange reasons we are always just talking about helmets. It's sad when kids come out of a bike safety lesson and mainly remember that they need to wear a helmet. And it's not much different with adults.

Spending as much resources on helmet advocacy as we do only makes sense if we plan on banging our head against the wall. But I don't think most of us do. Instead we want to avoid hitting the wall, car, tree or whatever. So we really should be putting our resources to that and keep helmets as a side note.

My earlier comment about people riding without lights but wearing helmets when it's dark was supposed to highlight the issue. And the sarcastic comment about people skiing with bicycle helmets was to highlight the lack of understanding how helmets work. In both cases it should be quite obvious why their action causes more harm than good but unfortunately it is not.

I don't say that discussing whether wearing a bicycle helmet while cycling increases or decreases injury during an accident is bad. But we have greater issues to discuss and educate about that affect the safety of cyclist much more than helmets. I really would like to see people putting the helmet war aside, come together and look at these bigger issues.

[Now, I should be highjacking this thread and ask what top three things make bicycling safer. ]

corvuscorvax

Um. Those on the helmet thread are the only people "always just talking about helmets". Actual non-crazy people are capable of a multi-dimensional viewpoint on safety.

manapua_man

I'd imagine that riding in a manner that is appropriate for the conditions would top that before any pieces of safety gear.

The thread *is* about helmets though...

cbike

we, as in mankind/society/nations/etc ... not as the forum/thread participants.

cyclogeck

Wuh?

whatever happened to those shark fin helmet covers? Now those things will save lives. Just ask anyone else who works in an ER.

curbtender

If it's damaged, it's not worth wearing. Otherwise, if they need to wear a helmet to go for a ride with you, then it's perfectly fine.