I'm a gym rat, so I don't need a helmet. If the rest of you worked on your upper body strength, you wouldn't need one either.

I always put one on but I do my best to limit use to supporting my mirror and being a form for my helmet cover on cold rainy rides.

Ben

It does make sense, A head injury death usual happens in a state of coma; a quiet way to die. Death by COVID is pure hell.

Safety is very important to me! My behavior while cycling is at the top of the list. Wearing a helmet somewhere much farther down.

Flamed baseball cap with dark shades for me!

Bicycles need roll cages, think of all the broken clavicles saved!

Yes.

Everytime I ride the bike

How Many of you are Using a Helmet?

It's important to always use protection.

Why should you care about my choices?

Because if you collide with me and suffer a head injury, i'd feel terrible even if you chose not to wear a helmet.

Or if I was on a trail and came across you laying on the ground and bleeding from the head i'd have to call the EMTs and wait for them.

You don't live in a vacuum... just saying.

Just like Jerry used heroin and died from it having a impact on thousands of fans.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." -- Yogi Berra

This is one of those frequent cases where simply looking around you will net you more data in 1/2 hour than all week on a bike forum. It's pretty easy to see whether someone's wearing a helmet or not. Just make a mental note of it for a few days, and work out a rough percentage. Done.

only when i go into walmart. I turn it sideways with the light set on strobe just to be sure I'm fitting in with them peoples.

New helmet thread merged into existing helmet thread.

Nov 1, 2012 I went over the handlebars while wearing a Bell Skate helmet. Landed on the back of my head & right hip. Cracked interior foam. Certainly would've had a several day hospital stay if I'd not been wearing something covering the back of my head.

Why would you be troubled by other people's decisions?

When i pass a car crash and i'm not involved, i still feel bad for all concerned.

It's called empathy, something that is missing in many recently.

Because he possesses a sufficient level of basic logic, maybe.

I have empathy for people who are involved in auto accidents. I also don’t expect people to wear helmets just to reduce my psychic discomfort.

Do you still care about their choice the 999+ times out of a thousand when nothing happens and they're not wearing a helmet?

Should we care about their choice to ride a bike in the first place, when we come across them laying on the ground injured but didn't hit their head? Since it's more common than a serious head injury, after all.

How about the 999+ that leave a bar and make it home without killing someone? I guess the police should stop DWI stops.

Or not require seat belts or car seats for kids sine 999+ get home without being injured in an accident.

Or no masks because 999+ don't die from Covid.

You're confusing the issue. Think about it.

Drunk driving and refusing to wear masks are behaviors that can (and do) negatively impact innocent bystanders - sometimes with physical harm and death.

An adult who is not wearing a bike helmet (or auto safety belts) is putting no one at risk other than himself or herself. The fact that such completely personal decisions (which don't materially affect you at all) seem to cause you such consternation is just odd.

And pretty much everyone accepts that children, who are not yet able to process the information and make informed decisions, should be protected in ways that adults are not -- e.g., they are not allowed to purchase alcohol, and I think every state requires (as you pointed out) that they be strapped into vehicles.

I think the mask point fits in that a hemet 'hedges your bet' on safety out in public. With cooler weather, a mask gets more comfortable to wear and a helmet keeps you from burning the bald spot among other things...

I was hit by a drunk driver in 2009. Wasn't wearing a helmet. Had a broken scapula, a concussion and bruising all over, recovered OK but could've easily died on the spot. At the time I used a helmet occasionally, mostly for training and racing, and continued doing so.
About 2 years ago I started wearing a helmet on all my rides, even to the grocery store. Can't really say why, I don't believe a helmet can really save your life in most serious crashes. But it's better than nothing, and could prevent some brain injuries. I doesn't bother me much, so I wear it.
But I'm against mandatory helmet laws, and don't look down upon those who choose to don't wear a helmet.

But from a public health and public policy standpoint, masks and helmets are completely different: A mask protects the wearer to some degree, but it provides significant potential benefits to others by reducing the spread of potentially infected droplets coming from the wearer's mouth; a helmet only protects the person wearing it. So it is perfectly rational to concern yourself with other people's masking practices, as they may affect you; I won't say that it's irrational to concern yourself with whether other people wear helmets, but I sure can't imagine being as worked up over it as some people (like GlennR ) seem to be. It's like worrying about what other consenting adults do in their bedrooms: it doesn't affect me, so I don't really care.

What about if you are in the hospital and run up a large bill? Who do you think pays for it? If you have insurance then the fees go up, just like smokers pay more because they have more health issues. If you don't have insurance then tax payers pay for it.

And if you have family, it will impact them.

I see families riding all the time where the kids have helmets and the parents don't. First of it sets a bad example. And if the parent falls and suffers traumatic brain injury, they saddle their kids with a lifetime of taking care of them.

BTW.. A childhood friend was hit by a car at age 8 and was in a comma for 2 months. He has brain damage and now at the age of 64 lives in a home since both his parents passed and has been angry and bitter than he all had normal lives and his just sucks.

Would a helmet of helped... it couldn't hurt.

So your actions do have an impact on others, no man is an island.