acroy

check out the helmet poll on Living Car Free forum....

crtreedude 

ARGH!!!!!!!

Requested new feature by BF - can I please have a feature where any subject line that includes anything about helmets is not visible...!

<flame suit one>

I live in a free country where helmets are not required and they figure we can make our own decisions.

I don't wear a helmet - I don't want to confuse the bulls into thinking I am an alien or something - they hate aliens!

Adamjc86

I used to occasionally wear helmets - until I hit the side of a car doing 25mph. The helmet obtained a slight ding, I'm positive it wouldn't have permanently damaged my head or brain, but it sure would have hurt.

I now always, always ride with a helmet. Since I started wearing sunglasses for the bugs/dirt/sun, it makes me look less geeky. Which is always nice, as sunglasses on their own usually have the opposite effect.

squeakywheel

Yes, I wear a helmet. It isn't so much that I'm worried about me crashing at speed. Mostly, I'm worried about being hit by a car. I figure in that case, I'm going down on the pavement fast. Most likely my head will take a good bounce.

Edit: Oh, and I always made my kids wear helmets on their bikes. I have to wear a helmet or appear as a hypocrite.

pieholden

i always wear one. It's a small sacrifice and I feel a lot more safer (read, confident) with one on. If you don't wear one that's fine but arguing the benefits of not wearing one is just silly.

Quickbeam

I always wear a helmet. Somewhat reluctantly at times (especially when it hot). But I do always wear one. I have no probelm with folks that choose not to wear one. But in my opinion it's not much of a sacrifice to wear one and there's really very little benefit to not wearing one.

ch9862

I thought you guys rode in Humvees in Baghdad .

lima_bean

always wear mine.. Although I have absolutely no disillusions about the supposed safety it gives. I know how limited it is.

chipcom 

Yep, went over the bars and killed a motor home with my head years ago - didn't start wearing a helmet afterward. No matter how safe you think you are, injury and death are unavoidable.

gear

Wearing a helmet is kind of like believing god exists. If you find out you were right to do it, there's plenty of upside. If you find out you were wrong not to, you're screwed.

crtreedude 

As long as you don't do things you wouldn't do without a helmet, you probably have a net benefit - however, if you ride faster and take more risks - you would be better off not being confident - but careful.

There was an interesting study that found that helmet usage has a downside - people then ride faster and in situations they normally wouldn't because they feel safer - which in some studies has caused MORE people to be injured. We don't have that with seatbelts because the law limits our behavior with cars so people don't think "I will put this seatbelt on and then I will be just fine at 100 MPH"

SaCaCh

Sounds about right, no helmet and no god for me

Well not entirely true, I don't wear one on my commute, but do on my extended weekend rides. I guess I am familar enough with my commute and its rural roads that I don't figure I need it, but I go on alot busier roads on the weekend.

crtreedude 

I am old enough I know I am going to die eventually. It is a good place to be. It is not a question of if, it is when and where. And I don't want where to be a nursing home. I have already picked out my last words based on probabilities....

"OOOPS!"

a runner up is:

"I knew this would happen eventually..."

My family is grown, we are financially secure - and most likely I am going to be eaten by a boa constrictor... Many, many of my friends will probably die before me rotting on their coaches. Wear helmets if you like, but living based on fear of "what if" is not living in my opinion - it is dying slowly.

just my dos colones

crtreedude 

The above is not to say wearing a helmet means you are living in fear - but for some, they are.

Kirk Turtle

No. And please don't try to pass a law requiring it.

HardyWeinberg

It's post maintenance/repair/rebuild spins around the block w/o a helmet that are always my closest calls. 3x I think I thought I had the bike ready to go, head out for quick test, wheel locks up right out of the driveway and bike catches some amount of air. No brain splatter yet. Each time I say 'I should really wear a helmet next time I do this'.

climbhoser

That Pascal guy sure was a smart dude.

I've never ridden a bike without one, not since I was 14. I've taken falls that have me convinced I would have died or at least f0ked myself up pretty good if I didn't have a helmet.

Example: jumping a double jump at 15...big double, lots of speed, and the backside of the second hit was a long, long downslope (probably 17 ft.). We were pushing it harder and harder when I finally aired it out so hard I landed flat at the bottom and exploded off of my bike. I came down head first and was stopped almost immediately by a rock in front of my head. I cracked the crap out of my helmet. My neck was tweaked, but my head was fine other than a headache. No helmet there could have been death or concussion or otherwise bad.

Second scenario...bombing a wide open trail at about 45 mph on my mtn. bike. I was going for a no brakes descent. Every 100 ft. were water bars and I was soaking them up just fine until I hit one and my hand popped off the handlebar. I don't know why it happened, but it did. So, here I am, handlebar in my armpit, cruising at 45 mph and I don't have a rear brake, either (Magura ran out of fluid days before), and I can't push myself back onto my bar because my nuts are sitting on the top tube. Couldn't steer, either, and I hit a tree. I ejected myself to the left in anticipation and flew about 30 ft. in the air. I tucked, luckily, and landed on my shoulder, but the head was pretty close. I tore my AC ligaments, gone, dead, no more, and I'm convinced that without a helmet I would have messed up the back of my head pretty good, too. My helmet looked like my shoulder: hamburger.

I don't understand why not wear one...**** happens!

crtreedude 

How about - I don't drive cars at two hundred miles an hour - but if I do, I will wear a helmet and anything to protect my life.

Had to check - yes, this is about commuting. Not testing bikes after fixing thing, not doing jumps, not mountain biking. I do believe the original question was about commuting - now, if you commuting by doing the above - you must might have a point - but what a commute!

edbikebabe

I always wear one. Never did when I was a kid, but then I started riding with a club. No helmet, no ride. Then it just became habit & now I feel naked without it. Plus - by law my niece has to, so it seems right to be an example.

hubcap

A good chunk of my commute is in heavy traffic that is moving faster than me. I wear a helmet not because I doubt my ability to control my bike, but because of the cagers around me that I don't see and/or can't control. Plus, I want to set a good example for my son.

Charlene

I always wear my helmet, commuting, leisurely rides on the trails, etc. Hubby and I have an ongoing debate about wearing helmets, he wears it sporadically. I wear it for a few reasons:

In BC it is mandatory. I don't want to get fined.
I look fabulous in my pink Bell Vela.
I believe that it would lessen the extent of a brain injury in case of an accident. I work in rehab and some of our clients have had their lives changed significantly because they weren't wearing a helmet during an cycling accident. Even an accident at slow speed can affect things like memory, comprehension, judgement, temperment, etc. For me, a sweaty head is a very small price to pay to prevent or lessen injury.
And helmets are available cheaply and in many different styles, so it is about self-expression too.

JSChance

Almost always wear one. Didn't use to, but most of the group rides and events require them, so I've gotten i the habit of having one on my head. Doesn't make any sense to break the habit, so I continue to wear one on my commutes.

Besides, it's a good place to mount lights and mirrors (the double stick tape was hard on my hair otherwise).

Winter76

I crashed last Thursday, I'll make a thread about it later when I get a picture of the crash site and what happened to my helmet. But suffice to say that I got distracted at 20mph and I ran into a large obstacle on the MUP and I ended up flat on my back and my head slammed into the pavement. My helmet broke apart but I was fine. I was a little confused for the next day but that has cleared and I'm back on teh bike with my new helmet. I think if I wasn't wearing one I'd be dead.

That's interesting, I never think, 'I'm afraid of dying ' when I put my helmet on. Instead I think 'Man this new helmet smells better than my old one'.

jimmuter

That's true. Mortality rates for people who wear helmets are exactly equal to those for folks who don't. 100%

hubcap

ha, so true!