+1
I remember when nobody over here wore a helmet. Millions of people, young and old were able to ride their bicycles to school, work or for pleasure.

+1

As to the rest, great date with my ballerina! WooHoo!! And please! No more images of Safety Sam yelling about a condom(s). THAT would have been a mood killer! (but funny right now!)

That fold up helmet looks to double as a jock?! Seriously, As with MC flipface helmets, I'd be worried about the hinge mechanism holding up long enough under impact. I've seen some MC flippers pop off/up because of the 'convienant' hinge mech.

Park Lady story...THAT is scary! Some people...

Lights. Thats the real problem this time of year isn't it?

My opinion of helmets dropped after watching a commercial in Melbourne about how important it was to wear a helmet. The way they proved their point was by showing X-rays of broken arms and legs and listing how many people had broken bones while cycling.

Way to use irrelevant information.

I'm with Oboeguy on this. I think it's stupid not to wear a helmet since you have no way of predicting when an accident will occur. As the OP himself stated, without a helmet you are taking a risk. All that being said, I do sometimes go bareheaded myself, too.

Not to be a helmet nazi, but this statement is completely illogical. The fact that there exist bike rides where people are not injured is absolutely meaningless when assessing the value of wearing a helmet. Most people will never have a serious accident on their bike in their entire lifetime. If you do, and again you have no way of knowing if or when you will be in an accident, you want to be wearing a helmet.

Oh goodie. . .another none-too-well-disguised battle in the Helmet War. It's all about our own personal risk assessments. Wear one. . .don't wear one. << No whining about the head injury thing. >>

"sNo dmnot wr a hlmmmmmmmnt! jIt/s yrrrrrrrr abrainnnnnnnn." That's about how a statement justifying the failure to use a helmet sounds to me. See, I used the creative spelling to give a better idea how people talk when their brains get scrambled. I'm creative that way because I'm smart enough to care about my dome. I don't give a crap how sensitive people are about their decision not to wear helmets. Only dumbass, irresponsibe people fail to take a simple safety measure. Oh, and if the dumbass doesn't have insurance, we all get to help pay for his freedom to make stupid decisions through increased health care costs and higher premiums. Maybe it's true that it's distracting to have somebody yelling at you to get a helmet. So, wear a helmet and people won't yell at you to put one on.

^^^ The laundry called and said all your state issue brown shirts were pressed.

Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to make you think that the government needs to require helmet use. I JUST THINK THAT SMART PEOPLE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEMSELVES, and they don't impose the results of their bad decisions on others. It's really just stupid to have a safety device available and to not take advantage of it (like a light or a helmet). Stupid people make their problems the problems of others out of some blind theory that it's their "right" to do so. Sure, it's your right to make stupid decisions. It's also your right to own the consequences of your stupid decisions yourself.

My post wasn't to start another "debate" on helmets. Whatever. I make my decisions. I DO take responsability for any of my actions. It is my decision. I don't live under you roof and I have excllent insurance, so I will make my decisions my way. Thank you anyway.

The bigger problem with higher insurance is the aging, obese population. THAT is what is making your insurance go up. So work on convincing the lead butts around you onto bikes and THEN give them the Bucket Speech. You never know...some will, some won't. Not up to you anyway.

Some people want to be told what to do, some want to tell others what to do. I am neither. That scares the first group and angers the second...

I wasn't trying to convince anybody of anything. I was just stating my opinion. Frankly, I agree that the aging obese population contributes greatly to high premiums and greater health care costs. But I'll never be able to get some lard ass to hop on a bike and watch his diet, and I won't try. They'll make their own stupid decisons, too. Do you take your chances in the dark without a light on the road, too? Or does the fact that you don't live under my roof and have excellent insurance make you feel good about not using a light, as well.

By the way, I re-read your original posting. I really can see how somebody yelling at you like that could be irritating. Maybe even dangerous. I'm confident it can really put a wrinkle in your day. Getting bashed in the head when a piece of plastic and styrofoam even might have prevented such serious injury can put a real wrinkle in your day, too. I certainly don't yell at those I see who decide not to wear a helmet. Glad to hear you're able to take care of business if you wreck. Hope you don't, anyway.

I know its not a popular decision to be sans helmet (just ask my mom!). It happens...

Id rather NOT wreck (who wants to?!) so yeah...mainly didn't like the unsafe swerve to tell me Im being unsafe. A bit of irritating irony that is...

and I LOVE bright lights! S'pecially since I'm usually out and about by 5-530 am at the latest...

Excellent!! First time I've ever been out with a ballet type girl. Intelligent, funny, well spoken and BEAUTIFUL! I may be out of my league here but I'm enjoying myself like I haven't in a long time...

Oh yeah...I love headlights. After almost being t-boned by another bike balancing beer on his hip while blowing his stop sign ( i had none) it kinda freaked us both out. I had lights but he was a little, uhm.., altered so missed it till the last minute I guess...

Oh get over your bad self. Look at the stats, better to be helmetless than fat.

What "stats", specifically? I'll look it up. Why don't you point me in the right direction. Maybe it is better to be helmetless than fat. Maybe it's just better to be helmetted and in shape. I don't care if you think I need to get over my bad self. Thing is, if you ever find your bad self laying down on the curb twitching and what's left of your jacked up brain is still able to experience thought, try to remember how much better off you are that at least you're not fat.

Funny how these helmet debates go. Usually along the lines of "Yeah, wear a helmet if you want, or don't, you're an adult; make your own decisions", followed shortly by an influx of smug, ignorant, self-satisfied morons writing about how superior they are because they're not going to "get their brains scrambled" or "have to learn how to read all over again".

The only surprise here is that we got in a page-and-a-half before the first moron arrived.

BTW, there was a cyclist death in my neighborhood last week. Fell while drafting and struck his head on the curb. Doubtless there was some twitching, but being as the poor bloke was wearing a helmet, the helmet Nazis don't get to gloat over it.

yeah six, they'll probably be the ones talking funny when they find out the hard way that their holy temple of styrofoam just doesn't stand up as advertized.

So, you figure I'm a self-satisfied moron just because I express my opinion that it's a better idea to wear a helmet than not. Okay. Am I a self-satisfied moron because I think lights on the road are a good idea, too? I feel pretty confident safety equipment might give me some slight advantage over none at all. Could be wrong. I guess. I think you're just sniping because you think you can get away with it. Because you think yours is a popular opinion. I stand by my opinion. Mine makes sense.

It's not that we think your a self satisfied moron, we just think your a moron.

I grew up in Detroit in the 1970s and 80s, and I rode my K-Mart Huffy BMX bike everywhere. None of us had helmets back then, and as clumsy as I was, I can't recall a single one of my injuries where I hit my head. Arms - check. Legs - check. Head - nope. I've never had a concussion, and until 2002 when I broke my nose while whitewater rafting, I'd never had a head injury.

But I still wear a helmet? Does it make sense? I don't know. My family was one of the first in our neighborhood to start wearing seat belts, and those seem to make sense. Then again, I've been in 11 car crashes since I was 17 (that was 21 years ago for those who like to keep count), and I've only been in 3 bike crashes where I was seriously injured, and 2 of them were last year. None involved my head. We instinctively protect our head, so unless one is hit unawares, head injuries aren't that common.

To me, it makes sense to wear one, but logically? Bikes are safer than cars, and most of the serious injuries and deaths do not involve head trauma. Motorcycle head injuries are more common, and much more deadly - but then they also travel 3-4 times the speed of a motorcycle, so the force of any injury can be up to 9-16 times greater than on a bike.

Even in the most recent bike fatality in Portland, it's debatable whether a helmet would have saved the victim - he rode into a telephone pole, and died of blunt trauma to the head. Sounds clear-cut, right? Well, I think his 0.38 blood alochol level might have had more to do with his death than the lack of a helmet.

I still believe in helmets, but I don't think it's right to yell "hey, get a helmet" to passing cyclists - I save that for the guys riding the wrong way in the bike lane aimed straight at me.

That is to say, I yell "hey, wrong way", not "get a helmet".

I've never considered wearing a helmet as wrong. I was just razzing the resident nazi. I wear a helmet when out mountainbiking. These styrofoam helmets for cyclists are good at preventing concussions, and since I like to get crazy when off road I choose to wear one then. I don't have confidence in one saving my life. If they were that effective, then it would be alright to wear one while on motorcycles.

You forgot "smug" and "ignorant", too. And it's not because you have an opinion on helmet use; it's because you've said that anyone who disagrees with your opinion is an irresponsible dumbass. And thanks for asking.

Helmet Wars. . .too easy!

It's like yelling, "Hillary Clinton" in a crowded theatre. Still and all the term "nazi" didn't appear until the 29th message, by no means a record.