Look up "head trauma" or "traumatic brain injury". No matter how careful YOU are, the actions of someone else can cause a fall. Wacking your head on the pavement can easily be a life-altering event.

One detail that I did not think of is that if you are in an accident that stops your
bicycle suddenly, your legs get brushed up as you go over the handle bars. This
starts your body rotating and the most likely landing point is the point on the head.
When it happened to me on a downhill stretch at a high rate of speed, I went
flipping over the handlebars and landed at the top (technically at that point the
bottom) of my head. Both my helmet and my bike were toast. Both the top tube
and the down tube of the bike were bent down about 3 inches behind the steering,
at a significant angle that I'd never seen in a bike frame before. There was nothing
left of my helmet but the chin strap with a couple of small pieces of foam on each
end of it, dangling from my glasses (when I found them).

Landing on my head wasn't the end of my motion. I did take a serious beating with
thumps. I did make it to work on time thanks to someone who saw it happen and
offered me a ride. There was plenty of visible damage even after I cleaned off the
blood. A woman at work said "Good morning" and I answered "Good morning.....sort
of," and she had a good laugh at that. It took a few days before I finally got the
lenses in my glasses both pointing in the same direction again.

But I was really impressed that one part that wasn't at all sore was the top of my
head. The helmet was in pieces, but in a really nice way that saved impact to my
head. I don't know if that is a part of the design, but I am really thoroughly grateful
that I was wearing it on that ride, as I usually do.

I certainly don't mind anyone else not wearing theirs, but I'm going to be wearing
mine. I did post most of this in helmet thread before, but I think there is a bit of
value to it. I might not even have been wearing a helmet that day if I hadn't heard
so many people talk about the importance of doing that.

Hey. No irony. I flew over the handlebars on my Beach Cruiser once. (I was doing something incredibly stupid, which would invite much heckling here, so I shall not digress.) Somehow, during that seemingly slow motion experience, I was able to review the choices for which part of my head I wanted to offer to the ground. I chose my cheek (no breakage), and it still left me stunned.

...I've said before that I don't wear a helmet, but I'm thinking more and more that it is a good idea. I also heard this recently from a Dr. who was lecturing on PBS about reducing aging and living longer. His argument for the helmet was that it reduces your chances of senile dementia. Apparently, old "minor" head injuries can add up.

I was checking some out at the Costco today. Not sure if that's the best quality, but, dang! There were a lot of vents on those!

Good post that.

A helmet doesn't have to compres to protect you. In that accident I took a very heavy and direct hit to the head and then a lot of scrapes as I rolled. Even though my helmet didn't compress as such it spread the force of that impact out over a larger area, and even after the liner cracked, the shell kept it together and it still protected me from whatever else I hit. Had the impact have been direct onto my head, I don't really want to think what the consequences might have been. Don't assume I had no benefit from wearing a helmet just because it didn't crush. It takes a lot of energy to break a helmet, and the energy it took to break mine was energy that would otherwise have been directly on my head. I know that helmet saved me from some kind of injury. How bad an injury I'm not sure, but it definately saved me from something.

Incidentally after that I decided to only wear hard shell bmx/skate-type helmets, just because they're quite a bit heavier and are much more solid. When I put my helmet on it's very important to me that I feel like I'm wearing something that really will protect me if I need it to, and my TSG Evolution does make me feel very safe. I haven't done a ride without wearing a hard shell helmet or my full face helmet since then (probably 5 or 6 years ago), and I never will.

I wear a helmet 99.76% of the time. Once in a great while, I can'r resist the temptation to ride 3 blocks to the post office without one. I hope that .24% doesn't bite me in the ass someday.

Here's my pro helmet story:

Whenever I ride to work, mountain bike, or ride my road bike, I always wear one without any hesitation. A few years ago, I was mountain biking by myself.....and thats about all I remember until I drove to my friends apartment. I had been laying unconscious for an hour and a half or so (estimated by friends), somehow managed to get to my car, put bike on roof, drive 10 miles home. I had a concussion, broken helmet, and a broken scapula.


Everyone knows that's what gypsy tears are for

Has anyone ever tried to destroy a helmet? I did once with a hammer, (the helmet had a small crack in it and was old so I wanted to bin it but didn't want someone to reuse out of the garbage), It took some amazing punishment from the hammer. So for those that have had helmets break after an impact you sure must had hit the ground with some force

I am still not that comfortable descending in rain on that bike but it is not too bad.
I have crashed so many times that at this point I just shrug it off (mostly). I rode past the spot I crashed a couple days later. The only lasting effect seems to be my decision to shorten my commute from 28 each way to 14-15. Hopefully, the shorter distance will keep me from making moronic decisions due to being tired. Especially considering that 99% of my accidents occur on long commutes. My recreational rides have very low accident rates. I think it is due to being very early in the morning (tired) and after work (tired).

the 1st and second page had a lot of posts about how Helmets aren't very effective, but I knew a guy who was hit by an Escalade and the back wheel ran over his head.

Helmet was on. Head was OK.

Try and tell me not having a helmet produces the same result.

Don't know if this will help but here's some information from SNELL's FAQ:

"What's the difference between a $100 Snell certified helmet and a $400 Snell certified Helmet."

-While helmets are primarily a protective device, the true protective capabilities of a helmet, if needed will only come into play for about 2 to 4 milliseconds during the lifetime of the helmet. This leaves a lot of time for that helmet to be doing nothing more than sitting around on a users head. Producing a product that meets the standards is not really very difficult. Producing a helmet that people will buy and wear, and will consistently meet the standards is significantly more difficult. The Snell standards do not measure factors like comfort, ventilation, brand recognition or style, and only indirectly look at fit, weight, materials and workmanship. These are factors that frequently drive helmet cost.

If you want to checkout more of their faq here's the link: SNELL

testosterone + male insecurity = poor choices

Wear a helmet.

Lot of doom and gloom here.

You can be in a car with a seat belt and get destroyed any day of the year, any minute of the day. Bikes are no different in my mind.

Ride defensively and be careful. Wear a helmet if you feel it keeps you safe too.

I would never criticize any other adult for not wearing a helmet, just as I'd never harass any other adult for smoking. They're grown-ups, they mow their lawns, pay their taxes, and vote, they should be allowed to make bonehead decisions concerning their own health and safety. And I'll defend their right to make those decisions.

Just as long as I'm allowed to be as hi-vis-safety-vest-&-helmet-dorky as I want to be. Hey, I'm 55 years old next week... I don't care how cool, chic, hip, or stylish I'm not being. I consider myself well-dressed if I remember to wear pants.

I ride a lot in South Carolina, nice quiet rural two lane blacktop just across the river from my home. There is no moto helmet law in SC, and on my afternoon climbs to the lake, I get passed by all manner of motorcyclists, who not only aren't wearing helmets, but HAVE helmets strapped to their pillion seats! (In case they have to cross back into GA... I see 'em sometimes at the river, pulled over en masse, donning or doffing their helmets. Weird.)

I was talking to one such rider at the dam's welcome center. He tapped his head and said "You know, ya ain't gotta wear that thing up this way," talking about my very style-less Bell Image lid.

"Yeah, I know," I replied. "Thing is, my brain is worth more to me than yours is to you." Then I rode away. Good thing he was on a Harley... Once he realized I'd kinda-sorta insulted him, he might have caught up to me on a faster bike...

Also it's not just about looking "cool".

A lot of helmets that actually protect you are heavy and hot as hell. If you pass out and crash that kinda sucks too doesn't it?

+1
I wear it to protect against penetrating injuries and soft tissue injuries which could be bad (as one poster said when going through a windshield), but I have little faith that it will protect in a major impact. The skull and fluid around your brain do a phenomenal job protecting from concussions. The types of wrecks and forces involved that cause serious brain injury are generally beyond what a helmet can absorb, the exception being where you have a large amount of force applied to a small area that might cause skull fractures, like if you hit the edge of a curb. In those instances a helmet can help redistribute and absorb the impact. Bike helmets are not motorcycle helmets.

Bike helmet science is largely anecdotal. Mostly what we hear is "my helmet saved my life" because a user sees a crushed or fractured helmet and assumes the worst of what would happen to his head without one.

The ski industry is the only one I know of that takes uniform records of head injuries and has studied that data. Every injury that involves ski patrol at a US ski mountain is documented in the same standardized way. Two whitepapers came out in the last three or four years that brought the efficacy (or lack thereof) of helmets into focus. I don't recall the exact names, but one was out of Sweden and one out of Sugarbush VT.


All that said, I wear one every ride because I'll take any help, even if marginal, that I can get.

I think everyone agrees that hitting the ground hard enough with or without helmets will seriously injure or kill you. But I think the key to remember is NOTHING will keep you 100% safe. Seatbelts don't prevent all fatalities, nor do airbags. But they all help. I'd rather the helmet take the abuse of cuts, scrapes, and dents than my head. And in the major accidents, I'd rather take the chance WITH the helmet then without. With a helmet, there is a larger chance of less damage then without, where you have almost a certainty of injury.

Buddy of mine is a police officer of 18 years. We got on the subject one day about seat belts and their safety, which carries with it the same arguments you see here in this thread. His response floored me, but summed it up pretty well. It was: "In all my years I've never had to unbuckle a corpse" . I jokingly said "you just have someone else do it?" to which he said that in all the accidents he'd responded to no one wearing a seat belt was ever dead at the scene. Some of his mororcycle accident stories will make you run out and buy the first helmet you see.

-R

The issue is not that simple

Last year we had a cyclist and a roller-blader collide on a MUP.

Guess who was wearing a helmet, who wasn't and who died?



Kinda makes the "organ donor" argument a little bit ironic, eh?

- Oh and BTW, I guess the OP's question isn't going to get answered huh?

Suffice it to say, in the general population of the USA/Canada, more ride without helmets than with, but in certain circles they are more popular. In few places, even those with strictly enforced MHL's, not everybody wears them. I've heard up to 90% wearing rates (but those reports have been in the media and might be stretching it) but I've seen studies that show 75 - 80% maximum usage. Makes sense. There's going to a faction of people who will not go along with the majority no matter what the issue is. World wide, usage is far below 50%. In most places it's effectively 0%.

In my MHL province wearing rate is about 50%. I re-read a news clipping I've kept that was printed 3 years before our MHL was enacted (a dozen years ago) where an official mentioned voluntary wearing rates stall at about 50% and laws are needed to get them higher. When they enacted our law and there was enforcement, ridership dropped about 30% and overall usage rate bumped up to 75% because those who didn't want to wear a helmet just stopped riding. These days, enforcement is lax, ridership is up and the rates have dropped to 50/50

But you're still riding, give yourself a pat on the back.

The helmet is a good place to mount my mirror, then i can use any glasses i choose. The wife and kids would freak if i didn't wear a helmet too.

The pro-helmet wearers will usually quote some anecdotal evidence of helmet benefit. The anti-helmet crowd will pull up studies that prove thier point. And a helmet thread on this will resurface here at least monthly *yawn*

The only firm opinion i have on the subject is legislation. Helmets use should not be manditory.

Yeah, I have. I've actually tried it with both microshell and hard shell helmets. The microshell took a lot of stick but the hard shell helmet was stupidly strong. My ultimate goal was to break through the shell, and even with a fairly hefty hammer it took me about 5 minutes of hitting the thing absolutely as hard as I could to even get a small crack to appear. Hard shell helmets really are ridiculously strong... That's why I wear one!

I tried the same with an old motorbike helmet as well, again trying to just break through the shell. That was absolutely impossible to do though, no matter how hard I tried!

Only one way to find out.

I don't wear a helmet because I 1: ride a recumbent, and the lines of force needed for me to end up hitting my head are unlikely and 2: my strategy for dealing with temperature changes involves adjustments to my head coverage - adding/removing hats and the like; often I don, remove, or change hats several times on a ride in order to adjust to road and weather changes.

If I road a road bike, or a MTB on trails? I would wear a helmet. Much more likely to hit my head with one of those. I don't require others to, though.

That said, I do not ride without an ANSI II reflective vest on. I twitch at the sort of recklessness embodied in people who ride their bikes without donning reflective clothing.

I am getting back into cycling since before I needed to shave.
Actually the last bike I rode was a motorcycle. The "brain bucket" I used to wear (by law) needed a DOT sticker on it to show that it was certified. I am surprised that bicycle helmets don't need these.
The Giro I have is made out of styrofoam (or something like it) covered with a thin plastic shell which isn't even glued to the foam; it's held on by a thin strip of tape. If I took off the shell and epoxied it to the foam, I wonder if it would provide better protection, or should I shop for a better helmet?