I don't. I did when I had a road bike due to the difference in speed... and also the fact road bikes aren't as durable as CX bikes or mountain bikes... especially if you have to take evasive action and hit the dirt.

But on my CX bike... I'm perfectly comfortable taking the gamble...

I don't see any reason for the bike to be the difference. Same roads, same scalp, same driver, etc.

I don't wear one if I want to feel the wind in my hair that day.

I take reasonable precautions to ensure I'm safe from an impact. This means wearing a helmet at all times when I'm on a bike. I also have very good lighting and lot's of passive/reflective wear too.

If you go down, it'll happen so fast, you won't know what hit you. I went down at 15mph with a front blow-out and didn't have any time to react. Fortunately, the injuries were superficial.

I suppose I am riding slower than a roadie. My typical average speed is 15 to 17mph. In fact, in the last 5500 miles, I've averaged just over 16mph (5500 miles in 333 hours). You may not think a 16mph collision is significant, but when you're in one you will. Either way, there's a reason for the so-called Darwin awards. Continue to ride without a helmet and take your chances. It's not my life you're gambling with.

Yes. The asphalt on L Street is just as hard as the asphalt on the Garden Highway.

Never. Went down once (dog) and barely avoided hitting my head. If my head circumference had been artificially larger, who knows what kind of torque impacts on my neck and spine might have taken place on impact. I will throw my lot with the 15 million Dutch and 1 billion Chinese who go styrofoam-free, but I average only about 13 mph and would never, ever question the rationale of someone who wears.

yeah, until i'm a couple blocks from home, on my last climb. bell solar... might as well be bell sunhouse at that point, so on my back/rack it goes. no traffic, no problem

Every time. No exceptions.

I agree with Lot's Knife. When I was growing up we never wore helmets. I ride a lot more careful now compared to then. Like I don't jump stuff anymore. I don't jump off the bike at 15 mph like then. I don't ride it into big trees like I did then LOL. I need one back then not now.

More often I don't wear a helmet.
Depends upon weather,
if icy or muddy - wear it.
Also, later in the week or on weekends - more crazies on the road.

Always. Even when I commute I'm on my cx going roadie speeds and doing twisty downhills, often with traffic. It would seem silly to me not to, especially when I can see no downside to a helmet.

Helmets largely useless, and there is no useful statistical data which demonstrates their effectiveness. Helmet prosletyzers tend to make the same comments we've already started seeing -- "Darwin awards," etc.

However, if you take the time to read the research and analyze the facts, you will find that:

1. Bicycle helmets are ineffective against the type of injuries for which most people wear them -- high speed collisions.
2. Bicycle helmets can aggravate the most dangerous type of neurological injury by increasing rotation at impact.
3. If you wear a bicycle helmet but do not wear a helmet when driving your car, you are a hypocrite. The vast majority of head injuries occur in auto accidents, not bicycle accidents.
4. By far the most important thing you can do to reduce your (already miniscule) risk of accident is to take a road safety class such as those offered by LAB.
5. Quit worrying. Riding a bicycle is a very safe activity, contrary to what the helmet whiners would have you believe.

I have fallen and wacked my head on the side of a curb while turning right going very fast one night. I guess when I turned I leaned too far over and went down. You know in the cartoons when characters hit their heads and they see stars and birds etc..? I saw that. I wish I had a helmet on that night. I bought one immediately after that. Anyhow for better or for worse I do wear one.

I am not sure if anyone has heard this but 5 cyclists have been killed around here in the last week. Four in Quebec and one in Ontario. I don't know if they were all wearing helmets or not but from reading about the accidents I don't think having a helmet on would have helped them. I also believe helmets are not always going to help you if you in some accidents. In one case a 16 year old kid was killed doing bike tricks in the middle of the road when he was struck by a motorcycle at 10 pm the other night. As a result the motorbike driver and his passenger are in grave critical condition in the hospital with serious internal injuries and they both had helmets on.

Always.

It's required safety equipment on Camp Lejeune, NC where I work. So, if I ride my bicycle to work, I have to wear the helmet.

I don't wear one on my commute but it's really short. However, I keep thinking that I ought to. I wear one whenever I go on longer trips though. It probably doesn't make sense but I just feel better on weekend trips if I have one.

Yes. That was easy. Next question.

Yup. I'd go sans helmet on my motorcycle before the bicycle

Ever since I was hit by a VW in 2003, I have never ridden without a helmet (thankfully, during the accident I had one on!).

I've never understood this thing about helmets increasing certain types of injuries. How can it make your head rotate any more?

High speed impacts against flat surfaces I can see it not being as effective as people think, but when curbs and things get involved it must help somewhat, even if just to largen the point of impact.

Also helmets are constantly getting better. I know this is almost a different world from the commuting scene but full face helmets are coming with technology which is meant to mimic the action of the head/brain itself, and alow a certain amount of rotation. May see it gradually trickling through to other helmets.

First, I am not a helmet Nazi. Adults wearing them or not wearing them, I really don't care.

But I'll address your "fact" points just for sakes of a rebuttal:

1. People really wear helmets to prevent head injuries (which can occur at any speed). They can typically only conceive of this happening a high speed collision.
2. Certainly possible (if not probable), however if you hit hard enough for your body to force torque rotation of your head and neck, you're likely to sustain heavy impact injury to the skull anyway.
3. Bikes don't have seatbelts nor airbags. So, I don't see the hypocrisy that you infer.
4. Protective gear that you wear protects both on road and off.
5. On a bike you're likely moving at a pace where a crash impact will be similar to getting hit with a huge metal baseball bat at full swing. It isn't quite as safe an activity as playing tennis or reading a book.

I've flipped over the handlebars of a road bike without a helmet and off a motorcycle with a helmet and so, now I prefer wearing them.

I believe that little kids with their developing skulls should wear them, as the potential effects of brain damage (say from hitting on a curb) are absolutely heart-breaking enough to warrant the concern.


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I always wear a helmet unless I'm riding a bike I just put together or replaced some pieces on. Typically this ride is out my driveway ride two houses down and back to the driveway. If I"m taking it around town for a shakedown ride then on the helmet goes.

Never bother with one unless some event requires them.

I'm alive because I was wearing a helmet. I went through the back window of a Toyota Landcruiser. And I mean through.

I like pie.

then why don't marathon runners who are essentially are running between 5 and 6 min miles which is about as fast as I ride most mornings not made to wear helmets, there could be collisions between those runners and one may hit the curb or road hard.

Since the helmet has already saved me from a brain injury, the wife gets pretty peeved if I ride without it. (Oh, and by the way, when I wiped out, I was only moving at a walking pace and still managed to launch over the handlebars.)

I think one may make a case that the bike can make a different in that riding in the drops in a road bike puts your center of gravity further forward and makes it easier to do an endo.