The Weak Link

Why I ride with a helmet:


The End

Katie Jean

Way back before bike helmets were invented I was riding on the sidewalk (I was a kid, and that's what we did) and hit a sprinkler head. Bike stopped, I didn't, and I sumersaulted over the handlebars onto the sidewalk. Gave myself a nice concussion with dizziness, headaches, nausea, the whole nine yards. I was probably riding about 10 mph. Do I wear a helmet now? You bet. Why in the world would I want to go through that again, with all the knowledge we have now about what repeated small concussions can do to a person. Of course, it is your decision, but you asked for outside opinions!

ahsposo 

What a great pic, WL!

Kip

In 1982 I bought a Bell bicycle helmet and rode with it (and several replacements) for years without getting into a situation where I needed to rely on it for protection. Then in 2007 a dog came after me and ran under my front wheel. I hit the dog, then the pavement. My helmet did its job sustaining a large crack as it protected my head. I had a slight headache, that's all. After 25 years my helmet wearing paid off.
I did not realize how fragile our heads are until a few years ago when a family member tripped, fell and hit her head on the street. Due to the resulting migraines, memory loss and other cognitive difficulties she was unable to continue her work as a neonatal RN and had to retire early. Now I am even more vigilant about wearing my helmet.
A cynical fellow rider says that another name for non-helmet wearing riders is "organ donor.'

dahut

According to some, 3/4 of all cycling incidents resulting in injury are head traumas. You are to be commended for being a trend setter and wearing your helmet for a quarter of a century. Your family member also makes a case for surgically implanted helmets for all people on the planet.
MHL's are coming, I'm sure of it.

Timtruro

the 'nanny state' strikes again...........you better get ready for your bicycle license test, that's next.

TromboneAl

You can do an experiment to test your reasoning. Stand in the street at a distance of six feet (or a distance equal to your height) from a curb. Stand with your back to the curb. Keeping your back perfectly straight, and your head forward, let yourself fall back so that the back of your head hits the curb.

BillyBob1

If you don't care about your health don't wear the helmet. I've had two falls and both times the helmet was fractured, but not my skull. One at slow speed and the other when a car hit me and I did have a concussion. Roll the dice mate.

Bill

MinnMan

Oh god, I stopped reading this thread ages ago, but some evil tractor beam has drawn me back.
Maybe part of the issue is not whether it's better to wear a helmet (it is), but rather that helmets don't do their job as well as they should. If one does research on the relative safety of different helmets, one finds precious little information. CU has an article on its web site about children's helmets, but their older work on adult helmets doesn't cover helmet designs presently available and doesn't seem to be available on the web

AzTallRider

They look so joyful - you are lucky man, WL.

dahut

Naw, its not the effectiveness of helmets that is at the core of this matter. That provides for some great nit-picking, and we often get way too caught up in that. But even the staunchest non believer concedes that helmets are effective some of the time, under some circumstances. They also admit, as do most pro helmet advocates, that the helmet is not the key to safety - YOU ARE. In other words, everyone is pretty sure they do something useful... and that they also have limits.

What is really at the core of this continuous debate is that many would force helmets upon us upon us, for the contrary reason that it is "for our own good." Contrary? Yes. This is contrary because the advocates of helmets, themselves, admit the odds are exceedingly long that anything will happen to you will riding a bike.

Just go look at their websites - their own statistics support that you will be injured or die from myriad other ways, long before you succumb to a cycling accident. Or listen to them speak... " I wear a helmet, just in case...."
Sure, bad things happen to good people... we already know that. But they happen to people on ladders, riding horseback, swimming at the lake, or sick with the flu. And yes, occasionally, on a bike.

Hello? Any news there?

Yet, here they come with their constant, droning song that not only MUST you wear them, but you should be thankful to them for looking out for you. Oh, and you should also be happy to pay for the privilege of doing all this. Worst of all? You are a nincompoop if you resist.

The assumption on their part is simply this: Anyone who doesn't like helmets, or who may not be convinced of their efficacy, is too stupid to be allowed to look after themselves. Obviously, such mental cases need someone with more (self-appointed) sense than they have to take control of the matter, for their own good. "Social babysitters," I like to call them.

Just between us, I stopped needing a babysitter a long time ago. I prefer to make up my own mind.