Not sure that you understood my meaning. Risk amongst cyclists as well as motorists varies related to their activity and behaviour. The risk of an adult recreational cyclist who rides MUPs at 8-10 mph is not equivalent to the risk taken on by those who ride like Danny MacAskill. A teen male driver with a hot Camaro is likely at higher risk than most experienced adult (sober) drivers. Yes, you are right that there is always a probability of an incident for which protection would help. At what point on this probability curve should we force protection, either by legislation or shaming?

You know, I'm too much of a libertarian to believe that we should force anyone to wear a helmet. I think we should present the information and encourage all cyclists (and motorcyclists) to wear helmets but I'm against mandatory helmet laws (at least for those 18 years of age or older, I think there should be laws requiring children to wear safety gear) because I think people should have the right to make their own choices. It's just going to be their own heads which get smashed like a ripe watermelon on the pavement. That's why it never bothers me if other cyclists don't wear helmets, but I will always wear mine and encourage those I care about to wear them, too. And just about everyone I know wears them.

I can't drive your bike for you, so I can only guarantee that for me.

You can sit there in all seriousness and guarantee that you'll never, ever get into an accident on your bike?

If loud pipes save lives, maybe I should drive my car past THEIR house at 2am with open exhaust on my cars, too!

Imagine where you would be without a helmet.
Stay safe kids.

Isn't there a sticky thread on the A&S list for just this kind of discussion/ranting/trolling on this specific topic?:troll:

I grew up riding a bike everywhere before helmets, other than hair nets, were thought of, and don't feel at all uncomfortable riding without one. On the motorcycle I learned using a helmet and feel very uncomfortable riding without one. I find this interesting. Makes me think that conditioning from early on prescribes the behavior. As a Libertarian I must agree that must be free to choose and the gov. has no right to put its hands on my head. With that said, if something should happen (highly unlikely as it may be) the gov. should not pick up the tab.
I need to add that my friend, Dave, was an ER doc for 20 years and he often said that all motorists should be wearing helmets. Yes, even in cars and trucks, my friends. Plenty of head injuries from auto wrecks, and plenty of deaths from those head injuries. Ironically enough he died in an auto wreck from a head injury. Yep, belt, air bags, the whole shebang all worked...to an extent. Still nailed his head on the A pillar and it killed him. Prophetic.

I imagine I'd be riding to work :p

I've got nothing against them though, if it helps you, wear them!

If anyone should be a helmet advocate, it is a person whose life was saved by a helmet. I am one such person. But I am not a helmet advocate. I wore a bike helmet before everyone else. I started in 1978. No one was wearing helmets on bikes then. Pretty much the only helmet made for cycling was the Bell Biker. It weight 17 ounces and had a shell of Lexan.

I wore it on every ride, and in 1981, I got hit head-on by a car. The impact was severe enough that it sent me flying in the air, I'm told. I don't remember the accident or the ambulance ride. I was knocked out for a while. My helmet was damaged, of course, and I replaced it. I believe it saved my life, though I don't think this can be proven.

We lived for a century without helmets. Well, you could argue that some died for lack of them. I don't know. Millions still ride without them. Sometimes I leave my home not intending to ride a bike. And then I decide to ride the bike share program. Lack of a helmet won't stop me. That would be silly. But when I have a helmet, I wear it. I see people without helmets. I don't moralize. I don't even know if they're taking an undue chance, so it would be arrogant to say anything.

Ice skating is likely the best comparison. Many forms of ice skating, some probably need helmets (hockey, short-track speed skating. Some probably don't (long-track speedskating, skating under the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center)

Same with cycling. And horseback riding. And jogging. And...

Couldn't agree more.

I've broke one helmet on the mountain bike, and another on the roadie. I'm a believer in helmets now.

1. Bicyclists don't generally give themselves head wounds, someone else is almost always at fault.
2. Healthcare system is a bit of a joke/scam. They will charge millions for an operation but turn around and charge 50k for it to an insurance company. The problem here is 100% bad government not keeping things in control, not something inherent to healthcare. Government refusing to pay ludicrous prices for healthcare or allow them to charge them to uninsured people is a necessary first step to ever get rid of ludicrous pricing.

Healthcare is basically a defacto monopoly, that is what makes the prices ludicrous. They can graduate as many doctors as they want and charge whatever price for medical school they want, but being able to soak people for huge money for med school, they do.

In a libertarian society for example you would not even need to have a medical license, and anyone can buy meds without a prescription. So meds would be very cheap, and medical schools would be forced to lower prices to deal with alternate care choices. So in a libertarian society healthcare of the same quality would be much cheaper and there would not be this kind of issue of a hospital visit from an accident costing millions. I am not a libertarian, but it is a systemic problem. Also one that gets used to justify all kinds of other impingements on freedom. You really stop and think before doing something mildly dangerous if a twisted ankle from hiking won't be covered by insurance and will cost you $50,000 out of pocket.

It's funny how we suddenly "need" so many things like security cameras everywhere because things have changed ie they have taken other things away like border control which causes terrorism issues and now instead of fixing that once again it's us who have to have our rights impinged because of decisions made for us without any direct vote or even discussion.

Hey Mods - make this person aware of the A&S sub-Forum.

edit: heheheheheh ;)

Wasn't meant to be a trolling or ranting topic. Was supposed to be pictures.

That being said, I would prefer you guys not argue or get political about use of helmets anymore here please.

Thanks :)

Presumptuous text in OP, link to OT Clickbait site w/ pics of MC helmets. What could possibly go wrong? ;)
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If you want to wear a helmet nothing is stopping anyone.

Easy to solve. LOOK at the pictures. :)

:bike: