RonH

Lately I have seen a lot of cyclists riding with their helmet hanging from the handlebar. These aren't weekend/fair weather riders. They are "real" cyclists, dressed in there best team gear and riding in traffic.
Are they crazy, tempting fate, or just stupid?

jfmckenna

I'd say stupid. I mean if your not gonna wear the helmet why bother carying the damn thing around? Pretty stupid if you ask me. Unless you only see them do that on long climbs, then it's cool to do that b/c tour stage finishers do it

Ebbtide

Its also just cool, literally.

I would like a helmet rack (on my bike) for these occasions.

TeleJohn

Syracuses' Bike Police do this all the time.

ExMachina

I always thought it was a way to avoid wearing a helmet while still complying w/ helmet laws.

But yes, stupid, is what it ultimately is.

Paul L.

Sometimes when I commute and my head is wet I will remove it a half mile from work so my hair can dry before I go into the office. But that is the only reason I won't wear my helmet while in motion and that stretch of road has zero traffic (and yes I know people are going to pipe up saying you can injure your head by falling off a standing bike, for that matter you could injure your head while falling off your feet with no bike involved too, sometimes you just need to assess what is an acceptable risk).

roadfix

NO NO NO NO NO! These guys are either going to or returning from their training rides....... that's all...... no fad...... this has been going on for decades.....

That being said, I keep my helmet on 100% of the time.

Makoa

Some people are too cool to wear seat belts too. It's all part of a process Darwin called "Natural Selection."

madpogue 

Oh, all this time I thought it was some kind of test. As in: how quickly can I whip my helmet on in a crash, before I actually hit the ground?

pletcgm

They are DUMB!!!! I saw a rider yesterday, like you described, riding down a steep, long hill without a helmet. I rode down that hill the other day and was doing 43 mph. If he fell for any reason, he is DEAD, or at least he would be better off dead after the injuries.

MikeR

There are times at the end of a hot ride, I am going really slow for the last mile and I take off my helmet to dry it and my head. At this point I am doing less that 10 mph. I figure there is not much risk when I am going only a little faster than a walk.

pletcgm

All it takes is a hit to the head at 10 mph to kill a person. Going even half that speed could cause serious brain damage.

Lar Falli

That's exactly why I wear my cycling helmet while running wind sprints. I also wear my seatbelt when I'm sitting in the garage just listening to the radio. Ya never know when someone will ram into my bumper. As someone said earlier, it's all about how much risk you decide to take. If I could envelope my entire body, and that of my whole family, in 3 feet of styrofoam surrounded by bubble wrap I would. You can never be too safe. Heck, I moved because my job was across the RR tracks, and I didn't want to have to cross those twice a day!

caloso

I admit I've done this before. Like Paul L's situation, it's at the end of my commute, the last 500m is on a wide sidewalk (it's been designated a bike path, so no "get off the sidewalk!" comments). I'm only going about 9-10mph and I'm trying to cool my head and dry my hair.

Not a big deal as far as I'm concerned.

ExMachina

You people have got to be joking, 10 mph is *plenty* fast to crack your head open! Heck, people have gotten concussions hitting an open dresser drawer...and that just while standing up!! I'm not suggesting that you gear up to get your socks each morning, but I *am* suggesting that you helmet-up when you are talking about speeds 10 or 20 times greater.

And also note that "even" a 10mph crash will probably result (because of the nature of rotational motion added to the fact that you're a good 4-5 feet off of the ground) in your head hitting the ground at a significantly higher speed than 10mph.

Keep your noggin safe--especially as a lot of us humans get great pleasure in telling you that we "told you so"--and there certainly would be none of that if you go and spew out your brains first!

sm266

I'll remove my helmet during long climbs. It's a risk I choose to take, after all, I'm an adult.

caloso

Well, since I can run a 40 min. 10K (approx. 9.3 mph), should I wear my helmet the next time I go for a run?

bbaker22

No way! We're still allowed to do that in the US?

:-)

I do the same thing...

baker

sm266

Sometimes I'm not sure, but I think so .

shokhead

Not cool,fricken stupid. Put the dam thing on and not get stupider.

Trevor98

I am just wondering the thresh hold for too much risk is. At what point should we employ safety equipment to prevent injury/death? We live in fear, fear pushed on us by advertising and other sources.

The argument "why not wear it, it might save your life" can be applied to most activities- why not just ban bikes? That would solve all bike related injuries and is just as logical. At least come up with better arguments- almost all arguments I have heard for wearing a helmet all the time are fallacies.


There is a greater risk of dying as a pedestrian that a cyclist by a factor of 7 (national safety council- percent of total population). That is, 1:359,967 people will die on a bike, 1:19,075 in a car, and 1:46,960 as a pedestrian.

To put that in perspective, this forum boasts 10,000 members as of 3-6-04. Odds are that 1 of us will be dead from a cycling accident in 35 years- from any cause. Those odds state one of us should die every other year in a car and as a pedestrian one every four years. I think I'll quite walking and driving and ride everywhere (yes I know this is a ridiculous assertion).

Trevor
Living is not safe- you will die from it.

pletcgm

I definitely agree! That why I also think that seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws are so stupid!!! I would never go without, but I don't think that you should be forced to wear one. The way I look at it, it's your own life and no one else's to rule.

Chris L

Not at all, if I lived in fear I would never leave the house. Fact is, accidents happen. If a helmet offers me some protection to a vulnerable yet important part of the body, I'll continue to wear one. I have two cracked helmets to show just how valuable that protection can be.

Because cycling prevents more problems (i.e. heart disease, obesity etc) than it causes.

Depends how you look at it. How long do all those pedestrians who die spend being a pedestrian? Now ask how long all those cyclists who die spend being a cyclist? I'd suspect in the case of the pedestrians, it takes quite a bit longer to happen. This makes the statistics appear just a little different.

That is actually one of the reasons I don't drive (don't worry, I have plenty of other reasons, too). As far as walking goes, I'm still not at all convinced on those statistics.

Chris L

Or another way of looking at it, natural selection.

Chris L

You're right, on both counts. It's actually been happening out here for years (we've had mandatory helmet laws since about 1990). Although I didn't think that was the case in the US. Perhaps it's kids being pressured by their parents to wear helmets, yet still wanting to look "kewl, man!".