dekindy

I would never consider riding an upright bicycle without a helmet. Having said that, while riding a trike or tadpole I really do not see the need to wear a helmet riding around our neighborhood or on a paved trail. Having said that there are probably some trails that have hills that under the right conditions a helmet might be necessary to avoid a head injury.

We are getting a pair of Hase Kettwiesel and my Son is autistic and really dislikes anything on his head and it will really detract from his enjoyment. I will be the Captain and very conscious of his safety. By the same token I know he will really enjoy going fast as he is fearless on roller coasters.

Riding on the road I will make him wear a helmet.

Appreciate any comments or insight.

VegasTriker

I rode part of the River Mountain Trail yesterday on a 50 mile Cycling Merit Badge ride. BSA rules require helmets for all rides as does the local bike clubs no matter what you ride or where you ride. It didn't take much effort to get going over 30 mph on downhill sections of the trail. I would agree fast is fun but you also need to consider that accidents happen even on a trike ridden on trails. It can be your fault or the fault of someone else on the trail.
The Kett is a great trike but it can be overturned. I rode behind a husband and wife using the Ketts as a tandem and saw them lift the rear wheel quite a ways when the captain turned a little sharp and hit a part of the curb. The wife who was in the rear let out quite a yell to her husband. Safety comes first and while your son may not like it, I'd suggest always wearing a helmet. I personally have flipped a tadpole trike just once. It was on level ground in a parking lot but it made me a believer in always wearing a helmet.

cplager

I don't really know what to advice you. I agree a trike is safer than a bike. But as VegasTriker (and many others) have experienced, trikes do flip. Helmets are a good idea on trikes.

For adults, I think one is better of riding without a helmet and getting the benefits of bicycling than not riding at all. So, that's worth considering as well.

Have you tried different helmets? It's possible that a different fit may make them less of a problem for your son...

Good luck,
charles

10 Wheels

I have seen a trike rider crash on a flat road, and get taken away in an ambulance.

Wear a helmet.

dekindy

Thanks for that; you are absolutely right.

Thanks to other responders also.

rydabent

I think most bent riders like my self wear a mountain bike helmet with a visor.

aenlaasu

If you hit gravel (or ice) at speed, it's possible to fish-tail and roll. My helmet kept me from worse than a slight headache. Made me feel a lot less silly for wearing one when riding my armchair with pedals.

osco53

Your most Important most delicate organ sits up on a short stack of small bones n tendons, when you fall and your shoulder, back or chest hits terra firma, your neck becomes a whip with a weight on the end. Inside that weight Is the real You........Just sayin.

Retro Grouch 

Truthfully, I wonder how much good bicycle helmets really do for preventing concussions. I've had 3 pretty significant concussions from bicycling, alll while wearing helmets. Two of them, including the worst one, were at near zero speeds. I wonder how much the distance you fall and the speed you're going matters.

I still wear a helmet, mostly because I don't want to have to explain to my wife why I didn't have one. I'd rather fight to get my son to wear a helmet than try to explain to my wife why he wasn't wearing one.

jyl

Bicycle helmets are designed to protect against a single, large impact (like a motorcycle helmet). Which is a different task than protecting against a smaller impact (like your incidents) or repeated smaller impacts (like a football helmet).

To protect against concussion from a small impact, you'd want a helmet with softer cushioning. But to protect against skull fracture and other major injury in a large impact, that cushioning would be too soft, and would compress too easily (like when car shocks bottoms out); you actually want harder cushioning - which doesn't protect as well against the small impact . . .

Well, we can't have it all, considering the helmet is also supposed to be light, aero, compact, and inexpensive. Plus most helmet test standards were developed before the current concern over concussion in small impacts. They were more concerned with your skull not being split open or crushed in a 30 mph crash, than about avoiding a concussion in a zero mph fall.

jyl

Here is some reading on that issue

https://www.fastcodesign.com/1671752/...ncussion-proof
How the best football helmets are designed, the challenges of protecting against concussion and also against major injury (fracture etc)
(BTW, the article says motorcycle helmets are designed for 18 mph impacts, which is misleading - 18 mph impact against a steel anvil is equivalent to an angled fall onto concrete at 60-70 mph or into an auto door or window at 30-40 mph.)

https://www.cycleworld.com/2013/01/04...et-technology/
A motorcycle helmet designed to protect against concussion, with an elaborate double-shell design
A similar football helmet was introduced a few years ago, Xenith X1, not sure if it has been successful
But these designs are impractical for bicycle use

osco53

Our bike helmets make us look cool, smart and professional,

Our bike helmets keep the sun off our noodle and give us good protection against sun damage, they even help protect our eyes if we fit a visor.

Our bike helmets weigh almost nothing and unless your miss fitted or just chose the wrong one they are very comfy..

Our bike helmets can save our lives, never heard of one killing anyone,,,,,
Now don't go find some internet Bu-Hull-Hocky about getting killed because of the Helmet, I mean really.

Hopefully you all share a freedom of choice in this matter......

We all should wear Our bike helmets all the time, That's my story and I'm sticking to it !!!

If I get drunk and my wife says, "Go walk It off" I wear my helmet ,,,,,lol

BlazingPedals

I yoosta wear visors, but I discovered that, at least at very reclined angles like I use, a visor is just a small parachute and there's no way I can angle it down enough to stop it from being one. I'm sure they slowed me down some, too; but the biggest problem it caused for me was my helmet always getting pulled up and back on my head. So no visors for me anymore.

cplager

What about cycling caps under your helmet? Smaller brim, but it's much closer...

BlazingPedals

I don't see any point to having something that close-fitting and small. Doesn't shield anything. Drip edge in the rain maybe?

cplager

It seems to work well. I'm thinking of something like the Giro Reverb. Because the visor is closer to your eyes, it doesn't need to be as long to shade out the sun.

If you want a visor and it works for you, great! If not, great!

rydabent

I have both a bent and a trike. I wear my helmet on both for the many reasons listed above. For bent and trikes I do recommend a mountain bike type of helmet with a visor.

osco53

I have that very helmet and I wear glasses, With the helmet worn correctly the Reverb Visor is absolute perfection.

It manages sweat very well, (Removable, washable), mounts with Velcro, and if it was any larger/longer IMO it would limit my down range vision when riding my mountain bike.

On my LWB recumbent my 'Sit' position is like an upright chair and that small visor still works just fine..

The reverb may not look fast But I do not ride to Impress anyone, I seek function only.

Mine:

toolbear

I wear a BMX helmet all the time.

The thing worked great in a crash last fall. Not a scratch on it. I, on the other hand, had a brain surgeon wiring my skull back together and an eye surgeon seeing what he could do with the eye.

rydabent

toolbear

Well------------------------------I see she is not wearing a helmet!!!!!

Floyd

Maybe after your son gets used to wearing a helmet it will go easier or even he may want to wear the helmet if he understands why he has it on.

Dchiefransom

There's a good article on this in the June 2013 Bicycling magazine. There are two different systems being used in helmets to try and reduce the forces that cause concussions. One is the MIPS system. Scott helmets was an example given of this. https://www.scott-sports.com/global/e...3378F7A058E1EE

rydabent

There is no doubt that trikes are somewhat safer than bikes, especially DF bikes. Trikes can be rolled too. However----------------consider this. There are many threads on bike forums about accidents where cyclist were hurt or killed. Even tho the accident was the drivers fault, they and their attorneys try to make the cyclist partly at fault if not wearing a helmet. For this additional reason I always wear a helmet on both my bent bike and trike. Also I have 2 flags on the trike to help put aside the old driver lie "I didnt see him". If you do wear a helmet and put on flags, I feel it goes quite a ways to stop the idea that since I didnt have safety equiptment some how I am partly at fault.

Ajenkins

I wouldn't frustrate your son with a helmet on the miniscule chance that you will have an accident resulting in a head injury. First of all, such accidents are very rare, and secondly, bike helmets aren't like motorcycle helmets. They do little to protect a head from severe injury, and more studies are showing that helmets do nothing to prevent concussion.

I'm a League-certified cycling instructor, and I teach that body armor, such as helmets, can reduce the risk of minor injury, but are considered your last, and least important line of defense. Far more important is riding correctly -- stopping at stop signs, generally obeying the law. When you look at crash statistics, you will find that very few law-abiding cyclists get in accidents, and the need to wear a helmet is negligable.

Don't let anyone guilt you into forcing your son to wear a helmet. It is far, far better for him to get out on a bike and enjoy it, then have it turn into a frustrating and difficult experience over something as unimportant as a helmet.

JanMM

From the OP: Riding on the road I will make him wear a helmet.

Might be easier/simpler to have a general rule that a helmet will always be worn.