Digital distractions do not constitute a good helmet.

According to this: http://www.magma.ca/~ocbc/hfaq.html , if you need a helmet to survive, you're dead anyway.

When I was living in Toronto, I alway wore one; even if I was going out for smokes. Here in India, I don't ride in Bangalore (800 road fatalities per year), for many reasons; one of which the cows rule the roads. In the village I ride in the average car speed is about 10-15 km/h, and I yield to anything in my path. The rule of the road is the bigger you are, the less attention you pay to other buses, cars, cyclists. Fora reminder to myself when I think of ditching the helmet I read this.

I didn't wear one cos I don't like them and think that at the speeds we travel on thee street they won't be much use. Then i was hit by a taxi, knocked out and when I woke up I couldn't remember the last two months. My memory gradually returned but that freaked me out so I went and bought a new helmet.

I still think that when you are going fast a helmet won't do very much and I don't preach to people (had way too many people come up to me with "You weren't wearing a helmet? How ****ing stupid etc...")


The most important thing for me was finding one that fitted properly. I already had one but it was cheap and nasty so I didn't wear it. Now I have a flashy gimp-roadie looking one, but at least it's comfortable.

Rebel without a clue looking for a head trauma is exactly right.

I haven't seen a helmet yet more expensive than my melon.

I wear a lid only if I'm likely to be falling off: tooling around offroad or on icy roads. Sicne helmets are built to protect from a fall (not a car-strike), the rest of the time I kinda figure I can stay upright and my head's not an eggshell.

More importantly, when I wear a lid, I think I'm superman. I get risky, ride aggressively, and put myself in more danger. As soon as I identified that - between two buses grinning at a passenger while both sides of my bus-canyon closed on me - I stopped routinely wearing a helmet. The risk compensation makes my ride MORE dangerous, not less.

(I also think it's obscene that we're passing the buck for injury to the victim, not the cause, but that's a whole other thread)

Thylacine, I'm not sure what would make a helmet "cool".

Mine right now is very basic, very penis-head. I'm looking, it's a few years old but quite similar to the Atlas II, perhaps it's the original Atlas, in pewter (the color).

I'd love something a little more low profile. I keep thinking the Bell Metro might fit the bill... or maybe it will make me look like a refugee from Dieter's Sprockets. I'd also love built in headphones but those only come in snowboarding helmets which would suck in the summer . So I wear my earbuds and I'm happy.

Maybe someday I'll go helmet shopping but right now I'm basically not dissatisfied enough with what I have or convinced enough that what I want is out there to push me into looking for a new one.

edit: for the non-clairvoyant, that's the Giro Atlas of which I speak. And I'm comparing vent patterns and it's definitely an older Atlas series. Mine just lacks the new external strap anchorns. Instead my straps pass over the foam form but under the plastic shell. Whatever.

I have the Giro Mojave, which definitely gives the glans shaped appearance to my head.

Does anyone make helmets for people with heads that are longer?? Mine sits well above the ears, and I can't seem to find a helmet that fits low, aorund the whole head. Anyone have suggestions??

same here... when i ride to class and back i dont wear my eclipse (although it is <2 miles for me)... campus runs are free-nogging. when i go for intentional rec rides i wear it. and always when i go MTB'ing. last week i had a spill on campus... arms and shoulder took the impact. knock on wood

I used to be hit-or-miss with the helmet, even though my dad (like Shiznaz's mom) made me promise always to wear it (I'm not so dutiful, I guess, or my dad's not so nice). Anyway, I wore it pretty much on the regular, but one time when I was in college and working as a messenger, I had to go in in the evening after classes (usually I only worked mornings, but my small company was short-staffed because someone got arrested, so I had to do some runs for him), and I left my helmet under a seat in class (I believe the class was Human Reproduction and Development, in which I ultimately got a B+), and when I checked back for it twenty minutes later, it was gone. So I went in anyway, figuring I'd get paid the next day and go get a new helmet, and that very evening I had the misfortune of being behind an express bus that stopped short. I swerved to get out of the way of that large mobile, and actually managed to steer clear, but my shoulder caught the side of the bus and I landed on the pavement on my forehead, causing me to lose my vision for ten minutes (it was funny, I immediately grabbed my bike and started to get on as if to pedal, but I couldn't make the thing go, because I had the front wheel pressed againt the bumper of the bus I'd just hit, but I couldn't see that, because I had no vision), suffer bad headaches for months, and have a baseball-sized lump on my head for a month, followed by blood trickling down under my skin, giving me a ferocious black eye (all of which prompted me to cancel a very promising date with a very foxy girl (Claudia, her name was; she was from Honduras), who, by the next time I saw her when I was healed, had taken up with some other guy). What is the moral of this story? None. It's just a long-winded, mildly interesting way of saying that nowadays I always always rock my helmet (a generic, dark-blue skateboarding helmet with a mount for a blinky light hooked to it with a hose clamp). It ain't pretty, but I'm not so pretty either, and I was really really not pretty after tagging Madison Ave. with my dome piece.

I PLEDGE TO ALWAYS WEAR MY HELMET ON MY MTB!!!!!!


(psssst)

whats an mtb???

Oh, right, the kind of helmet I'd prefer:
The one I have now is bulky, but it is hard plastic and sturdy as all get-out, which is important. I used to have regular, aerodynamic roadie-type helmets, but the padding always came out and the plastic shell over the top came off and the ish just generally fell apart. I lock mine to my bike, so I need toughness. Also, more non-flashy-color options.

I wear a Giro Atmos:

http://images.rei.com/media/711254_2624Lrg.jpg

Really, really light, flat black, more vents than any other helmet and the Giro fitting system and straps are very, very nice... in my mind it is as comfy as not wearing a helmet.

I wear one because I had a terrible bike wreck when I was a kid. 300 stitches on my head and plastic surgery.

You don't wear a helmet to not be dead. You wear a helmet to not become a vegetable that will be a burden to everyone you love for the rest of your life.

things I look for in a helmet:
1. fit (I do jumping jacks in the LBS to get an idea)
2. styles (low profile!!!)
3. price (I know I'm corporate america)
4. toughness (in case someone tries to rob me)

Question: I really like the Bell helmets, but the size I want
is a bit small front to back (the larger is too big). What do you
all think of "fixing" a helmet? Cutting away a bit of the foam
so it fits better. I'm talking mm not cm.

jeff

Skateboard/BMX helmet: good for multiple crashes, nice full-coverage geek factor. I love it. Cycling caps are cool, too, but I just use them for covering helmet-hair.

I've hit my head just once in a fall (low speed, sharp turn on wet pavement), from which my helmet has a nice scuff across the reflective tape I put on it which serves to remind me why I use it.

When I take my helmet off at home, I throw my keys in the helmet along with my gloves and headwear and keep it all by the front door. It hence serves double duty as a basket so everything's ready to go when I need it...and I never lose my keys :c)

Hmmm... from a anti-helmet cyclist rights site?

Curious how now even the UCI requires helmets for racing (except those mountaintop finishes). Of course USCF has required helmets for years. I'm just used to wearing them while racing... but of course, I'm one of those spandex-clad freaks that probably annoys you when I'm out riding fixed. ;)

A direct impact by a car is going to hurt no matter what- even if you are in another car. Most accidents aren't direct hits.

I've worn a helmet ever since this happened.

http://chemicaldream.com/images/Broken.jpg

Jebus! That's a bad one man, glad you walked away from that one.

A friend from SF got nailed by a diesel truck and it ripped her bike in half too. Amazing, the damage. She lucked out as well, but had a cast on for quite a while.

wow... that is NICE! I've never seen the atmos in black... 160$ is steep, i must say

I like my helmet. It is a sure sign that the mess bag and the cuffed pants are not mere fashion statements. It shows that I ride a bike, for real. Like...really...with pedals and stuff. Plus one day when I'm out late and get jumped, when they try to clock me in the face I can just tip my helmeted head down and hurt their hand. Then I can pedal away like the wind...and stuff. In the this hypothetical future, if I forgot to wear my helmet, in the future, I would be poor and have a broken nose. Since I had, or will have potentially my helmet on they will not, or is it will won't now not break my nose, in the future..and stuff. I turned the mixer in the lab up to 11 and broke stuff today.

I don't wear a helmet for alot of reasons, aesthetics included. But i would probably wear one of these. Only like 3 pounds.
http://www.by-the-sword.com/acatalog...s/dp6058it.jpg

http://www.by-the-sword.com/acatalog/images/9-605.JPG

Personally I've always wanted one these since I was like, 12.

http://www.jedi-academy.com/props/mom_scout_helmet.jpg

Since November, when my brother was in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit at Rhode Island Hospital for three weeks after suffering a severe head injury (non-bicycle related), I've been telling my friends that I was going to start wearing a helmet...

Moments after reading this thread, I ordered a Bell Metro. I'm not sure if the L will fit me, tho!

http://www.vegatransports.com.au/Aus...s/bobafett.jpg

even better

I always wear a helmet. I would never preach at someone who didn't, but I've seen enough low-speed urban wrecks resulting in folks being knocked out to convince me they are worth the trouble. I use to be a Giro user, but figured out that Bell's fit me better. I currently use a Bell Ghisallo.

I don't get the helmet looks dorky argument, I've gotten lots of dates when I was a messenger sporting a lid. It seems funny that the anti-helmet advocates will spout all of these stats about how helmts don't do anything, then in the end they'll add that helmets look unstylish. I think it is all about your attitude, if you ride with style then any helmet can look cool.

I know a helmet won't save me if I get run over by a bus, but it will make a big difference if I get clipped by a bus mirror.