But why did you go and use your head to smash up your frame?

I totally agree. Vanity doesn't win any style points when you're in a coma and lose segments of your life. It's a gutless argument. If a chick snubs you because you're wearing a helmet, she'll snub you even more when she sees how high maintenance you are after an accident.

a helmet only protects the head. what about those painful knee, elbow, back, legs, collar bone, wrist, shoulder, groin and buttocks injuries? i don't go out without one of these:

http://www.shaunmccarthy.com/pix/usa..._of_armour.jpg

$160 is steep, I agree, but I wore my old bell image helmet for 8 years and looked like a dope the whole time because it didn't fit well. I decided that I could pay $20 for every year I should have replaced the old one for the new one that would fit right and be cool in the summer, which is really key for me. Plus I had a gift certificate from xmas. :)

I think we are all forgeting about this ... http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=77421

++ helmet. though in the summertime my helmet got pretty rank smelling. took the padding off and it still stunk. that really lessened the incentive to wear it. in the end, i'd gone and bought a new one. and i'm stinking that one up too.

Spray windex on the pads and let them soak for awhile, rinse with water. Should take the funk out!

i usually just chuck 'em in with the laundry.

good idea. you know of any places to get replacement pads?

those things have a tendency to disintegrate, and i get dull stares whenever i ask after them. maybe i'll just get a cycling cap to replace.

Helmets are like roll cages in Jeeps.

You never need one. Until you need one.

Ask me about my dent.

I have a Giro Eclipse in black that I don't wear that often - only when there is a lot of ice out on the road. It's a pain to wear a balaclava under it when it's cold, and if there's any precipitation the balaclava is immediately like a cold sock around my head. Whereas a cap and headband is warm, even in the cold rain/snow.

I also just don't really see the point in wearing a helmet. I've been biking my whole life and have never had a crash where a helmet did or would have come into play. I've also only crashed twice, once when I was really young and once last summer into a pedestrian, and both times I faceplanted on my chin/lower face. This is in about 16 years of biking, lots of hours.

Now I've been messengering for a while and haven't had any accidents - barely any close calls, even. It's like that article said - if I'm not going to wear a helmet in a car (where I've had some fairly serious accidents), then why wear one on a bike? I know that other people have stories about a helmet being helpful, but maybe they're worse/less safe/less skilled bikers. And I've also heard the "what if a car comes out of nowhere and you have no chance to react" argument, but that simply doesn't happen if you're paying attention and don't blast out of alleys, don't go the wrong way down one-way streets without being super aware of parked cars etc. A car can't "come out of nowhere."

I'll also say that I'm a slower messenger than some of the crazy batman guys who blast into blind red lights at full speed, and those guys tend to wear helmets. But I think that not doing that and not wearing a helmet is safer than doing it and wearing a helmet anyways.

I actually tend to wear a helmet most often if I'm going on a recreational ride, since then I know I'll be on a bike the whole time. And I like the Eclipse for a helmet - it's light and fits well.

hmmm... not sure. maybe some foam with a peel-off tacky side? the pads in the helmets i've bought have actually lasted a while, for me. they do get nappy, tho.

I don't like wearing a bike helmet... but with a new job I have a new route to bike every day, and on a weekly basis I have close encounters with crappy motorists.... so I got a funny looking aero time trial giro helmet off ebay for 26 bucks... since i'm a weird guy, I can't stand to wear a typical bike helmet like all the spandex warriors....... ahem.... soo umm.... ya

I met up with someone today to sell a stem I advertised on Craigslist and got an out-of-the-blue compliment on my Bell Metro. How apropos.

Where I live, not wearing a helmet results in a $135 ticket. That's about 5x the cost of my $25 canary yellow skateboard helmet. I appreciate the fact that the decision was made for me.

m.

Same helmet, same opinion. Besides, i can't race without one...

Lots of opinions I agree with here. A while back someone posted or linked to an article on somone's personal reasons for wearing a helmet. This resonated with me, so perhaps others will have a similar reaction. Essentially it stated that the author wears a helmet not because he expects to get in an accident on any particular ride, but he does expect to have an accident at some point - even if it is once in six years. He wears his helmet for that one time. So do I.

Darwin must be laughing right now...

Dead men can't laugh... and last I checked, he's the one who's dead.

in the past year and a half as a messenger, i think i wore a helmet for 2 weeks, which i bought after a long conversation about accidents. i'm not proud of it, but the thing drove me crazy, and although being hyper-aware of everything happening around me means every day i see a million hypothetical scenarios, not to mention close calls that all end in a closed-coffin funeral, it doesn't help to think while eyeing that sharp granite curb or the pointy corners of a tow truck that for every close call that could end in a no-helmet-head-injury death, there are at least as many possibilities where i'll get mangled mauled crushed impaled and lots of other nasty things where the helmet would just be one more thing to toss in the body bag. not that it's any excuse, because even the best riders out there are at risk because of stupid/violent motorists/pedestrians, but i've definitey seen a lot more bad things happen or almost happen to people because of bad riding habits or just total lack of forethought... i would say that riding well lowers your risk of mutilation most, helmet or no. yeah, it is only a matter of time, in the end, before you get into an accident, no matter how good you are, but seriously, the dangers that threaten a city rider are multiple and the helmet only lessens some of them.
digressing a bit - if going helmetless is reckless, how about pushing your baby carriage into the street from between two vans without looking first, or standing on the curb at a green light waiting for a gap in traffic with your baby carriage in front of you, In The Street?
agh. i could go on forever. my days are full of shock and awe at the unbelievable stunts people pull in the city. i'll never understand how there aren't deaths every day in boston on the streets, never.
gah!

Its funny that statistically, the introduction of helmet laws often lead to an increase in head injuries. One of the attributing factor is the 'Superman' factor, where people overcompensate and become more reckless.

Personally I call that the 'Idiot' factor, and naturally, us inner city FG/SSers aren't in that category :D

FYI, did ya'll know that there are helmets designed to take multiple hits, helmets with built in rear vision, and helmets with built in headphones?

Nah, me either until the past two weeks. Naturally, those are all mostly ugly as sin, but, as they say, 'watch this space'.

Yeah. Anyway, you guys got me on a helmet tangent, but there's no way I'm throwing down for one of those bs expensive-as-all-getout Garneau Chrono Tron-looking things. I did find the Bell Faction, which has a real skate-infused vibe that I dig. Anyone know where I can find one that will fit a fairly fat head. Seems they only come in S/M and M/L...

I feel the big head pain. My head is 25" around. Not long or wide, just big. Really ******** big.

I can't buy a real helmet that fits comfortably, especially in the last couple years where it seems everyone has been discontinuing the L/XL in favour of M/L, which never fits.

I have two options, that I know of.

The Bell "King Head", which is so ugly i could never wear it. It is everything ugly about helmets. CHeap, white, and HUGE (in thickness).

The other option, which I own, but rarely wear, is a ProTec skateboarding helmet with soft foam, instead of the expanded polywhatever you get in single-impact bike helmets. To make it fit, i had to trim the foam down to about 5mm, at which point it's not actually doing any good, and it's hot as all hell, so i don't tend to wear it.

Muh.

Guys with big heads, try a Giro Atlas II. It comes very large and looks much better than the BigHead. About the same price.

Dear fatheads,

I have an Atlas series hat (as mentioned above) the Right Reverend is..err...right.

My head's none too small and it fits quite nicely even with a normal thickish ski beanie underneath.