Benefits of wearing a helmet

[dondare]

... I notice that an awful lot of people who use the cycling is so safe line when it comes to helmets don't seem to apply it to discussions about speeding motorists, badly designed cyclepaths or close overtakes. Why bother to get exited by these things if overall it doesn't matter? Cycling is safe: Drive at whatever speed you like why doncha?

Cycling is safe. Roads and cyclepaths are safe. Bad driving (which includes driving too fast) isn't.
That is why the fiercest opponents of helmets oppose helmets so fiercely, because once you start wearing protective clothing (or demanding segregated cycling facilities) you are accepting that the roads are dangerous and trying to protect yourself rather than looking for a better solution which would be the removal of bad drivers from the roads.
Cyclists make up less than 5% of road accident deaths but it could be argued that bad drivers cause nearly all of them.

 

[ianrauk]

Right then. I've read all the posts for and against. And have made a decision. My helmet is going in the bin.

 

[dondare]

The only research that I'm aware of on this aspect refutes your belief: "Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than when overtaking bare-headed cyclists, increasing the risk of a collision, the research has found". So feeling safer is not the same as being safer.
Let's face it, in some circumstances a helmet will prevent serious injury and in other circumstances it may be a contributory factor towards injury (as another poster has commented "Cycle helmets are not designed to mitigate rotational injuries, and research has not shown them to be effective in doing so. To the contrary, some doctors have expressed concern that cycle helmets might make some injuries worse by converting direct (linear) forces to rotational ones").
Cycling is safe; the danger comes from the minority of motorists who disrespect the Highway Code. In my opinion; a hi-viz top is a far better investment than an helmet but we do not get endless threads about them.

As a scientist I don't find Dr Walker's research that convincing. I'm not saying that he's wrong, just that the research isn't thorough enough to prove his theory.
As far as I know there has been no research whatsoever on cycle helmets and rotational injuries.

I am not opposed to clothing that makes cyclists more noticable and if you started a thread on it I wouldn't keep it going like I have this one. The other big issue is cycle-lanes in all their incarnations and I do have opinions to share on that subject.

 

[dondare]

Right then. I've read all the posts for and against. And have made a decision. My helmet is going in the bin.

I hope you're joking.

 

[Theseus]

Me too. Stick some potting compost in there, two quid for geraniums and a bit of chain at B&Q, and you've got a lovely impromptu hanging basket.

No need for chain, use the straps.

 

[AnotherEye]

Right then. I've read all the posts for and against. And have made a decision. My helmet is going in the bin.

Keep it in-case you go somewhere like Spain where it a legal requirement.

 

[ianrauk]

Nah.. not going to go cycling in a country where I will be forced to wear a helmet.

Keep it in-case you go somewhere like Spain where it a legal requirement.

 

[dondare]

Hmmmm. I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago. Thousands of cyclists and you could count the helmet-wearers on the fingers of one hand. And they were all wearing team kit!

Foreigners get singled out for special treatment.

Funny country, Spain: they give sanctuary to our bank robbers and arrest our cyclists.

 

[dondare]

Ha ha. I think the moral is to avoid wearing an England shirt when you're on the bike!

How about a mask, a striped shirt and a bag marked "swag"? D'you think that they'd get the joke?

 

[bikepacker]

I never wear a helmet and in line with other posters I think they are a big con by manufacturers seeking to boost income. An item that costs 64 pence to produce and sells at over £100 has to be good for profits.

Regarding Spain; I have cycled there many times including a month this year. I never wear an helmet but keep an old one tied to my panner rack. Although I have asked directions from police many times, not one has asked why I am not wearing the helmet.

 

[snorri]

Cycling is safe.

I consider the cycling that I do to be safe, but some of the cycling I see described on this forum is far from safe in my view, speeding through forests in the dark, or on downhill mountain tracks, concerns about personal best times on the way to work, cycling on ice, group cycling etc.., people probably wouldn't risk these activities if the cycle helmet had not been invented!

 

[StuartG]

As a scientist I don't find Dr Walker's research that convincing. I'm not saying that he's wrong, just that the research isn't thorough enough to prove his theory.
As far as I know there has been no research whatsoever on cycle helmets and rotational injuries.

That's the point. The research on helmets is suggestive (not definitive) that if you are in a crash and it involves the head than the chances are the injury will be mitigated. On the other hand there is circumstantial, and only circumstantial evidence that the chances of being involved in a crash are less if you are not wearing a helmet.

Given the vagueness of the benefit/disbenefit there is no way to say overall that it is best to wear/not wear a helmet. Hence my challenge to the earlier definitive claim the HELMETS SAVE LIVES. It also explains the reluctance in many countries to make helmets compulsory since any definitive research may not turn up the desired answer.

Oh and actually it would be very difficult to agree the terms and designs (and almost certainly the budget) of any definitive research.

Which leaves the basic fact that cycling enhances health more than any head related injury can lower. So it is a no-brainer (sorry!) cycle with whatever head apparel you feel most comfortable with ... unless you are involving yourself in a particular high risk situations. And possibly children who combine a higher chance over 'over the handlebar' incidents with softer skulls.

 

[hackbike 666]

Social pressure is buying an IPod.

Actually I have been "persuaded" more times to buy an Ipod than to wear a helmet.

 

[dondare]

That's the point. The research on helmets is suggestive (not definitive) that if you are in a crash and it involves the head than the chances are the injury will be mitigated. On the other hand there is circumstantial, and only circumstantial evidence that the chances of being involved in a crash are less if you are not wearing a helmet.

Given the vagueness of the benefit/disbenefit there is no way to say overall that it is best to wear/not wear a helmet. Hence my challenge to the earlier definitive claim the HELMETS SAVE LIVES. It also explains the reluctance in many countries to make helmets compulsory since any definitive research may not turn up the desired answer.

Oh and actually it would be very difficult to agree the terms and designs (and almost certainly the budget) of any definitive research.

Which leaves the basic fact that cycling enhances health more than any head related injury can lower. So it is a no-brainer (sorry!) cycle with whatever head apparel you feel most comfortable with ... unless you are involving yourself in a particular high risk situations. And possibly children who combine a higher chance over 'over the handlebar' incidents with softer skulls.

Lee could have said: "In some types of cycling-related accidents, wearing a correctly-fitted cycling helmet could protect you from potentially fatal head injuries."

But that would not have been so snappy.

 

[StuartG]

Lee could have said: "In some types of cycling-related accidents, wearing a correctly-fitted cycling helmet could protect you from potentially fatal head injuries."

And in some situations not wearing earphones will enable you to sense a danger to the rear enabling you to avoid a crash and injury or dearh.

But which, if any, crosses the threshold of saving a worthwhile number of lives per year to justify the resource of legislating, enforcing and the erosion of personal liberty involved?