Bradley Wiggins calls for safer cycling laws and compulsory helmets

[GrumpyGregry]

Make sense too me too wear one. If you punch a wall with your bare fist it is going too hurt. If you do it wearing a boxing glove it will hurt less if at all ( not tried it )
So I feel safer with one on. I had the pleasure once as a kid of going straight through a wind screen off my moped. Was glad I had a helmet on that day.
As for being forced too wear one well it is nice too have a choice some days if I am just going for a bimble too the shop in casual clothes it is nice too just wear a normal hat rather than look like mario. But if I am going on a good ride I wear me helmet

Help me out...

1. If I hit you over the head with a baseball bat it will hurt
2. If I hit you over the head with a baseball bat whilst you are wearing a cycle helmet with a level of force insufficient to break the helmet it will hurt less
3. If I hit you over the head with a baseball bat whilst you are wearing a cycle helmet with a level of force sufficient to break the helmet it will hurt. How much less than 1 will it hurt?

and that is the problem with cycle helmets, they are only designed to protect the head in low speed low impact crashes. Go faster, and given my avg cycling speed is well above 12.6 mph these days (thanks to Dell et all and LonJOG) I'm generally going quite a bit faster, what is the point of the plastic mushroom other than to make others feel better about their perception of my safety.

 

[Linford]

Quite right too for a motorcycle but that is another chalk cheese comparison when we are talking about bikes.

I would feel the same way riding a 30mph setp thru moped, or a roadie capable of the same speed....

 

[dellzeqq]

Actually it isn't. Your helmet failed catastrophically rather than compressing as its designer intended it to. If a helmet splits in the the EN1078 and Snell 90A tests, which they rarely do being designed to meet the test criteria rather than work well in the real world, it would fail the test.

Helmets are meant to compress to absorb shock, not split. Post accident a helmet in pieces has done very little to protect your head.

I take your point, but I was happy with the result at the time.

The geometry of the impact was quite particular. The rear wheel fishtailed, and then the bike rotated, so that it was travelling at 45 degrees to the line from front wheel to back. I rolled over the bars and landed on my side - putting a big crack in my pelvis. My arm hit the ground, my shoulder hit ground, my neck simply went with the flow and the side of my head rotated and accelerated to the tarmac - so it was one heck of a bang.

 

[theclaud]

Come to think of it, this is a fairly shocking admission.
I think you kind of exclude yourself from any and all debates on road safety when you condone this.

Linfy, you really do become increasingly ridiculous with every post.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I ride a bike and I'm pissed a lot. Should I wear two?

Last Monday night. I was steaming. Absolutely roaring drunk. I rode home. Helmetless.

I'm not drinking on a school night again for a while. Dreadful hangover last Tuesday, ride to work, with helmet, was interminable and the feckin' lid gave me a headache.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

And most people don't realise that the test is a drop onto the crown of the helmet whereas most accidents are an impact on to the untested side of the helmet. Because of the free edge there the polystyrene is much more likely to snap off in the impact.

It was studying the testing methodology after one expensive piece of plastic failed in an mtb crash that made me realise that above jogging speed they are next to useless.

 

[dellzeqq]

Linfy, you really do become increasingly ridiculous with every post.

not possible. See my thread on high speed nurdling rock. The guitar playing appears to be speeding up, and reaching ever higher notes, but, actually, from time to time it slips back.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np0solnL1XY

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Finally! A sensible post from the anti brigade, however you were doing so well until the last bit

I don't crash at low speed. It's in my contract.
EDIT: and I'm not anti helmet, wore one this morning, will wear one all day on Saturday as I hurtle off-road around the Surrey Hils, just anti-compulsion. Build me a better mousetrap and I'll probably wear it. Or sumfink.

EDIT and the word you meant to use was safer not safe.

 

[Linford]

Would it possible for you to stop being quite so priggish for a while?

You have a duty of care to yourself, and also that extends to others who use the roads.
Would you be able to live with yourself if someone else got hurt trying to avoid you if your actions fell below what you expect or demand of other road users ?

 

[benb]

The way I look at it is, if I were to fall off at a low speed and hit my head, a helmet might have some protective effect. It could well prevent some cuts and bruises, but as a serious head injury at that speed is pretty unlikely (what with your skull already doing quite a good job of protecting your brain), the benefit of wearing a helmet doesn't outweigh the cost.

At any impact where a serious head injury becomes likely, a helmet is unlikely to make any difference. The evidence supports this.

Cycling is a very safe activity. The risk of head injury is broadly similar to just walking, so why are cyclists singled out as requiring a helmet, but not pedestrians?

People should be free to make up their own mind, and compulsion would be a disaster.

 

[Linford]

Cycling is a very safe activity. The risk of head injury is broadly similar to just walking, so why are cyclists singled out as requiring a helmet, but not pedestrians?
.

Do you mean in terms of miles travelled per injury, or hospital admissions per year ?

 

[benb]

Do you mean in terms of miles travelled per injury, or hospital admissions per year ?

Both.

 

[Linford]

[QUOTE 1972071, member: 9609"]Helmets not needed, if you are well and truly pissed falling off a bike is not only fantastic fun it is very enjoyable and completely harmless - until you wake up the next morning in intensive care with tyre tracks all over you[/quote]


FTFY

 

[Linford]

Both.

do you have a source for this ?

 

[Wobblers]

Passengers ? yes it does....Source

Fair enough.

The head injuries they received would have been fatal in their own right (you can't mend a damaged brain)...... Source

Ruptured aortas or massive damage to the blood filled organs is just as fatal. And a helmet will do no good whatsoever in those cases. The majority of fatalities involve multiple injuries. And, no, Linford, such injuries are very often not survivable if treated in the first hour.