You could have a "formula" for the value of a helmet.
- a the chances of coming off
- b the injury during an off
- c the chances of the injury occurring to a part of the head that is protected by your helmet.
- d the chances of that injury having having a life altering effect, permanently or temporarily.
- e the chances of a helmet making a difference, turning a life changing or ending injury into a less serious injury or no injury at all.
- f the chances of you having no other fatal injury (ie even a mythical "perfect" helmet is of no value if you are crushed under a HGV)
@jonny jeez is right, mostly we focus on
e, but we should look more closely at the others. Because even if
e was 1, it still might not mean we should wear helmets.
In my post above, I was only discussing
a.
From a
separate thread, we can see that
a is not as small as suggested in the original post, though I suspect it varies with rider skill, style, riding conditions and of course mileage. So I will probably end up coming off most years at least once, and
@jonny jeez may never come off again. So for me, the chances of having an off on a 50km ride are something like 1/100.
I've got a bit less 50,000km on strava and I've hit my head once. So I will estimate
a x
b x
c on a 50km ride about 0.1%.
Oh. That's higher than I would have guessed
I'll think about that for a bit.
Aside: That single head injury occurred without a helmet, but I didn't meet the criteria for concussion, nor did I suffer any ill effects except for the aforementioned black eye, so by my standards a helmet would have made no difference. For the record, I believe a helmet would have prevented the black eye, as the blow was to my temple, and the large bruise drained into my eye socket and stayed there for several very ugly days, but as my arm was in a sling at the time, the black eye was the least of my worries.