Helmet or no helmet??

[hillrep]

Seriously Graham, don't get involved in this argument. The whole helmet or no helmet argument has been going on for years and it wont get resolved any time soon. All I know is that if I am ever involved in an accident on my bike I want to be wearing my helmet. You will never convince me not to wear one and you will never convince non-helmet cyclists to wear one. Each to their own.

I promised myself I'd never get involved in a helmet debate but must take issue with the highlighted statement.

Actually there are some people who have been persuaded to change their minds on the helmet topic after looking at the evidence. Some of them would even claim to be able to change their minds again if there were new reliable evidence.

Personal Anecdote:
I used to think it was foolish to cycle bare-headed, I looked at a helmet debate a long time ago, looked at the evidence and now cycle happily without a helmet.


The only thing I object to are people telling me what to do when they haven't a clue about what evidence is and isn't out there, so I completely agree with:

Each to their own

 

[StuartG]

All I know is that if I am ever involved in an accident on my bike I want to be wearing my helmet. You will never convince me not to wear one and you will never convince non-helmet cyclists to wear one.

That surely is a very sad and dare I say dangerous and wrong contention.

Yes there are some on both sides who prefer to put their heads in the sand and ignore the evidence for and against helmets. Some, like you, who say they will continue to adopt a position even if it becomes clear it is dangerous to do so. You also deny that some of us (both helmet and non-helmet wearers) are open to reason and want to do the safest thing whatever that may turn out to be.

Or am I misunderstanding your position? I really hope so!

 

[iAmiAdam]

Hands up, guilty as charged, sorry I ever started it! Me and my mate go LEJOG next Wed and he's just knackered his back (not sure if he wearing his helmet!!) how best to get him at the start line???????

Get his helmet and tape it onto him.

 

[chewy]

Never really liked wearing helmets, so didn't.

But now have returned to it and always wear one. But this is probably due to it being a nice fitting helmet!

I wear it because I think if i come off I will be better protected head-wise, though I do realise that I'm actually more likely to damage limbs etc, but if it decreases the chance of any brain injury, then why not!


As a driver (car and HGV) I have never passed a cyclist and altered my way of doing so based on if they are wearing a helmet or not!

 

[the_mikey]

I always wear my helmet.

 

[ianrauk]

I never wear my helmet

 

[battered]

This isn't going anywhere, it wasn't from the off. Those who wear helmets will continue to do so, those who don't will continue likewise. Is it worthwhile contacting the mods and assembling a sticky where the 2 sides of the discussion are laid out to everyone's satisfaction *and then locking it*, and urging readers to decide for themselves, rather than wasting bandwidth on this endless tit-for-tat exchange?

 

[swee'pea99]

Where's the fun in that?

 

[StuartG]

Those who wear helmets will continue to do so, those who don't will continue likewise.

Can you not imagine a more enlightened group who are more interested in getting better research and evidence so we may make a more informed decision? Why must we limited by those who are not open to reasoned argument?

Too much brain damage already?

 

[battered]

Enlightened group? That will have people who have weighed up the advantages and disadvantages and changed their behaviour in it, I imagine.

I didn't wear a helmet in the past, then a near accident in about 2003-4 persuaded me that I would *probably* fare better in a collision on the road if I wore a helmet. Not certainly, but on the balance of probabilities, in my view and having weighed up what I considered the foreseeable range of events, so I changed my behaviour. Some few years later I *do* find myself in a serious accident, one where the helmet saved my life as I was hit by a car and I flew into the screen head-first. *Probably* saved my life, again I can't prove it, but the police witness believes the same as I do, and there is a smashed helmet in a hospital bin somewhere that supports that view.

Of course, there is always the possibility that the other driver might have seen me had I been bare-headed, or that I might have flown in a different trajectory, or that he thought "**** him, he's got a lid on, he'll live". I can't prove anything one way or another, but I know what the balance of probabilities suggests. There's only one of me though, and a sample size of one isn't worth anything. That is unless you happen to be that one.

So, can I envisgae an enlightened group? Yes. I can also envisage a group that won't allow itself to be persuaded away from its established view, regardless of how much research there may be, and I think I'm seeing a lot more of them on this thread. There are after all many millions who believe in a god, in the absence of any evidence to support this view.

I don't care whether anyone else wears a helmet, or what logic they apply to their decision. I know what I've decided, for now at least, in the absence of any compelling evidence to the contrary. As for research, yes, I'd love to see some, it would be very worthwhile. As it stands though I'm not aware of any that adequately tackles the fact that we are dealing with probabilities in situations with almost infinite numbers of variables. One thing is sure, nobody here is advancing the sum of human knowledge on the subject.

As for brain damage, yes I have, thanks. Damaged cranial nerves leading to visual disturbance, to be specific, memory loss and some mild changes to my personality. How about you?

 

[battered]

I think you've got it right sweetpea.

So, on three, once more with feeling, "I'm right, you're wrong, I win, you lose, nerny nerny"

 

[4F]

Hands up, guilty as charged, sorry I ever started it! Me and my mate go LEJOG next Wed and he's just knackered his back (not sure if he wearing his helmet!!) how best to get him at the start line???????

Did he strain his back whilst picking up his helmet that you told him he had to wear ?

 

[Ludwig]

In terms of risk cyclists are far more likely to die from lung or respiratory disease due to traffic fumes and dust on the road than from wearing a helmet. So why is there not a campaign to make the wearing of face masks compulsary?

 

[jimboalee]

In this rain, a helmet with an orange Sainsbury's bag on it.

 

[StuartG]

As for brain damage, yes I have, thanks. Damaged cranial nerves leading to visual disturbance, to be specific, memory loss and some mild changes to my personality. How about you?

Yes, considerable as can be gleaned by the eccentricity of my postings. Like being evidence rather than anecdote led. In fact my skull is just a mess of depressions from various head accidents starting when I fell out of the tin bath on a table when 3. All were sustained 'off-bike'.

As I have probably cycled for longer and further than you - perhaps I have been very lucky and you very unlucky. On a grander scale luck is gradually replaced by measurable factors. And yes, like you, I do have biases. Risk compensation being one of them. The evidence for risk compensation is strong but has not, AFAIK, been researched fully in cycling. Just as you feel, but do not know, your helmet mitigated your injuries when passing through a screen (the answer is perhaps not as obvious as you may think).

I don't have a problem that you may have always worn a helmet and until there is sound evidence they are unsafe (which there isn't) you will continue to wear one. Whereas I who cycled before helmets were invented have not been shown that they would make cycling safer for me. Hence I don't wear one. Different starting points but surely we should we should hope we will end up making the same safer choice. Not based on personal experience, but sound data.

Unless you believe in God