Helmets why doesn't everyone wear them?

[byegad]

...edit... they seem to fit with the cycling "look" ?

This is the most persuasive argument for not wearing one I've seen.

 

[Paul99]

there'll be someone along in a minute to say the helmet didnt save you and without it your skull would have miraculously not been affectd.

Its good enough for bradley and cav, so its good enough for me

I think they might be travelling a fair bit faster than you. If I could do their speeds, I would probably wear a helmet.

 

[Wobblers]

I wear a helmet now mainly because the one and only RTA I've had whilst cycling, involved a head impact that would have killed me, the Police, ambulance staff and hospital staff that treated me all agree. My head hit the ground with enough force to drive the road debris (a 10mm bolt) through my helmet and 2mm into my scalp, had I not been wearing a helmet, that bold would have gone 25-30mm into my brain.
Ok a chance in a million, but that one in a million chance happens all the time.

I think you need to compare the relative hardness of a bicycle helmet (polystyrene) and your skull (bone). That "2 mm of scalp" was skin, not bone. That ratehr suggests to me that there was insufficient force to drive that bolt through your skull.

 

[4F]

Now I feel this may be a heated subject and I'm not trying to cause unrest by why doesn't everyone wear them? Mine seems comfy, don't notice I'm wearing it. It might just save my head which is good they seem to fit with the cycling "look" ?

Last week I crashed at 25 mph downhill after a sudden front flat, I was not wearing a helmet and suffered a few scratches to the head.
A helmet did not save my life.

If you want to wear a helmet and have the "look" fine, I don't.

 

[Wobblers]

Now I feel this may be a heated subject and I'm not trying to cause unrest by why doesn't everyone wear them? Mine seems comfy, don't notice I'm wearing it. It might just save my head which is good they seem to fit with the cycling "look" ?

The word that is missing from that sentence is "not". Whole population studies show that there is no evidence that helmets offer any meaningful protection.

Interestingly, after looking at the x-rays of my broken ankle, it is very clear that most of the damage was caused as a result of rotation. This is the sort of impact that a helmet not merely cannot mitigate but may in fact worsen. I came very close to hitting my head in that crash, as witnessed by the bruises on my shoulder. Had I been wearing a helmet, it merely would have served to ensure I hit my head on the ground. The rotational forces involved would have been of a similar magnitude to those of my ankle - and it is quite likely that I would have come off rather worse. The important thing to understand is that while helmets may help in some circumstances, they can actually make things worse in others (and those other circumstances emcompass some of the most severe head injuries - diffuse axonal injury, basal skull fracture and broken necks).

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I know I've been beaten to it, but

 

[tadpole]

I think you need to compare the relative hardness of a bicycle helmet (polystyrene) and your skull (bone). That "2 mm of scalp" was skin, not bone. That ratehr suggests to me that there was insufficient force to drive that bolt through your skull.

No I think you missed the point, the bolt went through the polycarbonate shell and the 25 - 30mm foam of my helmet and then 2mm in to my scalp, had the helmet not been there, the bold would have gone in with a greater impact right upagainst bone, and into my brain. 120kg traveling at 16mph impacting a stationary object, and flying 4 metres over a bonnet, and landing head first.

 

[green1]

No I think you missed the point, the bolt went through the polycarbonate shell and the 25 - 30mm foam of my helmet and then 2mm in to my scalp, had the helmet not been there, the bold would have gone in with a greater impact right upagainst bone, and into my brain. 120kg traveling at 16mph impacting a stationary object, and flying 4 metres over a bonnet, and landing head first.

Yes but the helmet is only rated for impacts up to 12 mph.

 

[Wobblers]

[QUOTE 2052603, member: 45"]That's not strictly true. As far as I understand, testing involves weights impacting with a helmet in specific ways, and that's the impact speed of the objects. It's not possible to then translate that to the helmet's effectiveness at real impacts with objects above or below that speed because there are so many variables. It's certainly incorrect to claim (I note that you don't) that helmets don't work in collisions with road vehicles travelling over 12mph.[/quote]

It is also incorrect to claim that helmets work in collisions under 12 mph. I note that while you spare no pains to point out that claims that helmets are ineffective in high speed collisions are not true (and I've already pointed out to you that implications of the laws of physics mean that any protection is unlikely to be anything more than marginal - do I have to do so again?) you fail to mention that the opposite is just as true. Why is that?

 

[numbnuts]

....so if your wearing a helmet ride slower

 

[Wobblers]

No I think you missed the point, the bolt went through the polycarbonate shell and the 25 - 30mm foam of my helmet and then 2mm in to my scalp, had the helmet not been there, the bold would have gone in with a greater impact right upagainst bone, and into my brain. 120kg traveling at 16mph impacting a stationary object, and flying 4 metres over a bonnet, and landing head first.

Again, you're replacing science with supposition. A helmet is not designed to prevent the penetration of something small and sharp. It works by distributing impact forces over a large volume with the foam in that volume dissipating energy by progressively being crushed. A sharp object defeats that process entirely by simply pushing the foam aside. The helmet did nothing to reduce the energy of that bolt because it isn't designed to. If you don't believe me, then try seeing just how much effort is required to push a pen through a polystyrene cup, for example. And how much effort is required to push that pen through a a few mm thickness of wood (which has a similar tensile strength to bone)?

 

[Red Light]

I think you need to compare the relative hardness of a bicycle helmet (polystyrene) and your skull (bone). That "2 mm of scalp" was skin, not bone. That ratehr suggests to me that there was insufficient force to drive that bolt through your skull.

And like a lot of these things the polystyrene being soft would have channelled the bolt towards the skull once it had started to penetrate the helmet whereas without it the skull may either have never come into contact with the bolt or simply knocked it out of the way.

 

[trampyjoe]

Well, science aside, I wear one for three reasons:
1. My wife tells me to.
2. My little girl being born prompted me to be safer (even if it's just an illusion of safety)
3. Because I get enough of 'get in the cycle lane' and 'pay road tax' so I don't fancy having 'wear a helmet' added to the shouts.

 

[tadpole]

Again, you're replacing science with supposition. A helmet is not designed to prevent the penetration of something small and sharp. It works by distributing impact forces over a large volume with the foam in that volume dissipating energy by progressively being crushed. A sharp object defeats that process entirely by simply pushing the foam aside. The helmet did nothing to reduce the energy of that bolt because it isn't designed to. If you don't believe me, then try seeing just how much effort is required to push a pen through a polystyrene cup, for example. And how much effort is required to push that pen through a a few mm thickness of wood (which has a similar tensile strength to bone)?

you take a pen and poke it through 25mm to 30mm of dense foam and then tell me that it's the same as poking it through a 1.2mm of 'styrene. Strawman much.

 

[green1]

you take a pen and poke it through 25mm to 30mm of dense foam and then tell me that it's the same as poking it through a 1.2mm of 'styrene. Strawman much.

Take said bolt and throw it at sheet of plywood, then get a big thick block of polystyrene foam and throw it at that. It will bounce off the plywood and dissappear into the foam.