mickle
innit
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I said there is no evidence that cycle helmets prevent head injuries. Prove me wrong.
How can wearing a helmet offer no protection from injury?
- Thread starter Cyclopathic
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I said there is no evidence that cycle helmets prevent head injuries. Prove me wrong.
Kleban
Active Member
Let me say, once again, that I am new to cycling and this forum. I do believe that the wearing of a cycle helmet will afford some protection against sustaining serious head injury in the event of an accident. However, that is my opinion, and I'm in no way forcing my belief on others. If another cyclist chooses to wear a cycle helmet, or not, that is their decision.
But please, answer this question. If the cycle helmet is of no value, then why do they still manufacture them? Why do cyclists partaking in the many sporting events; Tour de France, Olympics, Organised Club events etc, wear a helmet?
But please, answer this question. If the cycle helmet is of no value, then why do they still manufacture them? Why do cyclists partaking in the many sporting events; Tour de France, Olympics, Organised Club events etc, wear a helmet?
captainhastings
Guru
- Location
- West Wales
I have seen pictures on this forum of people who have had a crash and shown there helmet with a whooping great crack in it. So surely if they hadn't worn a helmet it would have been there head that got cracked ?
Little yellow Brompton
A dark destroyer of biscuits!
- Location
- Bridgend
Tour de France ? Sponsors
Olympics? Mixture of UCI and aerodynamics
Club Events? People who can't understand statistics and fear of being sued.
Why do they still manufacture them? 50p of foam sold for >£100 ?
Forget the worldview that a helmet is a good thing and approach the idea of it from a fresh perspective, go to the website of Bell or Specialized or Met or any of the the manufacturers, or even Wiggle or SJS or Evans or any retailer, see if you can find anyone one of them that tells you that their product will offer "protection against sustaining serious head injury" and when you can't ask yourself if they thought that they did, or could prove that they did, woudn't they be screaming about how good they are?
1. The head might not have made an impact if it was not made larger by wearing a helmet.
2. The force that a helmet takes is really relatively small. An impact which can break a helmet might not cause much injury to the skull.
3. If the helmet got cracked and stopped any superficial injury to the head, that might mean that someone with an internal injury rides home instead of going to hospital.
4. If the helmet does have a positive effect (and I personally believe that it might) in some incidents, then that is offset by the negative effect that it has in other incidents.
Has anyone got a link to the (I think Scottish) cyclist who head butted a coach which stopped in front of him? One of the few video examples where I don't think there's too much doubt that the helmet helped.
Conversely, I've currently got a sore neck caused by my helmet. It was the classic, I was walking under a tree this afternoon and a branch (which I would have cleared without the helmet) snagged in one of the vents. It hurt like heck, and I was just ambling up the path.
Little yellow Brompton
A dark destroyer of biscuits!
- Location
- Bridgend
Answer in two parts
Part one a helmet is not the same as a skull
A cycle helmet is designed to absorg 1000 Joules (J) of Kinetic Energy( KE) an average adult skull will withstand approx 6000J before cracking.
Part two It wasn't meant to crack
A cycle helmet is designed to crush, so reducing the de acceleration of the head. a cracked helmet simply shows that the point load was applied to fast for the foam to crush , it coudn't absorb the KE and broke. If you were in a car accident and your seatbelt snapped you woudn't be very pleased with it would you, yet it seems that a falied helmet is exhibited as a form of trophy!
Helmets cure ingrowing toenails, must be true here it is in black and white.
I also bumped my head on a branch like the other poster, I was doing about 14mph not ambling along, still smiling as the helmet did it's job. No I would not have missed the branch with my helmet as it smacked me just above the right temple.
What also have I learned from that experience, do not ride in our local forest when the wind is 45+mph and big lumps of canopy are falling all around. What should the other poster have learned from bumping into his tree? he should allow an extra couple of inches for his helmet, but there again they are so light and easy to wear we tend to forget they are there.
I also bumped my head on a branch like the other poster, I was doing about 14mph not ambling along, still smiling as the helmet did it's job. No I would not have missed the branch with my helmet as it smacked me just above the right temple.
What also have I learned from that experience, do not ride in our local forest when the wind is 45+mph and big lumps of canopy are falling all around. What should the other poster have learned from bumping into his tree? he should allow an extra couple of inches for his helmet, but there again they are so light and easy to wear we tend to forget they are there.
Out by a factor 10. A helmet is designed for 90-100J impacts. The impact energy to fracture the human skull is 700-1000J.
I've done that too, although it was dark and raining and the weight of the rain on the leaves meant that the branch was probably a foot lower than it was the night before.
I should have ducked going under the canopy earlier but, firstly, I didn't realise quite how much extra height there was and secondly, it was a tunnel-type affair through brambles and a weeping willow. I didn't expect anything to snag and, even if I did, I wouldn't have expected it to have caught tight like that.
Two reasons. Sponsorship money and UCI rules require helmets to be worn since 2003. On organised club events its usually the insurers who insist on it.
When the UCI first tried to introduce the rule in 1991 the riders went on strike against it and it was dropped. It was then introduced in stages 12 years later. Since the helmet rule was introduced deaths of professional cyclists per annum has trebled.
But perhaps I could ask you a question. Formula 1, Indy Car down to club racing events all have helmets as mandatory. If they are of such value why don't car drivers wear them?
Roll cages. I'd wear one in any vehicle fitted with a roll cage, whether mandatory or not, as you will crack your head on it at some point.
Little yellow Brompton
A dark destroyer of biscuits!
- Location
- Bridgend
Mea culpa! Serves me right for relying on memory! :-(
Angelfishsolo
A Velocipedian
- Location
- Cwmbach, South Wales
May I sugest that it is to do with the speeds that these cars travel at and also the minimum distance between the cars.
Little yellow Brompton
A dark destroyer of biscuits!
- Location
- Bridgend
In 20 years of competing in motorsport the worst injury I had was caused by a helmet! :-(
We hit a particularrly large yump on the Scottish International Rally and my helmet got jammed between the roll cage and the seat head rest, wrenching my neck as i came back down and my helmet/head didn't!
A bit like bike racing as opposed to going for a spin with mates for commuting to work.
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