I have my mind changed about helmets!

[subaqua]

Are they Shimano or Campagnolo clippers? One brand is much, much better than the other.

and we all know SRAM are better than either of them 2

 

[subaqua]

I wonder if the internet had been available for the masses in the 70s 80s etc whether people would be arguing online about the merits of wearing seatbelts while driving, or not drinking(alcohol for the dangly necklaces*on here) and driving.



* I got told to stop being a pendant a few years ago.

 

[PK99]

. The reason why the phrase 'some evidence' is used in this particular context is because the evidence of increased rotational injury is about motorbike helmets. If you have evidence that cycle helmets cause this sort of injury: produce it.

All the evidence i have seen on that is of the form of speculation that helmets might potentially cause rotational injury - i have asked may time in other places for evidence (medical papers, decided court cases etc) which show that the potential has followed through to measured effect. None has ever been forthcoming.

Helmets are there to give some level of protection in low probability, high consequence accidents. Potential rotational
injury accidents are a small subset of the already small proportion of accidents that test the helmet

 

[davefb]

Plastic is awesome!
Seat belts and airbags are plastic, no?

theres also cotton in seat belts, but yeah nylon is amazing...





has this study been linked before ?

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/episrv/episrv-bike-report.pdf



disregarding the helmet issue, its quite an interesting study..

 

[Red Light]

Helmets are there to give some level of protection in low probability, high consequence accidents.

ITYM low probability, low consequence accidents. People make the mistake of thinking they are for high consequence accidents but a simple look at their specification and testing shows they are not.

 

[screenman]

I hope that a crash helmet may make the small percentage difference between saving my head or not, sure it has it's limitations everyone knows that.

So can anyone who is anti helmet actually hand on heart say that and provide the proof to go with it that helmets are unsafe.

I await with excited anticipation.

 

[Mark_Robson]

I hope that a crash helmet may make the small percentage difference between saving my head or not, sure it has it's limitations everyone knows that.

So can anyone who is anti helmet actually hand on heart say that and provide the proof to go with it that helmets are unsafe.

I await with excited anticipation.

OMFG you've done it now. We will be inundated with pictures of thudguards and misrepresented statistics before you know it

 

[ianrauk]

I hope that a crash helmet may make the small percentage difference between saving my head or not, sure it has it's limitations everyone knows that.

So can anyone who is anti helmet actually hand on heart say that and provide the proof to go with it that helmets are unsafe.

I await with excited anticipation.

I have yet to see an anti helmet poster on this forum.
Anti compulsion, yes, anti helmet, no.

 

[Red Light]

I hope that a crash helmet may make the small percentage difference between saving my head or not, sure it has it's limitations everyone knows that.

So can anyone who is anti helmet actually hand on heart say that and provide the proof to go with it that helmets are unsafe.

I await with excited anticipation.

I don't think anyone is anti-helmet, just pro-choice.

But as for the evidence you request, you might start with Rodger's review of 8 million American cyclist injury records over 15 years that found "bicycle-related fatalities are positively and significantly associated with increased helmet use"


Reducing Bicycle Accidents: A Reevaluation of the Impacts of the CPSC Bicycle Standard and Helmet Use Rodgers GB. 1988. Journal of Products Liability: 1988,11:307–317

 

[mickle]

I have yet to see an anti helmet poster on this forum.
Anti compulsion, yes, anti helmet, no.

I'm anti-helmet.

 

[ianrauk]

I'm anti-helmet.

You are a friggin helmet Schmickle

 

[jefmcg]

Helmet myth #253: Helmets make your head hot.

Wrong. The aerodynamics of modern helmets increases airflow over the bonce - resulting in a greater cooler effect than a helmetless rider in the same conditions.


There are many other, much better reasons not to wear a helmet than this.

I'm a helmet wearer, but I don't believe this. When I wear a helmet, my hair gets sweatier than when I don't. So either I sweat more (my head is hotter) or I sweat the same or less, and there's less evaporation == less airflow.

I'm guessing these tests were performed on standard (hairless) dummies.

 

[dellzeqq]

I have an easy system, I wear a helmet because I want to, I've had grit and bits of car removed from my skull so I wear one out of choice, I've never looked at the evidence either way and if in some peopes eyes it makes me less of a cyclist then tough, it gets worse I don't wear lycra either, another personal choice.
At the end of the day that is what all this debate boils down to, your own personal choice, nobody should say we are wrong because of the type of bike we use or clothes we wear, it doesn't make you less of a cyclist, your choices just make you different from the next person, it would be a boring place if we were all the same or felt that we needed to force our choices on everyone else, end of lecture

that's not a lecture, that's an eminently sensible summing up of the whole debate.

I was saved from serious injury by a helmet. I no longer wear one. That's my choice. I don't intend to persuade anybody to wear or not wear a helmet (although I did go to town to prevent helmets being compulsory on the Martlets ride http://fnrttcmartlets.blogspot.com/ )

 

[4F]

I have yet to see an anti helmet poster on this forum.
Anti compulsion, yes, anti helmet, no.

I'm anti helmet threads

 

[User482]

Why not? Anecdotes are obviously evidence for those who choose to wear cycle helmets as putative protection (witness the OP), so why can't those of us who choose not to regard them as worthwhile protection* use the same dumb tricks?
*There is no good (i.e. peer-reviewed and reproducible) evidence that they provide worthwhile protection.

Because two wrongs don't make a right.

Here's an anecdote. Last year, I fell off my bike, hit my head on the ground and cracked my helmet. What does that tell us? Absolutely nothing (other than I should slow down when it's frosty), as I've no way of knowing what injuries I would have sustained, had i not been wearing a helmet.