Kids and crash hats...

[Dave5N]

I learnt to ride a bike when I was three or four, can still remember vaguely being pushed along by my dad, rode everywhere until I was about seventeen and got my first motorbike, which was also the same time that I first put on a helmet.

Surely by making them wear helmets they will not learn to be more careful on their bikes and to protect themselves. Maybe they will turn out to be more reckless once they get behind the wheels of a car?

Surely? Certainly?

Maybe. Maybe not.

 

[wafflycat]

My son is 19. He first went on a bike at age 6 months. The first time he wore a lid was aged 6 months (pretty much same reason as PBTim gives). He's always worn a lid when cycling. Doing time trials, as a junior he had to wear a lid under the rules anyway. Wearing a lid has never put him off cycling. He's been cycling 'seriously' since age 15/16. He still wears a lid be it when he's on his basic MTB, his hack road bike, his good road bike or his time trial bike or on the odd occasion he's used my 'bent trike. He's also got a damned sight more road sense than any of his non-cycling peers. Being on a bike, on the road, I made sure he learnt to cycle assertively & safely. He cycled to high school regularly (11-mile round trip) and then to sixth-form (26-mile round trip) in all weathers, on road. Being on the bike taught him road sense. He wears a lid, but he also knows that wearing a lid does not render him invincible. What keeps him safe is cycling *properly*, assertively and safely and there's more to that than whether or not he wears a lid.

 

[Dave5N]

Good post. And that safe assertive cycling has come from riding with good safe assertive riders and having proper coaching.

As far as youngsters are concerned, the debate's a bit academic anyway if kids are in a proper club, as hlemet-wearing should be mandatory. It certainly is for Go-Ride clubs.

 

[Chuffy]

The lid isn't the key thing really, is it? I'm working on a magazine article at the moment (well, not right now, it isn't my day job) and I have a regular battle with the (non-cycling) ed about people wearing helmets. She's convinced that everyone in a photo has to have one or the world will end and we'll be sued into oblivion. Drives me round the sodding bend!

 

[wafflycat]

My offspring never had 'proper' coaching to ride on the road. I tried to get it but, very long story, there was nada available. So it fell upon DH & I to 'coach' him. I would have preferred him to have 'coaching' elsewhere, as it's one thing dear old mum and dad saying it, but it's quite another when it's from 'coach' Anyhow, we did what we could. We cycled with him on roads of varying kinds. Him in the middle, one of us in front & one behind. We did all the stuff.. starting off, road positioning, left turns, right turns, junctions, signalling, roundabouts... the lot. We went through the Highway Code, not cycling on pavements, stopping at red lights.. the lot.

The first time he cycled to & from school on his own I was a nervous wreck all day. But he survived. I can utterly understand the parental emotion behind wanting to protect kids from risk, but wrapping them in cottonwool does them no favours long-term. Teaching them how to assess and deal with risk is much better for them, even though it can leave a parent worried sick...

One of the things that is often put over as a worry about lids, that of them being 'uncool' and kids not wearing them, just didn't enter the equation for my son. He *knows* he makes that lid look good and he developed a taste for things such as a Met Stradivarius... or a Bell Meteor II... or Bell Sweep... Of course they had to be in the correct colour to go with his CSC kit & Cervelo Soloists... then the Zipp wheels.

Did I mention that when a kid takes to cycling it can get expensive?

 

[Dave5N]

Sympathy, Chuffy. I'm not urging everyone to wear a helmet. I do, though I never used to, because of peer pressure, setting a good example and because if all other factors are equal it could be useful.

Having said that, I don't like them and I don't like the idea that they could discourage adults from getting on a bike.

I wouldn't want them all over my article, either.

All I was saying was that I do insist my nippers wear one until they are old enough skilful enough and experienced enough to really make a reasonable risk assessment for themselves.

 

[Dave5N]

WC - that sounds like proper coaching to me. In any event, BC coaches cannot coach on the road anyway.

 

[domtyler]

Sympathy, Chuffy. I'm not urging everyone to wear a helmet. I do, though I never used to, because of peer pressure, setting a good example and because if all other factors are equal it could be useful.

Having said that, I don't like them and I don't like the idea that they could discourage adults from getting on a bike.

I wouldn't want them all over my article, either.

All I was saying was that I do insist my nippers wear one until they are old enough skilful enough and experienced enough to really make a reasonable risk assessment for themselves.

Do you let them climb trees? Or stairs? Or walls? Are they allowed to play football or any kind of contact sport? Where do we draw the line?

 

[wafflycat]

I tried time & time again to find out if there was any local authority or plod-run stuff akin to the Cycling Proficiency Test we did as kids. In my area there was nada. So it feel upon DH & I to do it. What we did seems to be very similar to the now national standards for cycle training.

 

[Dave5N]

I draw the line at riding a bike without a helmet.

 

[Crackle]

The lid isn't the key thing really, is it?

No it's not the key thing. For kids, riding on the road, it's almost superflous. Instead teaching them roadcraft is key but they don't just ride on the road. Mine may start on the road but finish in a local wood, where they do drop off's, jumps and other such kiddie things. Even up at school they are pulling wheelies and chasing each other round the playground (on bikes) and it's doing those kind of things for which I insist they wear their helmets.

As for risk assessment, well I don't know what age that kicks in. It hasn't kicked in for my 10 year old yet, whereas my 8 year old is a lot more circumspect but they both learn through experience. Once son number 2 had had a tilt at the wall with his head and produced copious amounts of blood they both started wearing their helmets without argument; the lesson was learnt, far better than my words could illustrate. In fact the resultant picture, no.2 son insisted I take, was duly shown around school and led to an upsurge in helmet wearing (it's a small school)!

 

[laurence]

The lid isn't the key thing really, is it? I'm working on a magazine article at the moment (well, not right now, it isn't my day job) and I have a regular battle with the (non-cycling) ed about people wearing helmets. She's convinced that everyone in a photo has to have one or the world will end and we'll be sued into oblivion. Drives me round the sodding bend!

hmmm... i had this when i wrote a piece about preparing for the London-Brighton for the beeb. as i had to say you should wear a helmet as it could protect you i also added that glasses were essential as you were more likely to get something in your eye than fall off and bang your head (and that getting something in your eye would make you more likely to fall off). i likened it looking at a car windscreen after a run to the coast and imagining it was your cornea. they didn't seem to realise what i'd done, just that i had mentioned that helmets were quite a good idea.

 

[Crackle]

Do you let them climb trees? Or stairs? Or walls? Are they allowed to play football or any kind of contact sport? Where do we draw the line?

I couldn't answer that for your or any others children I don't know. I know full well what mine are capable of though and what I'm comfortable with them doing. That's what makes these debates difficult, each choice is personal.

Instead it's more about what inhibitions we as parents have and how we recognise them and overcome them. Only when you've done that can you let your own kids develop their full potential and allow them to test their own limits.

As for helmets not being worn in the past, well I find that a moot argument. When I was a kid they didn't exist now they do. I think there are good practical reasons for kids to wear them which have nothing to do with kids being limited by them and everything to do with them stopping injuries they might otherwise get. Whether they fall off and wreck their head or their helmet doesn't matter, the lesson should still be learnt but with the helmet on they learn it by examining the damaged helmet and thinking what might have been.

 

[domtyler]

It is a difficult one, I haven't had to deal with it yet as mines only one. She is constantly banging her bonce at the moment, several times a day, should I get her a helmet for toddling around the house do you think?

 

[Crackle]

No!