The CycleChat Helmet Debate Thread

[martint235]

I know the mantra - everyone else is ill formed, susceptible to marketing and prone to social compliance.

Well if you're well informed, please share the information and data? If you'd told us 136 pages ago that you had all this to hand we could have saved ourselves a lot of time.

 

[ufkacbln]

I know the mantra - everyone else is ill formed, susceptible to marketing and prone to social compliance.

The lack of knowledge on helmet efficiency at higher impacts, the "melon" test, the emotive "wear a helmet or you will become a vegetable fed by your family" would certainly not suggest the posters are well informed

 

[Justinslow]

Riding slowly in icy conditions Cunobelin assesses that he has an increased risk of a slow speed impact. This is exactly the sort of impact for which a helmet may offer effective protection.
Riding slowly with your kids you choose not to wear a helmet, even though that is when one may be effective. Riding fast in a group on the other you do wear one, even though this is when it is less likely to help.
One of you is thinking about the issue logically, while the other isn't. Do you need telling which you are, again?

So it's ok for you or @Cunobelin to decide when to wear one but not for me? And you wonder why people get confused at your message? Hypocrisy does work both ways doesn't it.

 

[Mugshot]

HERE you go Justin, knock yourself out.

 

[Justinslow]

Just Cuneobelin actually but the key point is that he decides on a sensible risk based assessment. You on the other hand think that this is what you are doing but get it arse about face because you are confusing gut feeling for sensible risk assessment.
That aside, as @User13710 says, no one is telling you that you cannot choose. You are creating yourself some completely artificial victim status.

So we have this

the situations where they might have helped are so remote that we cannot detect it in the data. So overall they offer no statistically significant benefit.

Then we have this

helmet promotion puts people off cycling, so anything promoting helmets is doing more harm than good.

And this

Every helmet wearing cyclist projects an image of cycling as a dangerous activity. It all adds up to a negative overall effect.

And then the fact that @Cunobelin wears a helmet sometimes

Riding slowly in icy conditions Cunobelin assesses that he has an increased risk of a slow speed impact.

So in summary,
1, According to evidence helmets are not statistically effective in reducing head injuries
2, By wearing them we are promoting a negative image of cycling
3, If you are going slow and/or in "difficult" conditions, it's ok to wear one because actually it could be dangerous,
however no3. contravenes no.1 in that we should at least see some benefit of helmets in Australia and NZ because they do get ice/snow or difficult conditions aswell, but we don't see any benefit?

This is indeed confusing.

 

[Justinslow]

No it isn't, you are just looking for it to be confusing because it suits your game here.

Actually no3. Also contravenes no.2 aswell.

It's no game, do you think there may be more to "helmet wearing" than just "data" and "evidence"?

 

[Poacher]

It's no game, do you think there may be more to "helmet wearing" than just "data" and "evidence"?

I'm sure there is more to it: "unfounded faith" plays a major part.

 

[MontyVeda]

...
do you think there may be more to "helmet wearing" than just "data" and "evidence"?

absolutely... fashion (AKA cycling chic).

 

[Justinslow]

I'm sure there is more to it: "unfounded faith" plays a major part.

absolutely... fashion (AKA cycling chic).

And let's not forget the urge to conform, to feel part of a special 'club', to be just like all your chums, rather than someone who thinks for themselves and doesn't care about conformity.

Yes those must be the reasons for @Cunobelin wearing one........

 

[Mugshot]

It is getting very hard to view it as being in good faith.

Don't give up yet Adrain, I think you're starting to get through.

 

[martint235]

Don't give up yet Adrain, I think you're starting to get through.

 

[benb]

Even on the occasions where I do wear a helmet (when mountain biking, as I fall off quite a lot, at low speed!), I don't think that it will make the difference between a slight head injury and a severe one, or between a severe head injury and death. I think it will probably prevent a cut, scrape or bruise.

 

[MontyVeda]

Yes those must be the reasons for @Cunobelin wearing one........

i can only comment on my own choices and decisions. If it was me on a trike in the bleak midwinter... I'd be wearing a very woolly hat.

 

[ufkacbln]

So it's ok for you or @Cunobelin to decide when to wear one but not for me? And you wonder why people get confused at your message? Hypocrisy does work both ways doesn't it.

Nope - it is perfectly fine for people to make an informed decsion.

It is equating higher risk activities to low risk activities and trying to justify the same "need" in the lower risk

This message is clear throughout, make your own informed decision on your risks and activities.

... and for the umpteenth time, you have yet to justify your absurd claim that you have been told not to wear one.

 

[Hacienda71]

Even on the occasions where I do wear a helmet (when mountain biking, as I fall off quite a lot, at low speed!), I don't think that it will make the difference between a slight head injury and a severe one, or between a severe head injury and death. I think it will probably prevent a cut, scrape or bruise.

You might want to change your avatar.