The CycleChat Helmet Debate Thread

[Profpointy]

I don't know what's wrong with me, posting twice in a row to the helmet thread, but I just love this picture!

"One of these is so bad for your health that Australian Governments have banned it outright for adults." - Spokey Byclemore - from Freestyle Cyclists.

This image was posted to an Australian cycling forum, so I took the liberty of reposting it here. It comes from somewhere on this site:
http://www.freestylecyclists.org/

reminicent of the American one picture showing a little girl with an M16 and another with a kinder chocolate egg: "one of these is banned in the US"

 

[simongt]

An aquaintance of mine, a casual cyclist, recently posted some selfies on Facebook after an encounter with a car. One showing a swollen and badly cut face & forehead, the other a 10cm. long 'Y' shaped gash on the back of his head.

He's since ordered himself a bash hat.

 

[Tin Pot]

An aquaintance of mine, a casual cyclist, recently posted some selfies on Facebook after an encounter with a car. One showing a swollen and badly cut face & forehead, the other a 10cm. long 'Y' shaped gash on the back of his head.

He's since ordered himself a bash hat.

Given that "Manufacturers do not appear to be interested in clearly establishing the safety worth of their helmets either,since they don't sell them as safety devices ", ask him what he he thinks he has bought.

 

[Licramite]

from local paper - Warminster journal I think - 2 bike related incidents last week, boy knocked off his bike - car did not stop, 55year old lady struck by car. both cases result was head injuries.
Now I'm not say a helmet would have made the slightest difference, (avoiding cars may have been a better strategy) but its interesting to note both were head injuries when the head is only 10% of the body - kind of illustrates in the event of a collision your head is most likely to get involved in a bad way.
(of course it could have been from head butting the driver, there a feisty lot around here)

 

[Profpointy]

from local paper - Warminster journal I think - 2 bike related incidents last week, boy knocked off his bike - car did not stop, 55year old lady struck by car. both cases result was head injuries.
Now I'm not say a helmet would have made the slightest difference, (avoiding cars may have been a better strategy) but its interesting to note both were head injuries when the head is only 10% of the body - kind of illustrates in the event of a collision your head is most likely to get involved in a bad way.
(of course it could have been from head butting the driver, there a feisty lot around here)

All very well, but (a) helmet makes your head bigger (nearly twice as big) so more likely to hit it. and (b) helmets don't seem to work in Australia for some reason, so what are we to make of that?

 

[Licramite]

Or, perhaps, when people have multiple injuries including a head injury it is the head injury that gets reported.

that still means they suffered a head injury - no?

 

[Tin Pot]

that still means they suffered a head injury - no?

So what?


I think you'll find that they suffered other injuries too.

 

[MontyVeda]

...Manufacturers do not appear to be interested in clearly establishing the safety worth of their helmets either,since they don't sell them as safety devices...

I quick way to find out if it's classed as a safety device (PPE) or not is finding out whether any given helmet is VAT free or not... i think.

 

[MontyVeda]

that still means they suffered a head injury - no?

here's something for you to ignore...

what if the newspaper reports were of pedestrians being hit, or the car occupants of an RTA and head injuries were reported? - kind of illustrates in the event of a collision your head is most likely to get involved in a bad way.

edit... i think there's some stats showing which areas of the body are most likely to suffer in collisions by various types of transport, and limbs were more vulnerable than heads.

 

[Licramite]

All very well, but (a) helmet makes your head bigger (nearly twice as big) so more likely to hit it. and (b) helmets don't seem to work in Australia for some reason, so what are we to make of that?

So your saying if they weren't wearing a helmet chances are they wouldn't have suffered a head injury as their head would not have struck whatever it was it struck. - now a helmet is only an inch thick, so head-object more than inch away no contact, head -object upto an inch away hits helmet, so the object cannot get closer to the head than a fraction of an inch or it would hit the head and so the helmet thickness would not have been a factor. - so the object can only have hit the head within a 1 inch zone and not gone beyond that zone. which means the impact that head is going to take is pretty minimal as the head will stop getting closer to the object. - (its only got a 1inch travel distance before it would have hit the object without a helmet on)
so as the head would never have made contact with the nasty sharp object it will get a bit of a jar as it comes to an abrupt stop - and then what?
Now of course you can never predict what happens in an accident - that jar may be enough to cause a concussion , on the other hand by stopping the head before it reaches the end of its arch it may stop a nasty neck strain injury.

its all luck in the end, - as they say - if your numbers up , your numbers up ;

 

[Licramite]

here's something for you to ignore...

what if the newspaper reports were of pedestrians being hit, or the car occupants of an RTA and head injuries were reported? - kind of illustrates in the event of a collision your head is most likely to get involved in a bad way.

edit... i think there's some stats showing which areas of the body are most likely to suffer in collisions by various types of transport, and limbs were more vulnerable than heads.

correct, I agree, mate of mine got hit by a car, car hit him in the legs but it was his head that got injured.
Limbs do tend to be less life threatening though. so protecting your head is probably more important than protecting your limbs.

 

[theclaud]

Liddists are always banging their noggins on stuff and going on about it. Unless they are prepared to concede that they are just a bit crap and keep falling off and crashing into things, we must charitably conclude that it's probably because they have contrived to have mahoosive heads by strapping a big bit of polystyrene on.

 

[mjr]

from local paper - Warminster journal I think - 2 bike related incidents last week, boy knocked off his bike - car did not stop, 55year old lady struck by car. both cases result was head injuries.

The Warminster Journal doesn't seem to put its news online, but given the area it covers, if one was http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2016-02-08/police-seek-witnesses-over-hit-and-run/ and the other was http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/ne...fter_cyclist_injured_in_Warminster_collision/ then those reports don't say if they were wearing helmets or not - and in my experience, that usually means they were, because police and reporters seem only to keen to mention it if not, despite wearers being the minority.

So were they wearing helmets or not?

Now I'm not say a helmet would have made the slightest difference, (avoiding cars may have been a better strategy) but its interesting to note both were head injuries when the head is only 10% of the body - kind of illustrates in the event of a collision your head is most likely to get involved in a bad way.

Cycle helmets are designed for falling onto a smooth road or a kerbstone, not for collisions with cars, so why do you think they would have helped in either collision? Was there something else in the reporting to suggest their head injuries had been similar to falling off the bike?

 

[Mugshot]

All very well, but (a) helmet makes your head bigger (nearly twice as big) so more likely to hit it. and

I've been fitting a new bathroom recently and as I've been doing it after work and the light in there is a bit crap I've been using a head torch a lot, the amount of times I've bumped it into walls and fittings is unbelievable, you really are so aware of the size of your head that compensating for the extra size the head torch gave was practically impossible. Helmetists banging their heads all the time? Doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

 

[sanddancer]

I've been fitting a new bathroom recently and as I've been doing it after work and the light in there is a bit crap I've been using a head torch a lot, the amount of times I've bumped it into walls and fittings is unbelievable, you really are so aware of the size of your head that compensating for the extra size the head torch gave was practically impossible. Helmetists banging their heads all the time? Doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Many years ago at work it was made compulsory to wear bump caps since people were banging their heads in confined spaces etc.
Then people started banging their heads even more because of the helmets and more were going off sick through stiff necks from banging their heads regularly .
they dropped the bump caps but now they are back along with safety glasses everywhere you go.
next will be claims for poor eyesight due to poor light refracting lenses worn regularly.
Its getting to a life of no personal choices.
I choose to wear a helmet but I'm so glad I have the choice for now