The CycleChat Helmet Debate Thread

[mjr]

If memory serves, the ASA have rapped someone's knuckles for claiming something similar quite recently. If you've got nothing better to do, probably worth a punt.

Most recently, Rutland Cycling but before that, Las Victory Supreme and last year someone called Mugshot spotted Halfords mismarketing helmets.

It seems helmet marketers are frequent liars.

 

[mjr]

the light of recent heat I left my helmet at home for today’s commute in order to avoid with a sweaty mess of hair. Normally I don’t have this luxury but my girlfriend is visiting her folks so there is no one to look out for my well-being, happily. It was a nice feeling. I generally wear a helmet just to avoid arguments and worry.

It might avoid arguments, but if anyone who was really looking out for your well-being wouldn't be starting arguments about no-significant-improvement things like cycle helmets...

 

[MontyVeda]

Most recently, Rutland Cycling but before that, Las Victory Supreme and last year someone called Mugshot spotted Halfords mismarketing helmets.

It seems helmet marketers are frequent liars.

you could drop the 'helmet' and it'd still ring true.

 

[Starchivore]

It might avoid arguments, but if anyone who was really looking out for your well-being wouldn't be starting arguments about no-significant-improvement things like cycle helmets...

I agree and have explained this but in the end it’s just not sinking in and it’s easier for me to please my girlfriend and my mum and wear one. I think a lot of people are in that position. I don’t have to, of course, but I don’t mind that much really. I like having it attached to the strap of my rucksack when I walk into work, to mark me out as the courageous ecowarrior. Or something like that. And if I look like a mess the helmet is there as a visible excuse- “yes he looks like a sweating unkempt mess but he’s come here on the bike, fair enough”.

 

[srw]

Perhaps they've been taking hints from Labour leadership challengers...?

I thought liar Corbyn had redefined himself as "not a challenger"...

 

[AnneW]

the light of recent heat I left my helmet at home for today’s commute in order to avoid with a sweaty mess of hair. Normally I don’t have this luxury but my girlfriend is visiting her folks so there is no one to look out for my well-being, happily. It was a nice feeling. I generally wear a helmet just to avoid arguments and worry.

That added nothing to the thread but everything has already been said anyway so I think It’s all good.

I wear my helmet when in traffic, just in case it helps (a former colleague had a fall in the 80s, hit her head and it was believed that her helmet helped reduce damage). Of course it might not help.... but worth a go.

I also wear it at night as I have an extra set of lights on it, I like to think that they help too.....

I'm not adding to the thread either, not sure either side can ever win......

 

[glasgowcyclist]

the light of recent heat I left my helmet at home for today’s commute in order to avoid with a sweaty mess of hair. Normally I don’t have this luxury but my girlfriend is visiting her folks so there is no one to look out for my well-being, happily. It was a nice feeling. I generally wear a helmet just to avoid arguments and worry.

That added nothing to the thread but everything has already been said anyway so I think It’s all good.

"If there's one fear that promotes helmet use the most, I'd guess it's not fear of injury, but fear of finger-wagging"

GC

 

[anothersam]

1972: dad stops station wagon a little too suddenly while I'm sitting in the back, causing me to go sliding into a fan. Eyebrow scarred for life. Wasn't wearing a helmet.

1974: playground mishap in which my head meets the concrete, resulting in an awesome goose egg. Wasn't wearing a helmet.

1976: fall 20 feet out of a tree. Break two teeth and puncture an eardrum. Wasn't wearing a helmet.

1988: hit by a car as a pedestrian while on a crosswalk. Knocked unconscious. Wasn't wearing a helmet.

1992: driving a car when another car rams into mine. Smash my head into the windscreen. Knocked unconscious. Wasn't wearing a helmet.

2001: walk into a lamp post while deep in conversation. Bong! Wasn't wearing a helmet.

2005: catapulted over the handlebars after hitting a pothole late one night. Knocked unconscious. Wasn't wearing a helmet.

If there had been news accounts of these incidents, my lack of a helmet only would've been mentioned once.

Cycling isn't dangerous. Life is.


(One could argue I should be wearing a helmet all the time. I would only suggest that the skull appears to be up to its job.)

 

[benb]

The other day I had a close overtake. When I inevitably caught up with them and politely asked for a bit more space, they berated me for not wearing a helmet.
Funny how they are so concerned for my safety that they will lecture me on my choice of headgear, but not so concerned that they will actually drive safely around me.

 

[ianrauk]

When I inevitably caught up with them and politely asked for a bit more space, they berated me for not wearing a helmet.

I think a lot of us have had the same experience Ben.

I remember once getting some jip from a driver. In the middle of the road, blah, blah, no helmet, blah, blah... he soon shut up when I pointed out to him that he was breaking the law by not using his seatbelt. Nobber.

 

[mjr]

The other day I had a close overtake. When I inevitably caught up with them and politely asked for a bit more space, they berated me for not wearing a helmet.

I hope you told them that helmets don't work against cars and not to change the subject. Courage!

 

[mjr]

http://www.motorbiketimes.com/featu...as-much-protection-as-no-helmet-$21383483.htm

Primary source for that seems to be http://www.joms.org/article/S0278-2391(13)01329-3/fulltext - a study of "253 motorcyclists who sustained craniomaxillofacial injuries and were referred for outpatient treatment" and rather than the spin that MotorBikeTimes put on it, the researchers condemn all helmets with "crash helmets did not always offer adequate protection against craniomaxillofacial injury, especially open-face helmets. Thus, further investigation into helmet types and quality of protection offered is recommended" although, bizarrely, the discussion has a different conclusion "the use of full-face helmets to prevent or decrease craniomaxillofacial injuries is recommended."

That is only one year of willing outpatients from one hospital in Sobral, Brazil, though, so there is a small risk that there's something in local conditions or which crash victims were eligible and willing that resulted in that finding.

Given that most pedal-cycle crash helmets are open-face, I wonder if this result would be replicated if we ever studied enough full-face helmet users.

 

[ufkacbln]

Headway are an organisation who have failed to understand this.

They heavily misquoted a paper from the British Dental Association to falsely inflate the extent of cyclist head injuries.

However the actual focus of the paper was how present helmets failed to save from facial injuries and whether the BDA should be seeking to promote helmets with facial protection

 

[anothersam]

Although I'm a confirmed skeptic when it comes to the pro-helmet research out there, I don't discount all of it. What I do sometimes wonder is, how many of us make a decision based on studies, and how many on gut feeling/peer pressure/dressing the part/worried loved ones etc.

 

[ufkacbln]

Although I'm a confirmed skeptic when it comes to the pro-helmet research out there, I don't discount all of it. What I do sometimes wonder is, how many of us make a decision based on studies, and how many on gut feeling/peer pressure/dressing the part/worried loved ones etc.

Up to the individual really.

The ideal is that the choice is personal, informed and free from pressure / emotional blackmail

That is why it is important to put the limits of these helmets, challenge the lies and propaganda of some pro-helmet campaigns and provide a touch of realism