The CycleChat Helmet Debate Thread

[ufkacbln]

Another site worthwhile is:

Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

This is a US based pro helmet site, but has a lot of realistic information about helmets, their limitations, dangers and more detail on testing standards than you could ever need

 

[anothersam]

Their anti-concussion helmet looks pro-meringue

 

[ufkacbln]

Their anti-concussion helmet looks pro-meringue

It is why I like the site

It is pro-helmet, but honest about the limitations and issues

 

[swansonj]

I really, really wish I'd been wearing a helmet yesterday because I had a really nasty bicycle accident.

I was loading the bikes onto the car roof rack at the campsite, on my own because my wife had left early to go back to work, too proud to ask for help because I have a Y chromosome, and I dropped the tandem on my head.

Of course, a building site hard hat would have been more use than a cycle helmet. But just think, suppose it had been one of the chain rings that hit my head first, it might have gone through my skull, I might be a vegetable now instead of merely having had a bad headache for a while. You can't be too careful, say I, compulsory head protection when lifting anything above head height....

 

[swansonj]

Unfortunately, young children also. You see very few children wearing helmets that are correctly fitted. You only have to see some of the pics in the 'Your Kids On Bikes' thread.

Including me. I posted there recently with a retrospective of twenty years family tandeming, and I was conscious that not only did all the pics date from before I looked at the evidence and stopped wearing a helmet, in most of them the helmet is ludicrously far back. I think that says something about the psychology: I was wearing a helmet and making my children wear them, not really as a safety measure, more as a talisman (TMNs in abundance to the many people who have said the same thing). It was the act of wearing one, the declaration that I was protecting myself, that mattered, not any actual protection achieved (or not).

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Of course, a building site hard hat would have been more use than a cycle helmet. But just think, suppose it had been one of the chain rings that hit my head first, it might have gone through my skull, I might be a vegetable now instead of merely having had a bad headache for a while. You can't be too careful, say I, compulsory head protection when lifting anything above head height....

At one point I used to drive HGV's & collect from Immingham docks, I always found it funny that I had to wear a hard hat inside the cab as they loaded a 29 ton 40ft container onto the trailer, it the chains did snap & it fell on the cab I figured it wasn't going to help a great deal.

 

[MontyVeda]

At one point I used to drive HGV's & collect from Immingham docks, I always found it funny that I had to wear a hard hat inside the cab as they loaded a 29 ton 40ft container onto the trailer, it the chains did snap & it fell on the cab I figured it wasn't going to help a great deal.

common sense though innit

 

[Dogtrousers]

I don't normally come in here, but I came across this The intelligent cycle helmet that guides you on your journey Kickstarter thingy.

Some example text:
When cars approach, the wearer is notified by a blinking light on the visor. The company has developed a patented, non-disruptive, lighted visor that communicates with the rider, keeping them informed without taking their eyes off the road.

The helmet comes in five different colours, those such as orange, blue and yellow can help make wearers more viable.

There's more along those lines

Yeah, yeah. I know. I just thought you people might enjoy pointing out its shortcomings. At least it's not quite as daft as that Australian one from a couple of years ago.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Some example text:
When cars approach, the wearer is notified by a blinking light on the visor. The company has developed a patented, non-disruptive, lighted visor that communicates with the rider, keeping them informed without taking their eyes off the road.

Do they understand the issue? the problem is not normally the bike being aware of the car, it's the car driver not being aware of the bike.

 

[Profpointy]

Do they understand the issue? the problem is not normally the bike being aware of the car, it's the car driver not being aware of the bike.

... or more to the point, being aware but not giving a f&#^$

 

[Brandane]

I don't normally come in here, but I came across this The intelligent cycle helmet that guides you on your journey Kickstarter thingy.

Some example text:
When cars approach, the wearer is notified by a blinking light on the visor. The company has developed a patented, non-disruptive, lighted visor that communicates with the rider, keeping them informed without taking their eyes off the road.

The helmet comes in five different colours, those such as orange, blue and yellow can help make wearers more viable.

There's more along those lines

Yeah, yeah. I know. I just thought you people might enjoy pointing out its shortcomings. At least it's not quite as daft as that Australian one from a couple of years ago.

Hold me back; where do I queue up behind RacingRoadkill to buy one? It's got indicators and everything! I bet it saves your life when you fall off and hurt your knee, too. At last, I am converted; I NEED one of these.

 

[MarkF]

A work mate recently bought a bike as he wanted to lose weight, a full suspension, uber tyred MTB 29 'er from Halfords. A week or so later I asked him how he was getting on, he said he hadn't ridden it yet as he hadn't had time to buy a helmet. I said he might want to have read online and see if he thought he really needed one to ride a bicycle, his eyed glazed over and I knew I'd be wasting my time pushing it.

He turned up yesterday with his new helmet, it is so large and badly fitting that I reckon he could get another one under it. Now he feels safe to ride.

PS We work together in A&E and despite seeing many head injuries every single day, after 2 years in there (one of the busiest in the UK), I still haven't seen a cyclist come in with one. Still........wish I had a £ for every clinically trained professional who has mentioned my lack of a helmet.

 

[mjr]

He turned up yesterday with his new helmet, it is so large and badly fitting that I reckon he could get another one under it. Now he feels safe to ride.

Shouldn't someone in an A&E department feel compelled by their ethical codes to stop that before he hurts himself as a result?

 

[MarkF]

Shouldn't someone in an A&E department feel compelled by their ethical codes to stop that before he hurts himself as a result?

Well, he doesn't ride around the A&E dept. Nobody but me would notice anyway, helmet = good.

The hospital has 1000's of employees but I can count the bike riders on my fingers. There is a doctor cyclist I sometimes see on my way in who doesn't wear one, if I ever see her and the time is appropriate I'd like to ask her view.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I appear not to have worn a helmet since November last year, mostly because I had found a really warm woolly hat and it was far preferable to wearing a skull cap under a helmet. But, 8 months since wearing one, I find that I still feel myself more hesitant and nervous on busy roads than I'd normally be when wearing one. As I'd never worn a helmet before I was about 55 I'm slightly surprised that it's taking me so long to get my courage back. And, weirdly, I still miss the helmet the most at those busy or fast moments when any protection a helmet might offer is going to be pretty minimal. The talisman effect, no doubt. So I'll keep my St Christopher helmet just in case I have to take roads that are out of my comfort zone.

I have found that I tend to seek out quieter routes more than I used to. In itself this is not a problem - in fact I was tending to find I arrived more relaxed after a longer, quieter, less light-infected route than the main roads so I was going that way anyway. Air's probably a lot cleaner that way too.