The CycleChat Helmet Debate Thread

[shouldbeinbed]

here we still have the choice not to wear one.

Unless on TV, there's more chance of seeing someone spark up a cigarette than be on a bike without a helmet.

 

[ufkacbln]

Onthe CTC website there was a question over a touring programme where the reporter rides a cycle without a helmet!(29:47)

He was however wearing a Tilley, which had proven life saving capacities

 

[mjr]

Unless on TV, there's more chance of seeing someone spark up a cigarette than be on a bike without a helmet.

Inspector Hathaway on Lewis is oftenppuffing away, but being Oxford, there are also normal cyclists in the background too.

 

[Justinslow]

normal cyclists.

Yep, helmeted and un helmeted.

 

[mjr]

Yep, helmeted and un helmeted.

You're quite right: there was an abnormal helmeted one this week. It was very noticeable because it's fairly rare on there. Even main characters ride normally, although one of the recent ones was deliberately run over as a plot point ("The Lions of Nemea")

 

[ClichéGuevara]

A programme about the second world war has just shown how US soldiers were killed because they wore M1 helmets. Seemingly the strap whipped the head back, snapping the neck in explosions, entering water or parachuting. Soldiers also complained they limit vision and hearing.

They continued with the same design for decades, even defending the choice.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

A programme about the second world war has just shown how US soldiers were killed because they wore M1 helmets. Seemingly the strap whipped the head back, snapping the neck in explosions, entering water or parachuting. Soldiers also complained they limit vision and hearing.

They continued with the same design for decades, even defending the choice.

The designers of the M1 helmets clearly emigrated to Australia.

 

[mjr]

Are all the case-control studies of helmet effectiveness fatally flawed? News from the European Cyclists Federation (an international body to which both CTC and Cyclenation belong) http://www.ecf.com/news/helmet-effectiveness-research-forced-to-go-back-to-the-drawing-board/

 

[totallyfixed]

Are all the case-control studies of helmet effectiveness fatally flawed? News from the European Cyclists Federation (an international body to which both CTC and Cyclenation belong) http://www.ecf.com/news/helmet-effectiveness-research-forced-to-go-back-to-the-drawing-board/

Good find. Some of us are not entirely surprised. No doubt the helmeted lot will contest any research that shows wearing a helmet is not all it is cracked [deliberate] up to be. After all, no one wants to look foolish after spending wads of dosh on a polystyrene placebo. Anyway, the pros wear them and the UCI can't be wrong can it?
[note to mods, can we please have a smiley depicting someone rolling on the floor and laughing so much they are crying].

 

[martint235]

Good find. Some of us are not entirely surprised. No doubt the helmeted lot will contest any research that shows wearing a helmet is not all it is cracked [deliberate] up to be. After all, no one wants to look foolish after spending wads of dosh on a polystyrene placebo. Anyway, the pros wear them and the UCI can't be wrong can it?
[note to mods, can we please have a smiley depicting someone rolling on the floor and laughing so much they are crying].

Is this one really not good enough?

 

[swee'pea99]

A programme about the second world war has just shown how US soldiers were killed because they wore M1 helmets. Seemingly the strap whipped the head back, snapping the neck in explosions, entering water or parachuting. Soldiers also complained they limit vision and hearing.

They continued with the same design for decades, even defending the choice.

There is no more bureaucratic bureaucrat than a military bureaucrat. I remember hearing that quite soon after the introduction of one of the famous British WW2 bombers - Wellington, Lancaster, something like that - it emerged that the survival rates of its aircrews was way below average. Survivors confirmed that the main escape hatch was so tight that people trying to get out often got stuck - which of course also blocked escape for their comrades. A proposal was made to increase the hatch by 8" in both directions. It then spent something like three years 'in the system', while aircrews continued to die, at a rate of 85%, v the bomber average of 30% (I can't remember the exact numbers, but they were of that order.) Eventually, approval was forthcoming, the hatches were changed, and the survival rate jumped overnight from 15% to 70%.

 

[totallyfixed]

Is this one really not good enough?

No.

 

[ianrauk]

And there you go.
I have just been talking to Mrs Ian. She has been in the local park today with Little H (5YO), he was riding his bike as he does, and does very well. Some friggin busybody mum decided to to ask Mrs Ian why Little H wasn't wearing a plastic hat, as her kid on seeing H riding sans lid now wanted to take off his plastic hat. Mrs Ian just replied with it's none of her business. . the woman's reply... I hope for your sake he doesn't fall off

 

[totallyfixed]

And there you go.
I have just been talking to Mrs Ian. She has been in the local park today with Little H (5YO), he was riding his bike as he does, and does very well. Some friggin busybody mum decided to to ask Mrs Ian why Little H wasn't wearing a plastic hat, as her kid on seeing H riding sans lid now wanted to take off his plastic hat. Mrs Ian just replied with it's none of her business. . the woman's reply... I hope for your sake he doesn't fall off

I know! It is getting worse, friends of ours don't let their young boys ride their scooters without helmets. I for one am getting thoroughly hacked off with the creeping general presumption that cycling is dangerous. It isn't, never was, and never will be.
One thing is certain, there is more vested interest in persuading cyclists to wear helmets than a cap or beanie, it does not take a genius to understand why.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Friends of ours had helmets on their kids indoors.