Today my Helmet has saved me a Headache

The Helmet debate is rumbling on, and my view is, its up to you but I always wear one..

Its late morning and the ice has melted so off into own for a few errands that are much easier on a bike during Gridlock Friday. On the way back I use a shortcut cycle-way to miss 3 busy roundabouts.. OOPS!

This fall was so fast I couldn't protect myself and banged the side of my head as I came off so I have to consider that without a helmet this would have been a significant impact.

Ah well, I now have a sore Hip and shoulder and a minor headache, I had blurred vision, but that was only a lens popped out of my glasses.. Bike fared better with only a crack in the bar end mirror..

Please fell free to chuckle at the video..

Not for chuckling at Gubs. Glad it wasn't more serious. I had my first slip on ice yesterday, but stayed upright.

 

I'm thinking bubble-wrap suit for me...

 

Gaz

Now you know why I bought a trike

Ouch!

 

I fitted a pair of these last night.

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s142p2831/SCHWALBE-Snow-Stud

They paid for themselves this morning. The road outside my house is too small to be gritted. It was like this:

That was some ice! The road before that looked wet without ice. I would have done exactly the same as you.

 

The helmet debate is an interesting one because logic doesn't necessarily give you the right answer. We tend to base judgements on past experience, but you can get unusual circumstances that nobody would predict.

 

The snowboard helmets offer a lot more protection than cycle helmets, but what's more, they keep your head and ears warm, so they're worth wearing just for that. The safety is a bonus.

Since my off a couple of months ago I always ware a helmet now ,glad your all ok and no damage to bike

I have taken to wearing a helmet as sun protection: cooler than a cap with more airflow over my bald old head. Unfortunately doesn't work as well on the trike because as you are lying down the entry vents are in the wrong place! So I only wear a helmet on hot sunny days on the upright and 98% of the time on the trike (trikes roll over when pushed too hard...).

Glad you are ok. Could have been much worse

 

I also wear a helmet . Always. I'm convinced I'd be a dead man from at least one of two major crashes in the past.

 

I wear snowboard in winter (I'm a baldy!) And a Bern peaked commuter in summer

 

It was sixsixone mtb that saved me (imho)

Glad you are ok. Could have been much worse

 

I also wear a helmet . Always. I'm convinced I'd be a dead man from at least one of two major crashes in the past.

 

I wear snowboard in winter (I'm a baldy!) And a Bern peaked commuter in summer

 

It was sixsixone mtb that saved me (imho)

I too am follically Challenged which is ok in summer but cold in winter.. People dont realize the problems we slapheads face, although tying a snowboard to ones head isnt the answer..

I prefer not to wear one, and would be against legislation that forced everyone to wear one like Australia.

 

In the country where more people ride a bike than anywhere else, Holland, people agree with me and don't wear one.

 

However I think I am now in the minority in the UK where most other cyclist I see are now wearing them.

 

There is a fierce debate about how useful your standard cycle helmet is with some evidence suggesting that they offer very little protection against serious head injuries.

 

Some also suggest that car drivers pass cyclists wearing helmets closer than those without, and that cyclists who wear helmets take more risks than those without.

 

I am not sure about those arguments and would hope a cycle helmet would offer you a bit more protection than not wearing one, however I just prefer not to.

 

There is also evidence that in Australia when wearing a helmet was made compulsory a significant number of people stopped riding their bikes and many others were put off starting.

 

The number of cyclist was so reduced by the compulsory helmet law that it was theorized that more people would have stayed alive longer if it had not been introduced due to the health benefit of riding a bike that was being missed out on by the people that were put off in comparison to those that might have been saved by their helmets.

 

Lies, damn lies and statistics.

 

My wife now makes me wear a helmet when I go skiing and I believe most ski travel insurance policies require you to wear one.

 

If I suddenly decided to buy a long travel suspension bike and throw myself at speed down as many challenging descents as I could find I would probably get myself a whole set of armour including a helmet.

 

Perhaps I am just an old hippy and the world has just changed around me!

 

Food for debate!

The snowboard helmets offer a lot more protection than cycle helmets, but what's more, they keep your head and ears warm, so they're worth wearing just for that.

 

Never thought about a snowboard helmet, but the last few mornings on my way to work have been bitter cold so I've been thinking about keeping warm. I don't tend to wear a helmet, but the idea of keeping my ears warm is quite appealing!

 

Gaz

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each to there own but that’s how quick it can happen and the results can be life changing...

There is a fierce debate about how useful your standard cycle helmet is with some evidence suggesting that they offer very little protection against serious head injuries.

Don't believe that rubbish. I went over the bars on my bike when it high-sided. I stoved in my Bell cycle helmet and the impact knocked me completely senseless. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't been wearing a helmet during that crash, I wouldn't be writing this now.

I now wear a bmx helmet with an old army combat helmet cover that I had at the back of the garage. Much more protection and warmer at this time of year.

 

 

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I didnt intend to rekindle the Helmet debate.. Just saying I would have taken a much bigger knock to the side of my head had I not been wearing one.

glad you had it on

Exactly a leg injury can be mended not so easily a brain injury

 

 

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My wife had front wheel clip edge path and slideout, she end up with massive black eye, dazzed and damage to temple part of helmet. This was at 5-10km on sealed cycleway. I've no doubt her new CORRECTLY fitted helmet saved her from worst injury. Just falling sideways at low speed onto sealed surface is all that is needed for serious injury.

For the great majority of all my cycling years there weren't any cycle helmets, I'd been cycling for just short of 40 years when the first standards for one were accepted.

 

I've never worn a helmet in 70 years of cycling, didn't wear one for motorcycling for 23 years either, and have never suffered an injury. I just prefer not to come off in the first place.

 

Ever since the nanny state was invented more than half way through my life I've had self appointed nannies telling me that it was only a matter of time before it would happen to me.

 

Well they were all wrong and will remain so, since in my eighties I've finally stopped cycling due to Reynauds and the winter cold and lack of time in the summer due to my other activities.

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I do not disagree with any of the comments made. I just want to be able to decide myself whether I wear one or not.

 

There are so many things in life that could be pivotal moments when you look back but my personal preference is to be able to make as many choices about my life and what I do unencumbered by regulation.

 

I also remember riding an old Yamaha XT500 without a helmet around the lanes of Hampshire in my late teens well after the legislation had been passed to make them compulsory just to feel what it was like (sorry mum), and found that the engine sounded worse than when I had my open face helmet on as I heard all the tinny rattling noises of the top end of the motor rather than the bass of that thumping single engine that dominated when I had my helmet on. A shattered dream.

 

My worsening hearing and mild tinnatus may not have been helped by riding motorbikes fast without earplugs or standing next to the Marshall Stack at the front of a Motorhead concert at Bracknell.

 

Etc Etc but they were my choices I would not want to change them now.

 

Then again perhaps I could take out a personal injury claim out against Lemmy's estate for not displaying the right health and safety notices,

When I was 13 I saw a mate of mine get knocked off his BMX by a car. He flew high up in the air and landed on the bonnet, spread eagle position facing the sky. His head whiolashed back and slammed into the center of the windscreen which did th at saftey glass shatter thing. He was wearing a helmet.

 

The helmet was buried in the screen and utterly mangled when removed. He just walked away with a few scratches and a headache.

 

I've never forgotten what that helmet looked like after they prised it out the windscreen though. Never will either.

When I was 13 I saw a mate of mine get knocked off his BMX by a car. He flew high up in the air and landed on the bonnet, spread eagle position facing the sky. His head whiolashed back and slammed into the center of the windscreen which did th at saftey glass shatter thing. He was wearing a helmet.

 

The helmet was buried in the screen and utterly mangled when removed. He just walked away with a few scratches and a headache.

 

I've never forgotten what that helmet looked like after they prised it out the windscreen though. Never will either.

 

Proof once again that these things happen to other people.

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Proof once again that these things happen to other people.

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For full disclosure I should have said it was 100% my friend being a bloody idiot. Poor innocent car driver

 

So you do have a point of course......but I don't think many people would see what I saw and think , you know what, that graph or report there says different to my own eyes. I'll go with that then . So we all have our reasons.

 

I don't judge , I just tell my view and why I hold it. No helmet evangelism here !