crhilton

I wear it 99.9% of the time. It's only noticeably inconvenient for a while, then it just becomes habitual. Every now and then I forget to put it on, but it's rare.

oban_kobi

I think we're talking about different bits. I found that the accidents increased along with helmet use was odd. Not... whatever that post was about.

vincev

Every time I ride my bike I wear the helmet.Potholes,gravel,dogs,blowouts,etc happen more often than you realize.I have a cracked helmet souvenier that could have been my skull.

closetbiker

maybe what you're responding to is different than what you're thinking about.

There was no talk of increased accidents. The issue was if it could be determined that helmets save lives.

ScottRyder 

Always .. two crashes in two weeks resulting in two cracked helmets. It's just not worth the risk.

Scott

oban_kobi

I was replying to this:
"In areas that have mandated helmet use and dramatically increased wearing rates overnight, there has been no decrease in deaths. In fact, in some areas (like my own province) as helmet use dramatically increased, deaths increased to an even greater degree."

The bolded part is ODD, because there is no obvious reason that would link increased helmet use to increased deaths. I'm wondering if it is because the riders have a new found confidence when wearing a helmet, thinking it will save them from thousand kilogram blocks of metal, so they ride with less caution.

closetbiker

It's not the only place this has happened. It happened in Australia too. Initially, it looked like their helmet law was a success because deaths and injuries to cyclists decreased, but it soon became apparent that what had happened was there were fewer people cycling and those cyclists who remained cycling became injured and suffered fatalities at higher rates.

No one knows exactly why this is so, but we do know that it happens. One theory is risk compensation, another is the safety in numbers research that shows,

“The likelihood that a given person walking or bicycling will be struck by a motorist varies inversely with the amount of walking or bicycling. This pattern is consistent across communities of varying size, from specific intersections to cities and countries, and across time periods.”

Val

I was trying to remember the last time I had worn a helmet, and I'm really not sure. I know it must have been at least ten years ago, but the specific instance escapes me. At the time I would wear one if I was riding with a group that required it, or if I was riding with my son, who was required to, being very young. I did fall once while wearing the helmet, but it never made contact with anything. I have hit my head while riding four times, with two emergency room visits (for stitches), but have never lost conciousness as a result of such an incident. None of those head bumps convinced me to wear a foam hat, but they did convince me to pay more attention while riding. So far, that has turned out to be a good idea.

mconlonx

I wear a bike helmet most of the time. Leftover from motorcycle ATGATT attitude. Many people wear helmets for the wrong reasons--thinking it will save their lives in truly disastrous situations featuring serious head injury;I wear a helmet aware of the limitations--may mitigate some damage in less than serious head injury situations.

contango 

I'd second that. Although for myself I'd rather keep the helmet on for the times my attention lapses or misses something. I agree with your other point, if I get run over by a bus the bit of foam around my head is unlikely to make a huge difference.

Six jours

I do find that the most ardent advocates of helmet use are often people who crash a lot. Whether they crash a lot because of their choice of activity or because of incompetence, it's hard for to me see how their experience applies to people who rarely or never crash.

Val

For what it's worth, I used to crash quite a lot. I started out trying to keep track of how many "serious" crashes I had had - "serious" being defined as something that actually impaired my function and took more than two weeks to heal. Around age 17, I realized that I had lost count, and gave it up. In those days, I tended to ride consistently slightly beyond my abilities. I don't do that so much any more, and now I rarely crash. In spite of all this, as mentioned, head injuries have never been a factor in keeping me off the bike or determining my choice of riding gear. It may be that knowing how to fall (lots of experience) is useful in this regard. Gloves are also extremely handy.

skye

Really? Is your skull as soft as styrofoam? Doubtful.

It's nice to pretend that what you're doing is Really Dangerous. But that's not really the case.

donquixote17

I never wear a helmet except when I go on a mountain bike ride, which happens about 2-3 times a year. I usually ride around 90-110 miles a week when the weather is decent. I ride on side roads that are quite safe.

I really should wear a helmet because of that 1 in a 1000 chance that you'll get in a horrible accident. But that's just a really low chance and I have yet to be motivated enough to wear my slightly uncomfortable helmet.

I've done enough biking to be plenty good at handling my bike, so I never have random crashes. And I've ridden on streets long enough to know how to stop at lights and not ride stupid. So the tiny chance of damaging my brain apparently isn't enough to motivate me to wear a helmet even though I have nothing against helmets except for them being very slightly uncomfortable.

wsbob

An uncomfortable helmet would make anyone not want to wear one. There's a lot of different bike helmets made. Seems like a good chance may exist that at least one of them would fit and be comfortable to you, or could be made to fit you and be comfortable.

Lots of people find bike helmets to be worth wearing for more reasons than "... that 1 in a 1000 chance that you'll get in a horrible accident. ...". Even a mild, non-concussion producing bonk on the head isn't fun. In a crash, a bare head sliding along the tarmac doesn't sound like the best way to keep hair and scalp intact either.

But then, it can happen that people ride hundreds and thousands of miles, over years, and never have a crash where they hit their head. The odds are certainly there. Maybe you're particularly doing the kind of riding where your odds of not crashing while riding a bike are even better than that of general types of riders.

chasm54

There isn't much doubt that a skilled and experienced adult cyclist, riding defensively in non-competitive situations, is very much less likely to have an accident than the statistics suggest. Cycling accidents are concentrated among the young - kids have most accidents - and the incautious. Drink, poor lighting, failing to stop at intersections, getting stuck on the nearside of long vehicles are frequent factors. Avoid these mistakes and your chances are extremely good. Here in the UK there is one cyclist killed for every 2 million miles cycled. Given that I avoid the risks described above, I'd say my chances of getting killed on the bike are less than 1 in 4million per mile cycled. Those odds are good enough for me not to worry about helmets, even without getting into the argument about whether helmets are any good.

no motor?

Only when I ride outside, never when indoors on the trainer.

CritEastwood

Always when planning on pushing the limits of speed and equipment, rarely otherwise.

tomg

I wear a helmet every time I ride any of my bicycles.
To the side, everytime I drive a car or truck, I use a safety belt.
Just do it. It becomes a no thought, safety choice practice!

trustnoone

When training, anytime I'm riding with someone else, and now most of the time since there is snow on the roads and that can be unpredictable.

Never on rides under 10km and clear roads. Were I back in the city I might re-evaluate that practice.

Six jours

One third of all motoring fatalities involve head injuries. If you are truly interested in safety, you'll start wearing a helmet in your car. Just do it!

RichMac

Oh, we no longer have the photo of the crushed head guy?

I was going to say how excited I was to know that helmets now prevent birth defects. That would sure be handy.

trustnoone

True enough in that they prevent birth:



Probably not the right forum though.

RichMac

Are you high?

Of course Trojans don't prevent birth, they're a common cold ailment.

NaBlade

Always. There's just no joy in my head hitting the pavement (or anything hard that is), no matter how trivial the impact is.