carpediemracing 

When I started riding helmets weren't really effective, Bell Bikers aside. Most riders used hairnets ("keeps your hair in place when you die" etc). I rode regularly without a helmet for a few "serious" years, a couple years before I started racing then 3 years of racing. I even joked that I had a "kevlar helmet" (a faded yellow Campy cap looks like the then new fangled kevlar/aramid fabric). In races I had to wear a helmet but the Brancale Giro helmet I had was just a fragile plastic shell, some straps, and some strips of padding so the plastic didn't sit on your head. I cut extra vents in the thing. A friend lightly banged his similar helmet on a fence post and the helmet shattered. They were no better than a hairnet except they would slide a bit easier on pavement. I don't think I ever fell on that helmet.

I fell a number of times with just a cap or nothing on my head. I wish I had this one crash on tape because it was a doozy. I've never crashed like this again.
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...rash-ever.html

After a few years of racing the then USCF passed a rule about mandatory minimum-level helmets in races. I bought a helmet and wore it somewhat sporadically in training, always in racing. I wanted a lighter, more ventilated helmet. At some point I found out that the folks that made my helmet cheated the tests - they tested one helmet but sold a slightly different one. My actual helmet wouldn't have passed the test. I didn't want to use their helmet (and I'd have to wait for a replacement) so (and this is the answer to the thread topic) I asked my mom to buy me a helmet (I was still a dependent) and I promised her that if she bought me the ventilated/lightweight helmet I'd wear it every time I rode.

She did and I almost did. There were two rides where I didn't wear a helmet after she bought me that helmet in I think it was 1986 or 1987. I honestly can't remember the years of the two rides. 1992 or 1993 or something like that - at that point I was on my own, owned my own house, etc.

I have a stack of helmets that sacrificed their structural integrity to help save my noggin. Now I put my helmet on and strap it to my head before I roll down the driveway. A very few times, after hot races, I've rolled along on the bike with my helmet hanging on my bars, next to someone walking (usually the Missus).

Ice41000

Rode without for years (off road, in the 1990-ties), crashed a lot and still rode without. I honestly don't remember what made me change my mind, probably hard crash and hitting my head (in a race, with a helmet and seeing how bad helmet was scratched) and I use them since.

AdelaaR

Tom Boonen rides with one.

youcoming

Since I started riding again in 2007, reason, club required it. At first I was a little hesitant but after getting immersed into the culture I've come to accept and encourage wearing them. In my area I have seen a grand total of 5 riders without a helmet.

wphamilton

It's just habit, and makes it easier for people at work to recognize me.

bobones

Back in my youth, no one wore helmets and when I fell off back then I didn't crack my head on the ground, which was just pure luck. Now everyone wears them, and in 3 recent spills I've bashed my helmet hard on the ground twice, my helmet no doubt saving me from a nasty injury or worse. Wouldn't consider not wearing one now. Actually, for my next crash, I plan to try to land on my helmet as it's much less painful than landing on the shoulder, hips or ribs.

thump55

Before I started riding, I witnessed a crash where a truck pulled out from a driveway in front of a roadie (with helmet) and the cyclist hit the driver's door broadside at full speed. His head was instantly through the driver's window, and obviously there was severe impact all around as the bike stopped instantly.

He was lucky he hit the window. If he had been one foot further forward or back, he would have struck the door post, and I would guess his injuries would have been more severe.

I will never forget the sound of that impact.

plpete

Wore one from day 1. Had a pretty major crash recently. Road rash on hip and elbow despite wearing layers of clothes. Side of my head slammed against the road quite hard cracking the helmet. I'm quite sure I might have not survived it without it. Plus, all pros wear one!

bikecrate

I've always worn a helmet. I've only needed it once. This past year I got broadsided by a car. There was a nice crack on my helmet where my skull would have been. My story has inspired others I know to start wearing a helmet.

Soloist Assassin

I found one that actually fit my head properly.

merlinextraligh

This. USCF requirement for helmets led to better helmets, lighter, cooler, and more effective. It also changed the culture because now the fast guys wore helmets flipping the "Fred" effect.

RT

Funny that a helmet thread should pop up this morning. I have always been a helmet guy, but this morning proved in spades why.

After several rounds of snow over the past month, the plows have left in their wake a lot of sand that gets pushed to the side of the road. I consider myself one of the most careful cyclists out there, but this morning was a confluence of events I did not prepare for.

Coming off of a stop for a light, I was going about 15 and turning left. My rig had new slicks that had only about 50 miles on them, and the ride was sweet. I decided to take a departure from my heavy gloves this morning as the weather was unusually mild. The Wombat glove has the tuck in mitten on the back of the hand. Having used these before, I knew they can get caught in the lever if not careful.

This time, as I turned left, I hit some sand on the new slicks, I began going down and the right mitt got stuck. Instinctively I pulled up to get it out, which about doubled the gravity in my little slow-motion world. The helmet cracked all to hell, road rash on the left side, fat lip and sore left arm. My first concern was concussion, my second was expensive dental work I just finished paying off, and the third was which side did I go down on?

A kind stranger in a pickup stopped and made sure I was ok before giving me a ride back to my neighborhood. I am going in this afternoon to have my head looked at. Can't be too careful after cracking a helmet.

I am a fan of the helmet. Sad that I am off the bike for at least a month, but glad it is not longer. I will spare you the gluteal raspberry imagery. It is the size of Canada. Tore my best bib tights.

drjay9051

What happened to make me wear a helmet??
Nothing. I wear a helmet to keep it that way.

coasting 

When I got a bike.

WingSuit

when my hair fell out I didn't want people to see my bald spot. which is a really long time ago. weirdly, a couple years ago I got ready for a warm weather ride and put my sun cap on, which i wear under my helmet. I must have gotten distracted by a bright shiny object, because I never put my helmet on. but feeling that skull cap fooled me into thinking I had the ol' Giro on. and off I went to ride. that day, not one but two vans backed out of driveways in front of me on fast descents, and I narrowly missed t-boning both of them. I never even realized I wasn't wearing a helmet til I went to take it off and only the skull cap was there. I guess that's why I was getting a lot of crazy looks, riding around looking like a pirate.

danvuquoc

I started wearing my helmet this year actually -- my front tire twisted out of the bead in a corner at ~20mph, and got caught on the brake pad and sent me flying over my bars, luckily i fell on my shoulder and ass. If I fell on my head, that would have sucked, really bad.

coasting 

Curiously, I fell this year. I landed on my chin and had concussion. I was wearing a helmet.

Smiziley

When I ride in the areas surrounding my city, drivers are hostile to any cyclist, it seems moreso to one who isn't wearing a helmet. We're getting the 2015 UCI World Championships and the surrounding counties are an infrastructure joke with a 1970s driving mentality.

Seattle Forrest

I started rock climbing. Unlike when I'm riding a bike, I have to be concerned about rocks coming down from above. Almost totally unpredictable, and it can happen at a time when you can't move as far out of the way as you'd like.

stonecrd

For about 15 years I rode all over the place without a helmet or a light at night or anything else besides me and my bike. Never bumped my head once. Then while going to college I got a summer job in the ER and saw a lot of head trauma even with helmets. Got married had kids got more responsible and now I figure why not it doesn't hurt to wear one and maybe it will save me at some point. However, in over 50 years of riding a bike I have never hit my head once (knock on wood).

TheOtherBob

I didn't wear one in college, but I always do now. What I think actually made the difference was that now I have a place to put a helmet -- in college, the problem was that if you wore a helmet, you then had to CARRY the helmet for the rest of the day. Between a full backpack of books, supplies, and all the other stuff that you lug around in school, I was already full. And anything you left on your bike, well, expect to buy a new one. When I took up biking again ten years later, I could just leave the helmet in my office -- so I didn't mind wearing one.

There's probably a simple way I could have locked my helmet to my bike -- you could probably do it with one of those little accessory cables. But at the time, I just didn't bother.

Pug

Marianne Vos rides with one, too.

mpath

OP, welcome to BF. I'm going to nominate you for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction awards....monumentally, but you survived to write about it? G-forces? How much G forces do you think a bike generates short of crashing into an immovable object? Black walnut balls on the ground? Uphill curve? Nipples ripping off? Pow and boom? Holy batman and robin......stop, stop, I can't read it any more....

jerrycan42

When they started making them out of something other than leather.

Rowan

I've put on my usual bandana which is sunburn protection for my balding pate, but forgot about the helmet. I've gone around two miles before realising, and have turned around to go back to retrieve it. Because of that law thing, I was lucky not have to been booked.