MikeyMK

Never even owned one.

raria

I don't mean to be judgmental, but are you kidding? I'm curious about riding that you do that you don't feel a helmet is necessary ever.

ridelikeaturtle

If you fall off (or get knocked off) your bike and suffer a traumatic brain injury that could've easily been prevented, that does affect more than just you. The cost of your treatment (for the rest of your life) and immediate health care is massive. At the least, that will drive up insurance prices for everyone. If you were a considerate person, you would understand the potential effect on family members, coworkers, etc.

So yeah, people do care what others do, when it directly impacts on their lives, and indirectly on the quality of life of everyone. It's called, "living in a civilized society".

I-Like-To-Bike

Yes you do, take it to the sticky thread set aside for such stuff.

KraneXL

All it takes is once. Even if it wouldn't save you from a serious injury it can at least provide some protection from being disfigured in minor accidents. If you don't think bike helmets work, drop a hammer on the helmet from 4 ft., and see what happens. Then drop it on your head.

One more thing, nothing will diminish sympathy quicker from someone in healthcare than getting a head injury and then finding out you weren't wearing a helmet.

Maelochs

How many horses did you have to follow for how long to collect all that?

By your estimation, we all should live wrapped in bubble wrap, telecommute to work, and do all of our exercise in our home gym ... leaving the home is incredibly dangerous, and driving kills 40 K per year.

We should all be vegetarians who don't smoke anything and drink a glass of wine and a cup of coffee once per day--medicinally. And we should relieve and bathe ourselves in pits ion our back yards bacause so many dangerous falls happen in the bathroom.

It amazes me that people can post such completely absurd stuff and think they are making anything like sense.

Try this: If cycling is so dangerous and risking any kind of injury is anti-social ... then No One Should Ride a Bike.

By your own "logic."

indyfabz

After seeing a wrench I knew at the hospital in the aftermath of a closed head injury she suffered as the result of a slow-speed collision with a car, always. At least she was out of her medically-induced coma when I went to visit. But she did still have her hands tied down and breathing tube and feeding tubes in. When I first entered the room and saw her constantly squirming, like her brain was on fire, I thought I was going to puke.

IBTM/L

DrIsotope

I would never tell anyone to wear a helmet. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I would never tell a stranger to wear a helmet. I yell at my wife because she's forgotten her helmet (again) regularly. Because I probably care more about her brain than I do about my own.

Everybody else? What do I care. Go for it. Helmets suck. We all know it. We search for the one that's the "least uncomfortable." I would love to ride without one. But I also wouldn't like to have to relearn to walk, or be restricted to soft foods. So for me and mine, helmets.

ridelikeaturtle

You're amazed because you don't understand the concept of "acceptable risk", and instead choose to spew insincere extremism and false equivalency.

Cycling isn't dangerous. Hitting your head on the road from a height of 5-6 feet is incredibly dangerous.

Get a bit of cop on. Everything has a cost. Traumatic brain injury (high cost) is easily preventable by wearing a helmet (low cost). You're not giving up your personal freedom or "becoming a vegetarian" to do it.

Maelochs

First ... prove this. You say no one wearing a helmet ever got traumatic brain injury? Okay ... sure ...

Second ... cycling isn't dangerous .. but cycling injuries are? That is freaking ... well .... no words i can say here.

On top of that ... by your "logic," anyone who uses the medical system is driving up costs for everyone else. If the injuries people can suffer while cycling (High Cost (or do you deny that anyone has ever been hurt cycling?)) can be avoided by Not cycling (NO cost) then by your own logic it is socially irresponsible to ride a bike.

I broke one collarbone and separated the other shoulder in bike wrecks. Helmet made no difference. There is another poster in 50+ who broke his femur and pelvis. Think the full hip replacement cost much?

Your position is logically unsupportable. if cycling is an elective activity which brings the potential of expensive injury, and risking expensive injury is socially irresponsible, then elective cycling is socially irresponsible.

Sorry you cannot be honest.

I argue that I have Zero social responsibility to keep myself from being injured. The actions of insurance companies are Theirs, not mine. And my life, so long as I live it within the law, is Mine to live. But that's okay ... because your position is illogical regardless of my own.

ridelikeaturtle

The level of stupid in your posts... is impressive. Truly remarkable. <sigh>

bikingbill

Do folks ever wear their helmet in an automobile?

Maelochs

Everyone knows that wearing a helmet won't lower the incidence of head injuries in an auto accident.

Only those pansy racing dudes wear helmets ... wimps.

bikingbill

O'Rily?

mackgoo

This poll doesn't have a choice for me. I just don't always wear a helmet. I used to always then I went riding with an old pro from the 70's, Polish national champion for 1977, and he doesn't. So I've started and enjoy not wearing a helmet. I have starting getting concerned about example though. There's probably at least 10 kids in the neighbor hood. I've started thinking about what they may think seeing me not wearing a helmet so I have started again. So my answer will probably be always. Except for my grocery getter. I will not wear a helmet going to the store.

tagaproject6

Helmet threads are always:

I'm surprised the mods let it get this far.

wphamilton

Possibly of interest: https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0614213630.htm "the effect of helmet use on the risk of TBI (and concussion) was not significant."


Specifically with bikes, some researchers claim that crashing with a helmet have about 50% reduction in TBI. Or, as in this study, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26254573 72% less likely to sustain TBI. Either way, it's not easily preventable, nor even a great deal preventable. 50% or 72% preventable.



You also need some way of measuring the actual chance of a crash or other event that might lead to head injury, before understanding "acceptable risk". Some people judge that chance to be extremely small, making the risk "acceptable". Somewhere around 1% of the ER visits, which visits are themselves infrequent. So wearing the helmet could help in .0072 (1% times 72%) of ER visits. Now multiply that .0072 times the chance of an ER visit on a particular ride and it may be a reasonable "acceptable risk" for maelochs.

Riveting

I'm guessing that many of us perform preventative maintenance and daily inspections on our equipment in order to avoid our rides ending prematurely. I always wear a helmet for the same reason. I've had minor crashes (at 20 and 27 mph) where the helmet very likely stopped me from getting a gushing head wound (at the very least) and prematurely ending my ride so I could go get stapled up.

Maelochs

Hmmmmmm ..... as in so many other threads ... Value ... is .... Subjective.

I am amazed at how many people think they have completed figured out life ... nor just their own lives, but Life ... and therefore have to ensure that everyone else has to live by their logic.

Because if that is how a person thinks ... that person has not figured out Anything ......

MikeyMK

I currently have seven bikes, including a petrol powered one, an even faster electric one, an electric recumbent trike, a BMX (if not just because i've always had a BMX), a tandem.. I've been a keen cyclist for a full 40yrs and i've had a few crashes! Some nasty!

I have never needed a helmet.

ridelikeaturtle

Anyone reading this thread should read that article. The sentence you picked out does not seem to reflect the "key findings" of the research, and the methodology used is (as always) quite important. I'll post them here, in case people can't be bothered to open the link and read it for themselves; but I hope they do anyway:
"... not easily preventable... can you say that again? Are you and I reading the same thing? A 50% or 72% reduction in TBI is a highly significant reduction, just by simply wearing a helmet.

However one wishes to calculate the probability of being in a big crash where you hit your head, it would be worthwhile to at least consider the potential effects of that risk (again, however high or low or whatever you feel about that). I found this article interesting, if anyone has doubts about the costs of traumatic brain injuries. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699059/

KraneXL

Lucky you. By the time you do need it you'll realize its too late. It took me two head injuries and 30 total stitches before I got it through my thick head. Threads like these weren't around then. If they had been, I'd have been a lot smarter sooner.

wphamilton

It addresses the key (only) point you made. I agree, and I think everyone does, that helmets effectively prevent minor injury. Don't know why it was important to you to post that from the article. What IS relevant is that Traumatic Brain Injury was NOT "easily preventable" as you claimed, and in fact was not preventable at all with helmets according to that article.


Not easily preventable, and I'll also repeat "not a great deal of reduction". You can argue all day long that a reduction of half is a great deal or "preventing" traumatic injury, and I won't participate either way. I'm just presenting the facts, and if someone's take is "they don't prevent TBI, but they cut it down by maybe half" then I've succeeded.

KraneXL

Helmet are not a perfect solution, nor are the designed to protect you from a severe impact. But even in minor accidents that would only result in a cut or scrape, I'd rather the helmet took that damage/blow than my head. Wouldn't you? Its still a lot cheaper than a doctor's visit. And much less painful.

Maelochs

Two points:

"Non-helmet-wearing participants were more likely to sustain injuries (TBI, OTHI, and injuries to other body parts) than helmet-wearing participants." So .... that makes no sense as regarding the protection offered by helmets. if people wearing helmets are less likely to be injured At All ... the the helmets play what role? How am I less likely to get road rash on my thigh if I wear a helmet?

This says to me that the helmet/no helmet divide doesn't address the differences---in which case there is no valid "control" group and thus no valid comparison.

Myabe the helmet-wearers are more cautious in general ... and gain no significant advantage from wearing a helmet because they simply don't crash as much, and in actual crashes, have the same incidence of head injury.

Maybe the people who wear helmets are mostly too timid to ride busier roads, and don't commute regularly in the same numbers as non-helmet wearers. Maybe a significant number of helmet -wearers only ride MUPs and in closed suburban neighborhoods.

Basically, if there Seems to be a correlation between Any injury while riding--not just head injury---and wearing a helmet, then the figures are meaningless because the scientists are trying to measure a different dynamic, and don't even know what it is. The science isn't ready and the numbers are not conclusive---no one knows What is causing fewer injuries Overall among helmet-weaers---but that might be the factor (or factors) which provide the greatest increase in safety. But helmet-wearers, eager for any "proof" that they are "right," simply overlook the contradictions and crow about what they think is :"evidence"--even though it is actually evidence that no one knows.

"When involved in a traumatic event, non-helmet-wearing participants had a greater risk of sustaining OTHI. However, the effect of helmet use on the risk of TBI (and concussion) was not significant."

Here is another important bit of information. When someone does crash, a helmet might prevent scrapes ... but has no significant impact on preventing TBI.

Try to stop rejecting "inconvenient truths." The "Truth" revealed by the very article cited as "Proof" that helmets provide a significant measure of safety if worn, states quite clearly that wearing a helmet has no significant effect at reducing TBI.

Here ti is again .... sorry if you don't like the facts stated in your own "proof," but ....

"However, the effect of helmet use on the risk of TBI (and concussion) was not significant."