Helmets - the definitive thread.. ** Mod Note - Please read Opening Post **

Iwannahurl

monument wrote: »

Bike share and head injuries: researchers (one referred to as already helmet-focused) misleadingly focus on an proportional increase in head injuries when all injuries, including head ones, are down... Washington Post journalist jumps on the story and make it sound worse again...

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/06/13/wapo-is-wrong-head-injuries-are-down-not-up-in-bike-share-cities/

Sounds like the researchers were looking for a particular result:

"The study basically confirmed our worries," says Janessa Graves, who works on pediatric injury prevention at Washington State University's nursing school in Spokane. She's the lead author of the study, published online Thursday by the American Journal of Public Health. "Public bike-share initiatives are great wellness initiatives," she tells Shots. "But without providing helmets, we were concerned that we would see an increase in head injuries. And we did."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/06/12/321332737/brain-injuries-rose-in-cities-where-bike-sharing-rolled-out

Another comment from Graves:

I can definitely stand on the soapbox and say every bike share [program] should have helmets available.

Good graph borrowed from Kay Teschke:




And here's a 'misinfographic' from his WaPo colleague Matt McFarland:



Neatly countered on the Boston by Bike blog:

tomasrojo

I'm not suprised by this. The bike-share programmes have taken a lot of wind out of the sails of the pro-helmet-law lobby, and also provide good data that cycling in cities isn't really all that dangerous, and to a lesser extent are hampering the campaign to denormalise helmetless cycling. So some response was required.

Dermot Illogical

While out enjoying a lovely cycle in the sun today I met a cyclist travelling in the opposite direction who started to dramatically tap his helmet, presumably to indicate that I was failing miserably to conform to his standards by not wearing a lid myself.
To that cyclist: If you're reading this, I want to repeat what I shouted at you in case you didn't hear it properly. Go fook yerself!
Who died and made you the boss of me? You absolute bell-end.

wirelessdude01

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

While out enjoying a lovely cycle in the sun today I met a cyclist travelling in the opposite direction who started to dramatically tap his helmet, presumably to indicate that I was failing miserably to conform to his standards by not wearing a lid myself.
To that cyclist: If you're reading this, I want to repeat what I shouted at you in case you didn't hear it properly. Go fook yerself!
Who died and made you the boss of me? You absolute bell-end.

Ahh would ya give over. Cannot understand why ANYONE would go out on the road without a helmet.

Lumen

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Cannot understand why ANYONE would go out on the road without a helmet.

The previous 994 posts on this thread might provide some clues.

Dermot Illogical

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Ahh would ya give over. Cannot understand why ANYONE would go out on the road without a helmet.

Perhaps you only started cycling after it became dangerous? I learned to ride a bike 42 years ago, when helmets were unknown. I love the wind in what little hair I have, and oddly enough I prefer my cycles to be uninterrupted by self-righteous cretins who want to change my "wild" ways.

MajesticDonkey

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Ahh would ya give over. Cannot understand why ANYONE would go out on the road without a helmet.

I agree with this, but I don't TELL anybody to wear a helmet.

Diarmuid

Anyone notice the third page of the Metro today? They did some spread on a Cargo bike meetup / race / event in the Park at the weekend. About 4 or 5 pictures of various riders + cargo/kids. None of the riders wearing helmets. I was both happy to see it and look forward to the letters (text message) to the editor tomorrow.

EDIT: Here it is

CamperMan

I have a Bell Piston helmet, cannot stand wearing it.. when I get to over 12 mph on the racer, the wind roar around the helmet is loud, get up to 20 mph and you have to stop and take the helmet off as you can no longer hear trucks coming up from behind you due to the excessive wind noise...

Any ideas? did I get a crap helmet or are they all like this due to the design of all the vents?

MajesticDonkey

CamperMan wrote: »

Any ideas? did I get a crap helmet or are they all like this due to the design of all the vents?

No noise from mine...never even heard of having noise problems with a helmet before!

CatFromHue

Look it's quite clear why you need to wear a helmet

check_six

CatFromHue wrote: »

Look it's quite clear why you need to wear a helmet

*vid of guy doing faceplant*

He would have wrecked a helmet there if he'd been wearing one! I think that kind of fall is pretty much the upper limit of what helmets are actually tested for, which kind of puts into perspective their limitations. (I'm making the assumption that this guy's pride was more hurt than his noggin here).

Also, @Dermot Illogical, maybe the frantic head tapping was some kind of special forces soldier signal. Do you know if you are a de-programmed super soldier? Maybe a key-phrase might trigger your training again? Does "Blood for the Baron!" mean anything to you? (prize for anyone who gets that reference!).

Bluefoam

check_six wrote: »

He would have wrecked a helmet there if he'd been wearing one! I think that kind of fall is pretty much the upper limit of what helmets are actually tested for, which kind of puts into perspective their limitations. (I'm making the assumption that this guy's pride was more hurt than his noggin here).

Also, @Dermot Illogical, maybe the frantic head tapping was some kind of special forces soldier signal. Do you know if you are a de-programmed super soldier? Maybe a key-phrase might trigger your training again? Does "Blood for the Baron!" mean anything to you? (prize for anyone who gets that reference!).

But the helmet would have saved his life!

.ak

CatFromHue wrote: »

Look it's quite clear why you need to wear a helmet

It's quite clear from that why some people should not be allowed control anything that moves on the road.

CamperMan

CatFromHue wrote: »

Look it's quite clear why you need to wear a helmet

don't think a helmet would save you if the car that was filming this ran over you...

dreamerb

CamperMan wrote: »

I have a Bell Piston helmet, cannot stand wearing it.. when I get to over 12 mph on the racer, the wind roar around the helmet is loud, get up to 20 mph and you have to stop and take the helmet off as you can no longer hear trucks coming up from behind you due to the excessive wind noise...

Any ideas? did I get a crap helmet or are they all like this due to the design of all the vents?

Take the wind-chimes out of the vents? ;-)

I've never heard of excessive wind-noise from helmets either. I've a bog-standard BBB helmet, and I've never had a problem (my max speed is somewhere around 25 mph).

Dermot Illogical

check_six wrote: »

Also, @Dermot Illogical, maybe the frantic head tapping was some kind of special forces soldier signal. Do you know if you are a de-programmed super soldier? Maybe a key-phrase might trigger your training again? Does "Blood for the Baron!" mean anything to you? (prize for anyone who gets that reference!).

I looked that up but I'm still none the wiser.

CramCycle

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

I looked that up but I'm still none the wiser.

Action Force, like the British version of G I JOE

No Pants

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Ahh would ya give over. Cannot understand why ANYONE would go out on the road without a helmet.

I recently stopped wearing a helmet and start wearing a cap instead. It's a mid-life crisis or something.

diomed

No Pants wrote: »

I recently stopped wearing a helmet and start wearing a cap instead. It's a mid-life crisis or something.

And do you wear pants?

No Pants

diomed wrote: »

And do you wear pants?

Occasionally. They tend not to be the most comfy though.

CramCycle

No Pants wrote: »

I recently stopped wearing a helmet and start wearing a cap instead. It's a mid-life crisis or something.

I went a week without wearing a helmet as my wife was away last week, but now she is back, have to put the protection back on every morning. I found I was a bit quicker in the morning but not by much.

No matter how I phrased that it seemed to sound inappropriate.

pelevin

No Pants wrote: »

I recently stopped wearing a helmet and start wearing a cap instead. It's a mid-life crisis or something.

You should be locked up for your own good. And you could end up causing an accident.

Tenzor07

CamperMan wrote: »

don't think a helmet would save you if the car that was filming this ran over you...

That was filmed by a guy who cycles around his town in the UK looking for people on bikes who make mistakes/are bad bicycle users(in his opinion).

Though certainly this bike user is a Darwin award winner and no amount of safety gear can protect against stupid!

RainyDay

CramCycle wrote: »

my wife was away last week, but now she is back, have to put the protection back on every morning.

And what about your helmet?

CramCycle

RainyDay wrote: »

And what about your helmet?

I don't like the feel of it but she makes me wear it or I am not allowed ride.

tomasrojo

Hunterbiker wrote: »

This was on BBC News this morning:

Cycling ad banned over 'no helmet' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25926572

Ban overturned.

Cycling Scotland thanked the public for getting behind the campaign to overturn the ban.

Chief executive Ian Aitken said: "The advert shows drivers the correct amount of space to give when overtaking someone who is cycling.

"People cycle for a variety of reasons, and, as such, drivers will encounter people cycling in a range of clothing styles, some with, and some without, a helmet.

"So, regardless of the reason why someone is cycling, or what they are wearing while doing so, drivers need to slow down and give as much space as they would a car when overtaking a person on a bike."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-27999347

bambergbike

The combination of my new helmet and new bike gives me a stiff neck for reasons I've yet to work out. All my town riding is unhelmeted anyway, but I'm managing to "forget" my helmet rather often on my leisure rides as well now. On Friday I remembered it, but not to the point of actually wearing it.

The first 50 km were pancake-flat and mostly on a cycle lane that's not busy, so I set off with my helmet in my panniers thinking I might feel I wanted it when I had hauled myself up to the top of a mountain range and needed to get down the other side. There was a little descent (a few km) before I got to the "real" top and I thought, well, this isn't the road down off the mountains yet, I don't need a helmet for it. Then there was a "beware of falling rocks" sign on that descent and I thought, well, it might be useful but this isn't a great place to stop for it. At the "real top" I said, well, if the road was wet, I'm sure I'd want it, but conditions are actually really good. A mile down the road, the road WAS wet, but not quite wet enough to persuade me to stop for my helmet. Ultimately I got all the way to Erfurt with it still sitting in my panniers.

I had four "situations" over 100 miles (a far worse quota than usual for me) that left me fearing for a millisecond that my epitaph might be "her helmet was in her panniers." One driver messed up an overtake and was too close, one pulled out in front of me when he shouldn't have, I had a little wobble when I completely forgot I was climbing a massive hill out of the saddle with loaded panniers and raised an arm off the bars to salute some mountain bikers, and on the way into Erfurt I was in the straight-on lane of three lanes of traffic (on my side of a six-lane road) when I suddenly had tram lines in front of me at a really dodgy angle and had to weave a little bit to take them at a better one as it didn't seem like a great place to crash.

I was only overtaken by two trucks on the way down off the hills, but it was definitely handy to be able to hear them from further back than usual. I pulled in to let one past and slowed down on a short straight stretch to encourage the other one to overtake rather than hanging behind me, rumbling and snorting, until we got to a longer straight stretch.

I'm beginning to think the helmet can sit in a box until my studded tyres go back on in the winter and I need it for the warmth and to stop my hat blowing away.

No Pants

I've stopped wearing my helmet recently, but I've taken to wearing a cap. The peak can be handy in bright sunlight or low sun, but it is really necessary to deal with sweat. If I don't wear a cap or a helmet, I have sweat streaming down my face.

Iwannahurl

No Pants wrote: »

I've stopped wearing my helmet recently, but I've taken to wearing a cap. The peak can be handy in bright sunlight or low sun, but it is really necessary to deal with sweat. If I don't wear a cap or a helmet, I have sweat streaming down my face.

At least your head is covered.