Riding w/o a helmet

I have made a concerted effort to ride every other day, unless something comes up that makes it impossible--so, no excuses. This morning in my haste, I loaded my bike onto the car., grabbed my keys, ID, auto/health insurance cards, a couple of bucks and water. I drove to my destination, unloaded the bike, rode about a quarter of a mile when I realized I drove off without my helmet and gloves! Of course, anxiety swept over me as I imagined what could happen. I decided to ride only on the bike path (My original plan was to ride a loop which was half bike path and half road)--and cut the time short. Although I was on a no auto bike path, I was still paranoid! Has anyone else done this--and what did you do?
I know this is a stupid question, but I sincerely struggled with this.

I'll ride to the store (four blocks away in a residential neighborhood) without my helmet, but for any place I have share with cars I'll have it on.

I forgot my helmet once when I was doing a training ride for a double century. I rode about 30 miles without it. My husband was doing sag for the ride - we were riding up the back side of Mt Hamilton middle of nowhere with no options for refueling. He brought it to me. We didn't want to wait for him to show up at the ride start since we had a long day - about 150 miles ahead of us.

You know as kids we rode without helmets. Yeah, I think it's a good precaution, but I'm going to live my life and ride my bike. And I'm certainly not going to "judge" adults who choose not to wear a helmet. Out nanny state irritates me. :eek:

Veronica

I can't ride without one. I'm too clumsy and I'm sure it would be THAT day that I would manage a fall. The only time I rode without one was this summer at campground and it was sooooo fun nothing on your head. But I started to think of something bad that could happen and next ride I had it on.

I certainly have a problem with people who don't use a helmet. IF you fall or someone bumps into you or whatever it just takes hitting your head in the right spot and you'll have a serious injury. It's just not worth it to me.

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Originally Posted by thekarens

It's just not worth it to me.

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There are lots of things that are not worth it to me. But that doesn't mean I get to impose my will on others. If I could impose my will... oh boy! That would be cool! :D

Veronica

Fortunately, no one "shamed" me--it was all self imposed. I have to admit I did think of the times when I was a kid when helmets were non existent (I was a product of the '50's). I have decided to buy a second helmet and leave one in the car, so this doesn't happen again. Thank you all for your input.

Students all over campus - no helmets, ipods earbuds in, running stop signs. Crossing streets without looking. Riding the wrong way up the middle of the street. It makes me want to tell their parents they are wasting that tuition money.

Welp, AFAIC, presence or absence of cars really has nothing to do with it. Honestly, in a collision with a car, a helmet probably isn't going to help. The only times I've landed on my head have been in single-vehicle wrecks. When a bike crashes without colliding with another vehicle, it tends to throw the rider violently on their head. If I hadn't been wearing mine back in '87, being dead is about the best thing that would've happened to me.

A couple of years ago I was headed out to the club ride, a little bit discombobulated since we had a houseguest staying in our downstairs where I normally stow my bike stuff, and I got about four blocks before I realized what that strange naked feeling was. I went straight back home for it.

It's been a while since I trotted out the story about the last time either DH or I rode our motos without helmets ... We'd just started dating. At the time he was living in a state where helmets were required, so it had been a very long time since he'd ridden without one. Also at the time, I'd often ride short distances at lower speeds bareheaded. One night we decided to leave our helmets at our campsite and ride to a restaurant a mile or two down the road. By the time we got back from dinner, each of us was so terrified for the *other* one that we have never done it again.

But, I also feel like everyone needs to make her own decision about that. The only thing I can't abide is seeing helmets dangling from the handlebars or bungied to a rack. If you're going to have one with you, for crying out loud, wear it.

Personally, I always wear a helmet, and I insist that my son do so too. The way I ride and the places I ride, I've ending up hitting the deck about once a year or every other year, crashes where wearing a helmet has helped. I also get very wary when I see other people not wearing helmets in traffic, as it signals to me that this is someone who doesn't cycle much and is happy to take chances. This is because in Norway helmets are pretty much the norm.

However, I've read enough statistics on how helmets won't help in serious crashes, and the negative sides of mandatory helmet use, to realize that my view probably is heavily tinged by habit. I probably could ride safely without a helmet, and I'm sure other people could too. In Denmark they do, all the time. So I try not to be too black and white about it.

I never ride without a helmet. Period. Even for a little test in my driveway. I've had a few crashes and none of them involved cars; always my own fault, the fault of another rider, or environmental conditions. My helmet took the brunt in the last major one in 2007. Although my head and neck hurt for a week and I had an MRI, I was fine, no TBI.
I admit I do get upset when I see others ride without helmets. Around here, you don't see it too much, but when I was going to school in Cambridge, I would say about 75% of the commuters didn't wear one, as per Trek Dianna's comment. Also, I get really upset when I see parents riding without helmets and their kids have one on. I admit I have made comments to people in these situations, as well as when I see teens or kids riding with the helmet dangling on the bars. Probably the best one was when DH and I were coming home from a ride and were about half a mile from our old house. We came upon our neighbor, riding with his kids (about 10 at the time), going the wrong way down Burroughs Rd, a narrow country road that has a good deal of traffic. He didn't have a helmet on and the kids' helmets were on incorrectly. We both said something, fixed the kids' helmets, and suggested the dad get one, and told them riding against traffic is against the law. Of course, Mr. Acton Boxborough football hero from 1981 did not get a helmet, and a few weeks later was arrested for DUI in just about the same spot we saw him riding.
This probably says nothing about wearing helmets, but I fully admit, it gets me upset when I see others not wearing one.

I always ride with a helmet, but if I had been in the same situation as the OP, I probably would have done the same thing - take a short greenway ride and hope for the best!

Forgot my helmet once riding to volunteer at the bike co-op (less than 3 miles from home). It only happened because I took the Trek that day so I could do some work on it during adult shop time, that bike is kept in the basement, and the helmet was with the Surly which is in the kitchen and is the bike I usually take. So, I brought the bike up and forgot to go back upstairs to get my helmet (oops). Realized it when I was more than halfway to the shop so kept going, but was embarrassed to be setting a bad example by arriving there without my helmet!

One of the joys of visiting the Netherlands is that I always ride without a helmet there. The bike I ride there is more of an upright model and the infrastructure is very much designed around bicycles. Here in the U.S., I wear a helmet when riding my road bike. With my commuter bike, it varies. A few blocks to the store, I may not wear the helmet. More than that, I generally do. My thinking around this has evolved. While accidents are always possible, I don't think riding a bicycle at a commuter speed is inherently dangerous. Even as a pedestrian, I can step off the curb funny and trip & bang my head or break an ankle. I don't judge others in the U.S. for riding with or without, other than kids. IMO, children should always wear helmets (mine did) as they just don't have the coordination and judgment yet that experienced adult riders have. And with the hills around here, kids can pick up speed very quickly.

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Originally Posted by Veronica

There are lots of things that are not worth it to me. But that doesn't mean I get to impose my will on others. If I could impose my will... oh boy! That would be cool! :D

Veronica

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Trust me, I have no desire to impose it on others, just like the people who don't use a seatbelt or ride their motorcycle without a helmet. My next door neighbor lets her 5 year old ride both motorized and pedal vehicles without one and he's a little daredevil, but I don't say anything because that's their business. It's not worth it to me, but it's not my or my family's health that's at risk.

FWIW a guy in our bike club was hit by a car and the helmet saved his life. He still spent a month in the hospital, but he was saved permanent brain injuries and is riding again.

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Originally Posted by thekarens

Trust me, I have no desire to impose it on others, just like the people who don't use a seatbelt or ride their motorcycle without a helmet. My next door neighbor let's her 5 year old ride both motorized and pedal vehicles without one and he's a little daredevil, but I don't say anything because that's their business. It's not worth it to me, but it's not my or my family's health that's at risk.

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Took me a long time get to this point but I'm there, that pithy phrase "not my circus, not my monkeys" reminds me that I need to keep my sights on my own business, I don't have enough of an attention span to spread it around. :D

I can honestly say that when it comes to kids, I will never "get there." I don't say anything to roadies who are helmet-less, but that is extremely rare in these parts. It's the newbie recreational types that seem to bother me. While commenting to adults is not the thing I always do, I'd be lying if I said I've never done it. I don't sit around and think/worry about this stuff, but when I see it, I do get upset.
Yeah, I know the stuff about the nanny state, etc. Perhaps that's why I like living in Massachusetts.

I hate seeing people riding without helmets in the US, kids or adults, path or road. And I absolutely always wear one here -- would feel naked without one. But interestingly, in Belize, where literally NO ONE wore a helmet, it didn't bother me because it was just the cultural norm. I admit that I also did not wear a helmet there. There are few vehicles (mostly other bikes and golf carts), and because of bad roads, speeds are slow. Riding a beach cruiser on the sandy beach path and even on the bumpy road, I never worried about not wearing a helmet and never had a problem. I did fall a couple of times in the sand (slow speed spin out type falls), but never hit my head. I know many of you here would not have even taken that much of a chance, but culturally, being from the US, we were already "different" enough, that I just didn't care to stand out even further from the local crowd. When in Rome, I guess...

Yeah, that was part of my point, Emily, that how we behave is affected both by the real risk (traffic vs no traffic, slow vs fast) but also by the culture component. In a culture where "real cyclists " wear helmets, wearing one signals that you probably are aware of other things, like visibility. Or vice versa, not wearing one signals to me someone who doesn't care. I usually don't get to watch them long enough to tell if they're actually running real risks or not. I'm viewed by everyone I know as a dedicated cyclist, that is reason enough to not skip the helmet even if it's just for pedalling slowly uphill the half a mile on a cycle path from the grocery store.

In the OP's situation, I probably would have made exactly the same choice. As others have pointed out, that's not entirely logical -- you can certainly have a serious crash without cars around. But it "seems" safer to be away from cars.

I occasionally take off my helmet if I'm cycling very slowly in a park and looking for birds, but other than that I always wear one. I keep the helmet on the bike, so forgetting it is less likely.

I see a lot of people cycling without helmets; it would never occur to me to say something to them. Recently I saw someone cycling with a helmet-less (and very young) infant in a backpack. I found that shocking and upsetting. I hope they weren't going very far, and I hope they got there safely.