Occasional or regular non-bike helmet cyclist?

[shootingstar]

I'm starting this thread because Oak, wondered who was driving the anti-helmet trend. One of the strong anti-helmet cyclists is Mikail Andersen, the guy for Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Chic: http://momentumplanet.com/videos/mik...r-bike-helmets

It's pretty clear on his first blog which is part of his bike planning consultancy work.

I realize helmet won't fully protect me for all circumstances. But I have 1 life, 1 brain and a full life to live ahead for the next 30-40 yrs., with people who care about me. Let me live my life with the greatest comfort in my mind.

I understand that helmets seem to give an aura of dangerous sport and may put off some people. Hasn't stopped more and more girls playing hockey in North America. Hasn't stopped people from getting a car license, even though alot of drivers may experience even 1 minor accident (fender bender) in their lifetime.

But I am not riding for others to convince them. It's nice if my cycling gets people thinking beyond cars, but really I'm riding for my own physical and mental health, to save money and to have more transport options for myself beyond transit, walking. I'm pretty selfish in my cycling objectives.

Well, what are you? Or are you closet non-bike helmet cyclist but wear a helmet anyway? I know folks have made in clear in the last thread in streetwear vs. cycling clothing here on the forums.

Me:
I'm a bike helmet user all the way. Do I think cyclists should wear helmets, if they are riding on any road? Yes. If it's on a short path....maybe not.

[oz rider]

We really should limit helmets to Fridays ss. Are you talking about the 'anti-helmet' group that wants to normalise utility cycling and thinks helmets make cycling look dangerous, thereby slowing uptake? Or some sort of anti-helmet group that wants no-one to wear helmets? Or the anti Mandatory Helmet Law (MHL) lobby (which is often characterised as anti-helmet but is actually anti compulsion ime)? There is a massive difference. At various points of the compass we have the 'my helmet saved my life' anecdotes, the medical/ABI lobby, the more cyclists = safer bunch and shades in between. Have fun. heheh

[macski]

It's compulsory to wear a helmet when cycling in Australia - the police can (and do) fine you if you cycle without a helmet. But even if it wasn't enshrined in law I would still wear a helmet.

I do however have happy memories from childhood of riding a bike with the wind in my hair long before the compulsory helmet laws were passed.

[Kiwi Stoker]

I think the people supporting this are people who have never had an accident or never had an accident involving their head or face.

I have had two accidents and both times my helmets was involved. I could of lost my eyebrow and fractured my eye socket without it.

No I will ALWAYS wear a helmet not matter where I ride and how slow I am going. A friend had a slo-mo accident and ended up with serious head injuries and he was almost stationary (and no car involved, he just over balanced).

[OakLeaf]

Just yesterday I accidentally left home without my helmet ... long story, but I was really discombobulated, seriously sleep-deprived and NONE of my stuff was where it normally is. I knew something was missing but didn't figure out what it was until I was almost a mile from home. Had to ride back for it - helmets are required on our club ride, but I'd never have considered doing it anyway.

I'm a concussion survivor, no long term effects thank heaven, but hard enough that if I hadn't been wearing a helmet, it would have been very, very serious indeed.

Nevertheless, years ago (just a few years after that bici crash) I used to occasionally ride a motorcycle bareheaded, around town. Never at highway speed. I've told the story before about the last time I rode bareheaded, but it's worth repeating...

DH and I had just started dating. At the time, he lived in a state with a helmet law and hadn't ridden bareheaded in a long time (mostly because that's his preference and only a little because of the law). We went on a camping trip in a state without a helmet law, and one night we decided to ride the motos bareheaded from our campsite to a nearby restaurant, just a mile and a half each way.

The wind felt nice on our heads and all, but each of us was so terrified for the other one, that we've never done it again.

I wear mine for myself, for 100% sure ... but also, I wear it for the ones I love, and who love me.




ETA... anyone who thinks the wind in her hair is such a big deal, has obviously never ridden with the wind in her b00bs. That I probably will never have the chance to do again, but the feeling is seriously worth the risk.

[Catrin]

Last March I had a failed experiment with clipless pedals (no longer a problem but that is a different story). In the course of the many, many falls that weekend, I wound up giving myself a small concussion when my head hit a rock on one of those falls. Got a new helmet out of it - have wondered what might have happened if I hadn't been wearing a helmet.

I do not ride without a helmet, ever.

[Pax]

I wear a helmet some of the time. Same with my motorcycle and scooter.

[GLC1968]

I've known of people who have died from getting hit in the head or hitting their head when standing still (just a simple fall) and have died. As tough as our skulls are, it really doesn't take much to cause life-threatening injuries to our fragile brains. I always wear my bike helmet (and a helmet when rock climbing and probably skiing as well, if I did that anymore), no exceptions. I don't even like test riding a bike in a parking lot without one.

That said, a girl I know from another forum rides with a helmet that is SUPER cute! It's looks kind of like a hat and she even has an adorable and stylish looking flower on it. Oh, wait...I can link to her blog so you all can see it...it's so cute!

http://www.annacyclestoparis.blogspot.com/

Scroll down just a bit and you'll see her pics...

I think that for a lot of people, they just don't like to be 'told what to do'. I have a close friend who's father road a Harley without a helmet his whole life (even for the brief time in FL when it was law to wear one). He ended up being killed in an accident only a mile from his home - while he wasn't moving. Someone hit him while he was straddling his bike waiting for a light to change. And the doctors were pretty certain he would have survived had it been wearing a helmet.

[Crankin]

I won't ride one pedal stroke without my helmet on. I could care less about the wind in my hair. I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was a kid that I wouldn't do now; since there were no bike helmets when I was a kid, the analogy I can make is that I never wore a seat belt, even though they were put in cars in the early 60s. I went through the windshield in a one car accident, cause unknown, when my mom was driving when I was 15. I never, ever have been in a car without a seatbelt on since. And that was not common in 1969. No one is allowed in my car unless they put it on.
It is hard to understand why a helmet would make someone think riding is an activity that only "pros" do. That is really distorted thinking.
And taking neuroscience is only making me feel more strongly about this.

[warneral]

I like to read lovely bicycle blog. But I get a little jealous of how cute she looks on a bike! I personally wear the spandex and chamois and the ugly helmet b/c comfort and safety are more important to me. I believe she won't allow helmet talk on her comments even! I don't get it TTYTT

[Pax]

The choice to wear or not wear a helmet is based on each persons risk tolerance. For some people the act of riding a bike at all is too dangerous, for others riding is an acceptable risk as long as certain precautions are taken.

I've always found it interesting that more people don't opt to wear helmets in a car, it would definitely cut down on head injuries in car accidents... but it's never brought up or discussed as an option... and many more people drive cars every day that ride bikes/motorcycles.

[trista]

I usually wear one... because it "feels" wrong not to. Like riding in a car w/o a seatbelt. I have ridden around the neighborhood occasionally without one, but only because I either forgot or i'm just cranking my pedals after oiling the chain.

We see a lot of people without them... generally Latinos commuting to/from work, and when I see a helmet-less rider I don't think twice. Most likely, they will be fine without it.

I can see some of the rebellion against them though. When I started cycling, I was told all the things I HAD TO HAVE when I bought my bike, by my hard-core cycling friends to facebook friends to even my husband. And in the end, I realized that a lot of those things, I really didn't NEED or even want. Of course I agreed that I needed a helmet, wanted a helmet, but I can see a very rebellious person rejecting even that, just to go against the grain of the HAVE TO HAVE people.

[chryss]

This is such a highly emotive topic that I've been ruminating for a while. Given I'm a new poster here I hope it's ok to add my €/£/$ 0.02.

I'm in my early 40s and grew up in Germany. Everyone rode bicycles for transportation and many for recreation, if they were mobile at all. In my family, only my 80+ y.o. grandmother who had really bad legs didn't. Our school had a huge bike parking lot. We went out with school classes or rode to the next town over even. And no one of course wore helmets. Now I know that doesn't meant they are a bad idea at all, but it's context that's important for some. Because while it was just understood that you wore a helmet on a motorbike, moped or scooter, and a seat belt in a car -- all of which were legal requirements -- it was also understood that if your bones were of normal resistance to fracture, you didn't need a helmet on a bike.

Then when I was a young adult, little children (3, 6, ...) were being equipped with helmets while riding. It seemed a bit like part and parcel of the increase in attention to protecting children from accidental harm that has happened since the days I was allowed to run wild on my bike. And overall, in my respectful humble opinion, overprotection isn't a good thing. But it STILL doesn't mean helmets aren't a good thing.

Then the parents of the behelmeted children started wearing helmets, coming across as somewhat sanctimonious. And some of my peers did -- those that fancied themselves more macho riders. Mountain bikes had become commonplace, even inside flat towns. But also interesting new faster bikes than our old 3-speed hub geared or MAYBE tamely rear-derailleured rides of my youth.

I had a time I didn't ride much then - I was living in Paris, but when I was riding it was still without helmet.

But when I started to ride more and more over the last years, by then in London, something had shifted. Relations between cyclists and drivers were a lot more contentious than in my youth. Drivers in London and Paris, unlike Germany or the Netherlands, aren't as educated in the needs of cyclists -- because they aren't necessarily cyclists themselves. I had a lot of rather tense situations, and it started occurring to me that a helmet would maybe not be completely useless.

And then, a year or so ago, my girlfriend (who's American -- we were in a LDR then) was aghast I was riding without a helmet. Even though she's older than me, HER American socialization as a college-educated mostly sporty recreational rider (with a fast WSD Trek road bike and a good ATB for the dirt trails) had taught her that when you ride, you wear a helmet on a bike, just like you wear a seat belt or a motorbike helmet.

So I got one and have been mostly riding helmeted since then. Not always. It still feels completely ridiculous to put on a helmet to roll a km or two to the café during lunch break.

But I live in the US now, too. In Fairbanks where there are a lot of cycle accidents. And even though I have doubts about its efficiency -- after all, the road safety videos from my youth about wearing moped and scooter helmets had stressed that nothing short of a full "integral" helmet with a stiff part around the chin would protect your head -- it's probably better than nothing. Still, we saw the videos of the melon in a moped-style half helmet, which is a LOT more covering and solid than a bike helmet, and it got smashed to pulp nonetheless.

But yes. Riding faster and faster in more and more cyclist-unfriendly places it makes more and more sense.

If I were to go back to Germany or cycle around in Amsterdam, I don't know if I could bring myself to putting on a helmet, though. My old danger assessment said "not necessary, or not significantly likely to be needed or helpful" and nothing changed in the circumstances in THOSE kinds of places. I'm more feeling akin to my friends who'd think I've gone soft in my head on my old days and ask me if I wrap myself in cotton wool overnight.

So that's what I am -- one of the closet non-bike helmet cyclists who wear a helmet anyway.

[amb]

I just started riding (road) exactly 2 mos ago. I will not go on my bike without one. I've fallen twice (and a few near misses) learning to use my spd pedals. I've never hit my head but I really don't mind wearing a helmet. Mine is quite comfy.

My husband also has a motorcycle. Neither he nor I would ever ride it without helmets even though they are not mandatory. Why risk it, on a bike or motorcycle?!

[OakLeaf]

even though I have doubts about its efficiency

I know there's a dent in a helmet an inch deep (back when helmets were that thick ), and I just had my "bell rung." No, I can't say definitively what WOULD have happened. But that's a lot of force that was absorbed.