Bike Helmets: Stupid Hat or Essential Protection?

Ever since I learned in motorcycle training that having your head go into a immovable surface (curb, tree, etc) at just 10mph can easily kill you, I wear one while skiing and bicycling. Just like seatbelts in a car, I don't feel safe enough anymore without wearing one. I've always worn 'heavy' helmets for the motorcycles anyway, so the lighter ones for bikes and skiing are barely noticeable.

Had a workmate that said helmets are 'just for kids', he was riding his bike home from work one evening and slipped on some sand on the path while rounding a corner that he'd ridden hundreds of times prior. No cars involved, nothing but him his bike and a pavement. His head hit the cement path, and he was dead before an ambulance arrived.

No helmet.

His funeral was the largest I've ever attended (200+) and his teen son reading a eulogy was something I'll never forget.

I miss him. He was a great guy, intelligent and funny and always had interesting stories, enjoyed discussing conspiracies - but more the ones with evidence (COINTELPRO etc) over pure speculation. The one dumb thing I thought he did regularly was ride daily without a helmet.

So yeah, you guys who think helmets make no difference - you're wrong. The impact forces delivered to your skull is enormously reduced by wearing a helmet, and everyone that chooses not to wear one is convinced, "that won't be me, I ride safe, I know the path well". You're wrong, and you're gambling with your life - for what?

For me, the truth is I barely notice I’m wearing a helmet, and cars barely notice me as a cyclist even exists.

So even if a helmet only does half of what it claims to do, I’ll take that chance in an accident with a giant metal box on the road.

Studies in USA show automobile drivers perceive helmet less bicycle riders to be more dangerous so they give them more space. Therefore it is safer to not wear a helmet, up until the point your head makes contact with something. That said I always wear a helmet. Been hit by cars twice, twice cracked my "styrofoam hat" but not my skull.

Most stupid discussion ever. I remember a couple of years ago when there where motorcycle riders protesting a new helmet law ( I think it was NYC). Dude won the Darwin awards smashing his head and it was concluded that he probably had lived if he had a helmet.

I wear a helmet. Either I'm mountain biking, or I'm in a bike lane along cars, where I'm riding in the 22-25mph range and the cars are in the 45-50mph range. If I get directly run into, it probably won't make a lot of difference, but if I get clipped/knocked down, way more likely, it quite likely will.

I don't think they should be mandatory, but it does bring up the same arguments that get made about motorcycles - if you don't wear one and you crash, will the (horrible, shitty, awful, stupid, American) insurance industry try to reduce their liability? Rhetorical question, of course they will.

If you feel safer in your Styrofoam hat wear one, if you don't then don't.

We've been debating this shit for 40 years

Even if you exclude injuries from automobiles, head injuries are far and away the most common serious injuries people get while cycling. This entire debate is idiotic. Wearing a helmet is such an easy thing to do and has basically zero downsides.

This shouldn’t even be a question.

Two bicycle accidents here, both involving cars who couldn’t be bothered to look around them when circulating. In both cases the helmet saved my life.

When I see hipsters on their brake less fixie with no helmets to make sure their hair don’t get messed up, it makes me shiver. It’s such a simple thing to do that brings a maximum of protection.

I would be dead a few times if not for my bike helmet.

Eww, a helmet discussion on the internet! Lemmy had a good run almost without them.

Anyway, stupid hat 😆

Here's the thing...yes, wearing a helmet is less safe than having bike infrastructure. No doubt about it.

But I don't fucking HAVE safe bike infrastructure. Also, I am very involved in bike safety advocacy, so I'm not exactly just shirking all safety responsibility onto a silly hat and expecting things to be fine.

We can throw off the dualistic thinking for a second and acknowledge that, yes, helmets are a very imperfect solution that puts the onus of protection onto riders. Also, it'll save your goddamn life.

If I didn't wear a helmet, I never would have gotten married and my kiddo would never have been born. I'd have died on a sidewalk (or in an ambulance) on the side of a residential street on a multi-use path where a dumbass teenager was going 35mph the wrong way on an electric scooter at night.

@lgsp I'm a fan of requiring them over 25kmph. Yes this is largely unenforcable, so no one will be fined. But it still gives the message that if you go fast you should wear one.

But it also gets out of the way of people riding to the corner store for milk

When I was a teenager I had a bad wipe out cycling off road doing about 30mph that resulted on me landing on my head. I was knocked out, swallowed my tongue, and if it wasn't for my friends stopping myself from choking to death I would have been dead, as it was I had a concussion and an overnight stay in hospital. But if I had not been wearing a helmet I would have been dead on impact. I think its pretty telling that all my friends invested in helmets after that.

Even in non car areas you can fall from relatively low speeds and have a bad time.

What I do not like is that a significant number of other road users are more likely to see you as less human for helmet wearing than not: https://road.cc/content/news/cyclists-wearing-helmets-seen-less-human-301661 This has a negative impact on how they treat you on road.

This video is a great example of a seemingly simple topic having more nuance than you might expect.

Having used my helmet multiple times it’s fairly obvious to me they actually performa a useful function. As far as I’m concerned the only controversy is whether they should mandatory or not (and I don’t think they should). But otherwise, if you choose to wear one I think you ARE doing yourself a favor wearing one.

I have seen far enough people died who could have survived if they wore a helmet. I rather keep wearing one. The same thing when in any two wheeled vehicle.

https://youtu.be/b9yL5usLFgY

Grew up riding mountain bikes, skateboards (street) and snowboards 25+ years ago. I laughed at the snowboarders wearing helmets and told friends who were getting into the sport not to bother with them. Got married and my wife made me get a helmet (lame, but whatever), then I had some kids.

8 years ago, I crashed snowboarding on an easy green run when going in for lunch. I was with a friend (rare for me as I usually went alone) and was taking it easy on an otherwise chill day. I ended up with two broken vertebrae, a tibial plateau fracture, a broken shoulder, and a concussion - i have no recollection of the accident, going down the hill in a sled on a backboard with patrol, taking an hours-long ambulance ride from the mountains, or any of my time in the ER - I apparently just kept repeating the same couple of lines to anyone I talked to, including my wife.

I got back into biking a couple years ago and am now riding more than I ever did growing up - I avoid cars/paved roads and mostly ride gravel, single track, and multi-use paths now. I wear a helmet every time i go out. I went over the handlebars a week and a half ago while riding alone. I didn't hit my head - just a hard landing, some scrapes and a bruised ego - but just another reminder how quickly things can go bad and how little control over the situation you have when it does.

A sweaty head and some random person thinking i don't look cool aren't really big concerns of mine (i also don't think I look very cool so I guess that makes two of us).

I wear my helmet. Comes in real handy when I hit my head against the ceiling of my basement.