A great video that boils down to a point I always try to make here but do poorly. Helmet use while cycling is a risk assessment just like helmet use for any activity. Anyway enjoy and put the fun between your legs!
by TurtlesAreEvil
A great video that boils down to a point I always try to make here but do poorly. Helmet use while cycling is a risk assessment just like helmet use for any activity. Anyway enjoy and put the fun between your legs!
by TurtlesAreEvil
13 Comments
A helmet is always going to be cheaper than a visit to the ER and I don’t care how it looks if it saves me from brain damage.
These stupid posts come up all the time, yet here I am taking the bait anyway because it’s one of the most idiotic things in the world to advocate AGAINST a basic safety precaution.
I’m a helmet guy. I don’t have the newest most expensive helmets, but I feel better wearing my magic hat. I was wearing my bike helmet while playing roller hockey with some work guys. They teased me a little, until one of them took a tumble that rolled him onto his head and he scraped off a patch of hair.
According to this logic, there is no need for seat belts and airbags in cars.
I was always meh about helmets until my dad crashed his bike and slid down the road going at a high speed. his helmet was scraped down an INCH. Like, the side of it looked like it had been shaved down with a file. (We also spent hours removing all the gravel from the side of his arm and leg and ribs). I always wear my helmet now.
I haven’t watched the whole video yet, but anything that helps people understand that helmets are good for safety AND lots of things are much more important is great.
I always find it a little surprising that even in cycling focused conversations people get caught up in pro/anti debates when that isn’t the point.
Everyone should have the option to wear a helmet and information about its benefits. No one should be required/expected to wear a helmet, and it shouldn’t be the first question anyone asks when someone gets hurt on a bike.
Edit: having watched enough of the video I think you kind of missed the point unfortunately. Spending so much time on whether helmets make people safer is a little silly and it’s part of why people see this stuff as “anti helmet”.
This is a conversation that needs better framing, not more statistics.
I crashed head on into a windshield, wasn’t wearing a helmet, thought my beanie was enough.
Tl/dr: three day coma, Dr said I was lucky af. Said with a helmet coma was less likely but still would’ve had fractured vertebrae due to flying over car and landing splat on my back.
My cousin who crashed and hit his head then spent the next 35 years in a wheelchair sh*tting himself and eating through a tube before he died made that risk assessment.
His family would have something to say about risk assessment
So would Darwin
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I didn’t use to be a helmet guy. Then I got one of those airbag Hövding helmets that were all the rave a bunch of years back. Got hit by a car in 30kmh that just ran right into the bike lane without looking.
That was my big wake-up that drivers are completely clueless and 1 second of THEIR attention lacking is life changing for you as a cyclist. Now I always wear a normal helmet, just not worth the risk.
A friend of mine wears a helmet every time. The one time she forgot it in the office, a passerby found her sitting on the curb all dazed and bloodied. She had to spend a few weeks in the hospital due to concussion, they were worried about increased pressure inside her skull. She had a lot of trouble with her memory, keeping up in conversations etc for weeks after.
We don’t really know what happened, she certainly doesn’t remember anything from that day or the days after. And a helmet probably wouldn’t have stopped all of the injuries. But she wouldn’t have had as much brain damage, thats for sure.
I don’t care if it looks uncool to some people. A brain injury isn’t like a broken bone, it’s not so easily healed and I don’t want to risk it. I understand fully that the risk is rather low on any given day, but I need my brain for my job
“risk assessment” is also how I justify not carrying auto insurance while my girlfriend loads my gun in the backseat.
When I was 13, I was racing someone while riding bikes with no helmets. To this day, I can’t tell you what happened, but somehow I flipped over and landed head first. I had road rash all down my side and ended up with a 5cm / 2″ fracture in my skull and a blood clot between my skull and my brain. The doctors said that if I was laying on an operating table and the blood clot ruptured they *might* be able to save me, so I had to be extremely careful until it healed well. I was not allowed to do any physical activity for 3 months.
In college, I rode bikes a lot and thankfully never had an accident.
As an adult, I ride my bike to commute and where a helmet every time. I’ve also made sure my kids always do and it’s drilled into them to the point that when I was showing them my new bike 2 weeks ago my 8 year old said, “Dad, don’t forget your helmet.”
I see people riding all the time without them, even riding with their kids and the kids have helmets but the adults don’t. Personally, I wouldn’t want my kids to watch me bash my skull on the pavement.
I heard something before that said, “It’s easy to say you’ll die for someone, but what about living for someone? Taking care of yourself so you can spend more time with the ones you love is the best thing you can do.”
I’m trying to live for my family, so I’ll always wear one.
Im a very much do what you want to cyclist, I don’t judge anyone for wearing or not wearing a helmet. I always wear one if riding on roads, or off road on the MTB, but very rarely wear one commuting along the river path to work.