pjclinch wrote:It's certainly true that the widespread perception of the protective qualities of Magic Hats are greatly exaggerated, but while it's the case that you can't expect them to save your life it's also relatively unlikely that wearing it wrongly will kill or seriously injure you. It's just less likley to do much useful. The overall effectiveness of a Magic Hat is on the order of St. Christopher medallions, and we don't really need to worry that much about them. They are an irrelevance in the bigger picture or personal protection.
Pete.
This is the sensible view. I don't wear a helmet as all the evidence says they are:
a) not necessary for the very low risk of me banging my head whilst on a bike;
b) ineffective at protecting against serious head injury;
c) inclined to induce a degree of risk-avidity, even when one knows they do;
d) noisy, sweaty, etc.;
e) a waste of money;
f) environmentally damaging.
But apart from that small degree of inducement of risk avidity amongst some wearers, they are hardly dangerous when worn since, wearing one or not, the risks of serious head injury whilst cycling are relatively small compared to many, many other everyday human activities.
So, I do laugh at the fashion-victims who wear them but tend to avoid accusing them of being just plain stupid for falling for the marketing and thus becoming fashion-victims. Well .... unless I meet a helmet-fascist.
It does seem obtuse for CyclingUK to passively promote them via it's photos, though. But there is an argument that photos should portray the world-as-is, not some ideologue's view of perfection. No, not even that of we anti magic-hatters!
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes