How to protect your brain by not wearing a helmet

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
If only if only if only you could go on forever couldn't you

If only I wasn't so stupid as to have my back to the action whilst I was spectating talking to someone, then the motorcyclist who swayed into the pedestrian area wouldn't have caught my rucksack with his handlebars and drag me down the road

Put it this way if you had the choice wearing head protection or not if it was a dead cert you would somersault in the air and you're not a circus acrobatic which way would you lean?
problem is nobody knows what's going to happen the next time, Even if there is a next time.

twice in one month I had a car come round the corner crossing the white line and driving at me on the wrong side of the road, only my cool head reactions and self preservation prevented a collision on both occasions.
Twice in one week I had a car come at me diagonally across the road for no reason, again self preservation avoided my death, you can imagine what both of these drivers are doing while they should've had their eyes on the road.
Anything can happen tomorrow literally, but we can't choose what and when it will happen at all.
I've heard all the stories about those who don't wear a seatbelt, one of my friends said don't wear a seatbelt I just duck below the dash, I'd like to see you try that with the steering wheel in the way.

[profpointy]

It's a hard one. I fell off a couple of weeks ago and banged the side of my helmet on a kerb. But would it have happened if I wasn't wearing a helmet? - a helmet makes your head bigger.

You should have put your hands down to break your fall (even babies do that when they lose their balance
trying to walk) and wore protection for your palms to prevent them from being damaged.

When I did the somersault over the car described in my earlier post it happened far too quickly for me to put my hands out - I think I was still holding the handlebars

[pjclinch]

Put it this way if you had the choice wearing head protection or not if it was a dead cert you would somersault in the air and you're not a circus acrobatic which way would you lean?

If I could be sure I'd be doing somersaults over cars on a regular but unplanned basis then I would not worry about PPE because I would give up cycling: the risks would be clearly far too great for me to put up with.

problem is nobody knows what's going to happen the next time, Even if there is a next time.

You don't, so in practice you play the odds... or rather, what you perceive to be the odds. Everything you say about "what-if" situations applies to being in a car too, yet people don't wear helmets in cars, even though RTAs are the biggest source of serious head injury in the UK, or on foot, even though trips and falls are the second-biggest source of serious head injury in the UK. The difference isn't so much in the absolute risk as the culture, and in the UK there is a culture of wearing cycle helmets just in case, and there isn't such a culture for pedestrians or drivers car passengers.

I spent over a decade wearing a helmet on every cycle trip I made, and I used exactly the same rationalisations as lots of others do, including "you never know..." and "just in case", and "why wouldn't you" and "it's daft not to" etc. But if you don't apply that to other things you do then they really are rationalisations. This is not to say you shouldn't wear one, because if you're happier in one than not then that is a very good reason to wear one. But "I wear this because I'm happier in it than not" is the headline reason to pass on, rather than "you never know!", because actually you may never know if it was an unintended consequence of wearing it that got you on a free ride to A&E...

Pete.

[Audax67]

I prefer to protect my brain by not joining in helmet discussions.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

I prefer to protect my brain by not joining in helmet discussions.

wise man

[philg]

It's a hard one. I fell off a couple of weeks ago and banged the side of my helmet on a kerb. But would it have happened if I wasn't wearing a helmet? - a helmet makes your head bigger.

Well when you attempt to set off by putting all your weight standing on the pedal and your chain snaps you tend to fall sideways fairly quickly.
Trust me, with a resulting broken collar bone, 3 fractured ribs and a 2" split along the side of my helmet I fully believe my head would have hit the ground. Probably enough to give me a headache and possibly a fractured cheekbone, which I believe is not a lot of fun.

You should have put your hands down to break your fall (even babies do that when they lose their balance
trying to walk) and wore protection for your palms to prevent them from being damaged.

Pity I'm not a baby then - I will try harder to develop superhuman reflexes next time

[UpWrong]

It's a hard one. I fell off a couple of weeks ago and banged the side of my helmet on a kerb. But would it have happened if I wasn't wearing a helmet? - a helmet makes your head bigger.

You should have put your hands down to break your fall (even babies do that when they lose their balance
trying to walk) and wore protection for your palms to prevent them from being damaged.

I landed on my forearm, elbow to wrist but with sufficient rotation and speed that my head, or rather my helmet, hit the kerb. I didn't think I was that close to the kerb when I fell.. At this point I have to confess it was whilst riding a recumbent with tiller steering and signalling.

[Icsunonove]

I fell off on black ice and hit the side of my head on a relatively solid ground.
I reckon I suffered mild concussion for several days.
This is the first time in 52 years riding.
The helmet was damaged, the argument goes that if I was not wearing a helmet my head wouldn't have come anywhere near the ground.

These sort of things are for once-in-a-lifetime experience not your every day one.
You pays your money and takes your choice.
Incidentally I landed on my hip too after a few minutes I struggled to stand and was a real challenge to get home using just one leg powering. Several x-rays and couldn't walk for several weeks without crutches.
Without the helmet I probably would've needed and ambulance, this is just my opinion, my head collision Was not recorded anywhere, how many are actually recorded when someone damages their helmet?

I've fallen due to ice several times, mostly helmetless. On one occasion my head did strike the ground resulting in mild concussion and the need for a couple of stitches. I now mostly use studded tyres if there's a risk of ice as it's much better not to fall in the first place! (Whether wearing a helmet or not).
i.e. If there's a risk of ice, protect your brain by using studded tyres.... for me this has proved to be a far more effective strategy than wearing/not wearing a helmet!

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Unfortunately we cannot actually pick and choose where the ice will form.
Or when the next event of black ice will come.
In my neck of the woods in South Devon black ice is a very unusual occurrence.
The black ice I fell on was on a cycle path on a metal framed bridge not wooden.
I had to pass over three bridges and before that I would've never said there was a difference between either one
How would you know when to use your studded tires?

[Icsunonove]

Hi,
How would you know when to use your studded tires?

I can sympathise with what you say... In 'normal times' I commute to work each weekday all year round. I also have more than one bike so can have one shod with studs all through the winter... Well from the first frost through to the end of March. If the forecast says overnight temps drop to less than +3 I'll not take the risk and ride the 'tank'. The real difficulty comes at weekends as I lead club rides... It seems a bit rude if I'm on studs and the rest are on normal tyres! Not to mention hard for me to keep up! So I sometimes I still on occasion find myself out on regular tyres in marginal weather.... I don't like it though.

[The utility cyclist]

From the circa 1.3Million reported head injuries to hospitals in England and 160,000 hospitals stays from same, it's pretty obvious that riding a bike is safer than many ordinary activities despite the criminals in motors doing their utmost to redress that balance.

That KSIs of cyclists have actually increased significantly since the mid 00s with no increase in journeys (but a few % points in miles travelled) yet pedestrian safety has improved and many other aspects of road safety have been put in place and motorvehicle protection for those outside the vehicle, shows us that something is having a significant detrimental influence.

The only major thing to have happened and affects significant numbers of the journeys/miles travelled are cycle helmets being worn by people on bikes, there's the diversion away from those doing the harm because focus has been pushed virtually every single time to the vulnerable person/s to armour up and at fault for not doing so far too often if they get hurt or worse killed (Michael Mason is a prime example of that).
We know full well what happened in Aus the minute helmets became the focus and the 'war' on speeding motorists ceased, a downward trend of cycle KSIs started to go up, that despite the lowered cycle numbers!

The overall effect of helmets has been an unmitigated disaster and cost hundreds if not thousands of lives, not to mention the discrimination

[Syd]

From the circa 1.3Million reported head injuries to hospitals in England and 160,000 hospitals stays from same, it's pretty obvious that riding a bike is safer than many ordinary activities despite the criminals in motors doing their utmost to redress that balance.

That KSIs of cyclists have actually increased significantly since the mid 00s with no increase in journeys (but a few % points in miles travelled) yet pedestrian safety has improved and many other aspects of road safety have been put in place and motorvehicle protection for those outside the vehicle, shows us that something is having a significant detrimental influence.

The only major thing to have happened and affects significant numbers of the journeys/miles travelled are cycle helmets being worn by people on bikes, there's the diversion away from those doing the harm because focus has been pushed virtually every single time to the vulnerable person/s to armour up and at fault for not doing so far too often if they get hurt or worse killed (Michael Mason is a prime example of that).
We know full well what happened in Aus the minute helmets became the focus and the 'war' on speeding motorists ceased, a downward trend of cycle KSIs started to go up, that despite the lowered cycle numbers!

The overall effect of helmets has been an unmitigated disaster and cost hundreds if not thousands of lives, not to mention the discrimination

Only one of a number of changing factors in the past 20 years. Here are a couple more.

1. There are an extra 5 to 6 million registered cars in the UK since 2000 further clogging busy roads.
2. As councils are further stretched the quality of road surfaces is declining, again not helped by increasing traffic.

Based on these two alone it would be interesting to see KSI figures showing collisions with other road users vs solo cyclist incidents. Been searching but unable to find any.

[millimole]

Only one of a number of changing factors in the past 20 years. Here are a couple more.

1. There are an extra 5 to 6 million registered cars in the UK since 2000 further clogging busy roads.
.

Those cars have an increasing amount of in car technologies that have the potential to distract the driver from the road.
I think that 20 years ago built in sat nav systems were very rare, now even the heating requirements the use of a touch screen in some cars.
Mobile phone use has changed during this period - as has the legislation.
Drive Through food and drink establishments were unknown 20 years ago, so we now have drivers eating at the wheel (and chucking the detritus out the window).
I'm sure there are more examples of how driving distracted has been encouraged over the last couple of decades.

[Syd]

Only one of a number of changing factors in the past 20 years. Here are a couple more.

1. There are an extra 5 to 6 million registered cars in the UK since 2000 further clogging busy roads.
.

Those cars have an increasing amount of in car technologies that have the potential to distract the driver from the road.
I think that 20 years ago built in sat nav systems were very rare, now even the heating requirements the use of a touch screen in some cars.
Mobile phone use has changed during this period - as has the legislation.
Drive Through food and drink establishments were unknown 20 years ago, so we now have drivers eating at the wheel (and chucking the detritus out the window).
I'm sure there are more examples of how driving distracted has been encouraged over the last couple of decades.

That is one major bugbear in my own car and yes it is an unwelcome distraction.

[Vorpal]

Only one of a number of changing factors in the past 20 years. Here are a couple more.

1. There are an extra 5 to 6 million registered cars in the UK since 2000 further clogging busy roads.
.

Those cars have an increasing amount of in car technologies that have the potential to distract the driver from the road.
I think that 20 years ago built in sat nav systems were very rare, now even the heating requirements the use of a touch screen in some cars.
Mobile phone use has changed during this period - as has the legislation.
Drive Through food and drink establishments were unknown 20 years ago, so we now have drivers eating at the wheel (and chucking the detritus out the window).
I'm sure there are more examples of how driving distracted has been encouraged over the last couple of decades.

Drive through food & drink establishments have been around much more than 20 years. The first drive-thru McD's opened in the UK in the 80s.I think that the culture has changed around it, however. People now find it more acceptable to eat and drive at the same time than they once would have.