Plastic hats for cycling

[Ellieb]

A helmet is a helmet by virtue of what it is designed to do. The fact that it may not do the job as well as intended or is as effective as it is perceived to be is beside the point. There are lots of different types of helmets which may not give the protection necessary but which still are and indeed are called 'helmets'. Old fashioned Met Police helmets spring to mind. A Morris Marina is still a car even if it isn't a very good one.

Added to which: A large number of contributors to these forums who are 'sceptical' about the usefulness of helmets have referred to them as such in any number of the many posts on the subject. Are we to assume that they are automatically undermining their own argument? This sounds an awfully lot like a 'Baa-Baa green sheep' debate. Everyone knows what we are referring to when we use the term helmet. If you can't accept that terming a cycle helmet 'a plastic hat' is name calling I think you are a long way away from being able to conduct a rational debate. Are you so scared of them that you can't even say the name? Doesn't sound like a forum for an unbiased debate to me.

The CTC forum is already home to a larger proprtion of helmet sceptics than most, if not all, other cycling websites. If you want these boards to be the zealots preaching to the believers then go right ahead. I suspect that if you wish to turn the board into an anti-helmet ghetto than this sort of debate is the way to go. You just have to accept that the majority of people who disagree with you or who are undecided will look at the forum title, roll their eyes and move on.

[keepontriking]

Well the title "Plastic hats" doesn't seem to have stopped this thread losing its way.

Just like all "Helmet" discussions

<yawn>

[Graham]

Arbitrary decision time.

See, not so scared of helmets after all. . . . but definately not capable of holding a rational debate.

PS. I have two of them, one Snell standard, the other one EU standard. The later one doesn't get out much.

[Mick F]

"Helmets" sounds ok to me, or "Cycle Helmets".

Not "Cycling Helmets", as that sounds like the helmets are doing the actual cycling.

[MartinC]

A helmet is a helmet by virtue of what it is designed to do.

This is an important point and why this debate about the forum name is happening. Can you quote a helmet manufacturer's specification of what a cycling helmet is designed to do? The only public statements that I've ever seen are that a helmet passes a certain standard. As far as I'm aware Snell B90, CPSC, EN10788 etc. effectively specify that the helmet should absorb a certain amount of energy in a laboratory test - not achieve any defined mitigation of injury. Thus all that a helmet is designed to do is this - pass an arbitrary test in lab conditions. Anything else is an assumption. Logically to be a cycling helmet it needs to be designed to and operate effectively to protect against head injury in cycling accidents

This is why it's debateable whether the correct term is 'helmet' or 'hat'. But I agree with you that it's more useful not to challenge those assumptions in the thread title.

[[XAP]Bob]

Does anyone *not* know what we're talking about when we call them "helmets"?

Excellent - then for a forum title it'll do just fine

[Graham]

I found the below text abandoned in the Draft Messages area. I wrote it about four years ago

Imagined conversation . . . . . .

In the office of a company that manufactures plastic hats for cyclists to wear.

( Manager ) Mike :
Ian, you are pretty good with all this internet stuff. . . . . Could you help me out with something ???

Marketing have just given me a call to say that on the forum of the CTC, a big cycling club . . . think it means Cyclists' Touring Club, or something like that . . . they have just called one of the discussion areas "Plastic hats for Cyclists.

Ian ( from IT ) : Yeah. What's the problem ???

Mike :
The marketing department are going ape.. . . . .

They have spent loads of money on advertising, lobbying hard through political channels to um, increase helmet penetration, . . . . loads of time working with charity groups.

They want the name of the product to be loaded with the right messages and symbols.
"Plastic hats for cyclists" would be a disaster for the product, if it started to displace helmet . . . . a disaster . . . . not a single good message there at all.

Ian ( shrugs ) : but it is a plastic hat.

Mike : Less helmet sales . . . . less staff.

Ian : I'll get onto that forum right away and do whatever it takes Mike.

[Bicycler]

I once managed turned a condescending helmet zealot lecturing me about my recklessness into a purple-faced, shouty, condescending helmet zealot just by using the term "polystyrene hats"

[freeflow]

Why not 'riding hats'.

[Phil Fouracre]

Where's TonyR? 10 pages??

[Cunobelin]

Where's TonyR? 10 pages??

2.5 pages per year?

[Phil Fouracre]

Much to slow! Standing joke, any helmet thread has to get to 10 pages, before everyone loses the will to live!!!!