Wot! No lids?!

[pjclinch]

I wonder how the "helmets are essential! for all cycling" and "but you can fall off at any speed, it's daft not to always wear one" folks are coping with the Cycle Ball, Artistic Cycling and BMX Freestyle Flatland at the current UCI Glasgow Worlds...

https://www.cyclingworldchamps.com/cham ... r-cycling/
https://www.cyclingworldchamps.com/cham ... -flatland/

Good to see that even the UCI can sometimes understand context, and hopefully it'll encourage some spectators to think about it too.

Pete.

[irc]

Their heads will explode. The bits being kept together by the helmet they wear in case they fall walking from the TV to the kitchen.

[Bmblbzzz]

Interesting and encouraging! Those links just go to ticket sales, nothing about the events themselves, so I googled and found a v short vid of the BMX Freestyle Flatland World Cup 2022, in Montepelier: https://youtu.be/5ChfKjOaOVk

It's like dancing, sort of, and they don't wear helmets on Strictly.

[pjclinch]

It's like dancing, sort of, and they don't wear helmets on Strictly.

They don't wear them on the Dancing on Ice variant of it either, despite one of the moves being called a "headbanger" and despite them being, errrrr, on ice, a medium well known for its properties of falling-over causation.

So, this is fine without a helmet...


But this sort of thing really must use one...


Pete.

[Bmblbzzz]

Not being a fan of Strictly, whether on ice or any other surface, I hadn't seen that before. Never mind the helmets, that move makes me wonder about concussion in light of all we're hearing on cumulative small impacts (and non-impacts) from football, rugby, etc.

[Mick F]

I rode a 27mile ride anticlockwise to Plymouth yesterday.
I saw a few cyclists enroute.

Not all were wearing helmets by all means, and the further I got to Plymouth, the more I saw without them. Even all the Deliveroo riders didn't wear them.
Also a husband a wife(?) riding without them.
I don't wear one either.

[Bmblbzzz]

It's a very rare Deliveroo rider who wears a helmet! Here at least.

[Toffee]

Currently in The Netherlands at the moment, there seems to be more people wearing helmets since the last time I was here in 2018

[pjclinch]

Currently in The Netherlands at the moment, there seems to be more people wearing helmets since the last time I was here in 2018

Lid wearing in NL on my visits correlates very well with sport riders and, according to place and date, German accents (i.e., tourists, while we're there for family that's Bergen aan Zee and Den Haag so plenty of tourist potential in holidays).
There has seemed to have been a gradual rise amongst quite elderly e-bikers wearing them.

But not at the level of common for everyday riding, amongst hundreds of riders you can still easily keep count of lids around town.

Pete.

[Lbox]

Do you folks really call your colourful little hats lids, oh thats Soooo cute

Boomer Alert, Newbie in here, being of an age i get to choose where and when i cycle so dont HAVE to cycle on busy rush hour roads.. And I never owned a bike that cost more than £280 new,. Never considered wearing whats sold as a cycling helmet.
Have only used one when partaking in group activities like city tours etc, After all when a tourist its your job to look like a dildo.

And this is the off the top of my head spout without a single google or chat with informed persons. And while slightly tongue in cheek, I do think cycling helmets are a joke.

I mean they seem ok for clumsy toddlers and the uber gram aware bleeding edge racing bods.. But if serious about protection wear a real helmet and not a sculpted cup of expanded foam with kerb shaped vents all over, thats 1/2 a helmet at best

Yeah yeah, any protection is better than none .. but how much protection does a cycling helmet provide when compared against say the lid i wear when riding my Honda F1, or the lid i wear when trying to fly a para-glider off a bluff 10%, 20%? 25%?

An adult cycling with a cycling helmet says something. it says I care a little bit about my life, but not enough to invest in a real helmet. Or they have kids and have a need to set a good example .

Seeing an adult without kiddies in tow wearing a cycling helmet kinda kills my soul a tad.

Now I sat on a uk legal ebike recently throttle control only sped upto 4mph? and the inconsistent delay between starting to pedal and the motor kicking in at full pelt, Yeah if ridding one of those i would pull out an open faced real helmet for sure..

And if commuting on self powered 2 wheels among traffic (not a scenario i have considered before..) Perhaps I would look at my options
but for circa 10mph travels on paths quiet roads and tracks i will retain my dignity or what i have left at least.

[pjclinch]

Do you folks really call your colourful little hats lids

From the old m/cycling term, "skid lid". You probably have to be a certain age, but mainly it's quicker to type.

Now I sat on a uk legal ebike recently throttle control only sped upto 4mph?

That's called "walk mode" for a reason...

Pete.

[atoz]

Still not wearing a helmet. But where I live in God's own county, most cyclists I see wear them, probably because quite a few of these are competitive cyclists ie the racing and sportive crowd, and of course the mountain bikers. Why some of these find it so necessary to wear a helmet for just pootling on a canal towpath beats me.

First time I was lectured to about why I should wear a helmet was back in 1980. The person doing the lecturing was from the good ol' US of A, and was wearing the rather solid ones around at the time. I was polite as he was spending his money in the Yorkshire Dales. Can't remember seeing another one back then. Times have changed..

[Audax67]

My lid is just plain useful: it acts as a mount for a head torch without the pother of an elastic band round my head, and with a rain cover it keeps my head dry when it rains. In winter, too, the rain cover provides a little micro-climate for my head. When I get off the bike and go for a coffee the lid provides a handy basket wherein to stash bandanna & gloves, with useful straps wherewith to attach it to the bike.

I reckon most of the aggro comes from the idea that some misguided governmental fool might impose the wearing of helmets. That would indeed be a tragedy, but it's no reason to denigrate the poor wee innocent darlings, which are only trying to help.

ETA it shuts busybodies up, too.

[Mike Sales]

I reckon most of the aggro comes from the idea that some misguided governmental fool might impose the wearing of helmets. That would indeed be a tragedy, but it's no reason to denigrate the poor wee innocent darlings, which are only trying to help.

ETA it shuts busybodies up, too.

Helmet promotion and compulsion allow the busybodies to claim that they are doing something about cyclist casualties without addressing the real source of road danger. The countries where helmet wearing is most common or obligatory are all much more dangerous than GB, and the lids did not change that.

[cycle tramp]

My lid is just plain useful

I use mine to prop the shed door open on windy days and jam it under the back wheel to stop the bike rolling backwards...