I’ve never heard of a single person who has regretted wearing a helmet, yet people are still incredibly resistant to the idea.
I just don’t get it.
I spoke with a guy, strong cycling supporter with influence in our local government. He made it clear that he views helmets are unnecessary “with safe cycling infrastructure.”
While I get the logic, the reality is that a large number of crashes (reported as half) are single bike accidents with no involvement of another vehicle (i.e. car).
This is why, even when you look at the underreported stats from the Netherlands, cyclists have very high rates of head injuries. They don’t wear helmets, have the gold-standard cycling infrastructure, yet crack their head open.
The point is, don’t be stupid and just wear a damn helmet.
One of the most absurd things I’ve gotten heavily downvoted for on reddit is for saying people should wear helmets no matter how good the cycling infrastructure is. Not that it should be mandated by law, but that it’s simply the wise thing to do. Then people are like ‘wELL I gUeSs YoU ShOUld THeN wEaR a HElmEt whiLE walKinG tOo’
Fine, then don’t wear a helmet. It’s not my head.
I didn’t use to wear one when I was a kid either but nowdays it feels like driving without a seatbelt. Hell, I might even just take my bike for a test drive around the block after having done some adjustments on it and I still go grab my helmet first.
Not that it should be mandated by law, but that it’s simply the wise thing to do. Then people are like 'wELL I gUeSs YoU ShOUld THeN wEaR a HElmEt whiLE walKinG tOo
I don’t think people really understand just how devastating head injuries can be, and just how easy it is to get a tbi when on a surface as hard as concrete.
Even when doing something as simple as walking/running on wet concrete is deceptively dangerous. Every summer the trauma ward I work in has to deal with dozens of kids acquiring life altering tbi for doing something as mundane as running near a pool.
The ironic thing about bikers not wanting to wear helmets is that if you’re not lucky, you’ll end up being fit with a soft shell one at the hospital after you’ve bashed your head anyways. I’ve fit a bunch of people with orthopedic helmets for not wearing helmets over the years.
dozens of kids acquiring life altering tbi for doing something as mundane as running near a pool.
😬 yeesh, the mental image.
At that point, just let them self-select out of the gene pool. In a few generations, maybe our descendants won’t be so adverse to basic self-preservation and common sense.
There’s no genetic pressure not to take chances with incredibly unlikely events with a high chance of death. That’s why we are at this point in the first place. If we want these things to stop happening, it will take using our brains and not trusting on nature to enforce it on us.
I had only fallen once with my bike as an adult. I live in Sweden and our cycling infrastructure in my town is g r e a t. The problem was that it was spring, so all the gravel/sand which had been spread during the winter was now on bare asphalt. I turned left and while the wheel turned, the bike did not.
There ain’t much good infrastructure can do about gravel on asphalt.
Thankfully I didn’t hit my head as it would’ve surely been a pretty bad accident. Instead I just hit every single boney part on my left side.
oh no never ask the dutch why they are not wearing helmets, the cyclists will send every excuse your way
safe cycling infrastructure does nothing to prevent you from having a sudden equipment failure and finding yourself going over the bars face-first, or from just being an uncoordinated idiot who wipes out for no reason and gets a closed head injury. I had a crank fail on my bike once, snapped in half in full sprint and I wiped badly. helmet did its job and I was thankful to have it, because there’s no predicting stuff like that
Yup. I have two family members who were in serious cycling accidents. One was from a stone that he didn’t see. He didn’t have a helmet on and almost didn’t make it.
The second was city incompetence, which resulted in a crash on a bike path. They were wearing a helmet and probably only survived because of it.
I was on a group ride a few weeks back, and one guy’s bike slipped from under him (wet metal bridge) and his head slammed into metal. His helmet destroyed, but he carried on like nothing happened.
I’ve met one; but that case was really stupid: they tried to put on their helmet while cycling and fell. Technically, that accident could have been prevented if they didn’t wear a helmet. It could also have been prevented if they put it on before they started cycling though.
One of my coworkers is a story of a single bike accident. He was riding uphill on a road when his front fork broke. He went over the handle bars and head/face first into the ground. He had his helmet on, and was still knocked out. He was found in the drainage ditch on the side of the road after he was reported missing.
He has no long term damage today, but that certainly wouldn’t be the case if he wasn’t wearing a helmet
WTH how long was he out if they got to the point of reporting him missing?
You don’t have to wait a certain amount of time to report someone missing. If your partner says “On my way home” then is 2 hours late and not responding to calls feel free to report them as missing. They could’ve easily been in a major accident.
“Don’t you know, our hierarchy of safety controls is so good, we don’t even bother with PPE at our site” said no intelligent engineer ever.
Resistance to PPE (helmets) baffling. It’s such low effort to wear. I feel naked without it because I’m just used to it (Australia, helmets by law, but also by common sense to me…)
people are still incredibly resistant to the idea
in the us* (for some reason?)
helmets are pretty standard where i live, you will very rarely not see people using it.
helmets are pretty standard where i live, you will very rarely not see people using it.
Do you have laws that require them to be worn? Australia, for example, has mandatory helmet laws.
This is why, even when you look at the underreported stats from the Netherlands, cyclists have very high rates of head injuries. They don’t wear helmets, have the gold-standard cycling infrastructure, yet crack their head open.
This is just completely wrong. Netherlands overall has half the per-capita TBI deaths as compared to the US. Now, is a higher portion of their TBI deaths bike-realated – I mean sure, because lots and lots of cycling is done there – and not as much car-driving. But your chances of getting your head smashed is lower overall compared to the US, even with our stupid obsession with helmets.
This is just completely wrong.
Nope.
“While national infrastructure ministry figures report 14,000 seriously wounded cyclists in 2019, the most recently recorded year, VeiligheidNL estimates that there were actually some 80,000 injuries of which 50,000 were serious. The organisation reportedly came to its estimate on the basis of 14 accident and emergency wards’ figures.” (SOURCE)
And…
“A new report from the Dutch road safety research foundation predicts that if cyclists in the Netherlands always wore a helmet, there would be 85 fewer road deaths a year.” (SOURCE)
So yeah, while their per capita rates may be lower than some other countries (or higher when you factor in the extra 80,000 injuries they failed to include in their figures…), the fact remains that cycling infrastructure alone doesn’t prevent accidents, and helmets are one way to downgrade the severity of an injury, or avoid injury altogether.
- Dress for the slide, not for the ride
- ATGATT
- Gray-haired riders don’t get that way from luck
What others did I miss?
- If your helmet doesn’t have a chin bar (full or modular), you don’t care about your chin, teeth, or nose.
- wrt ATGATT, most of that gear will reduce or avoid injury. A helmet will prevent your death.
- If you don’t wear earplugs - even with a helmet on - enjoy your tinnitus and/or hearing loss. This is from wind noise, not engine noise.
A friend of mine crashed her motorbike a few years ago and her face bounced off the road. Her chin bar flexed inwards so much that it broke her nose and chipped a front tooth.
She was furious that the helmet didn’t protect her properly, until her husband who was riding behind her pointed out that she essentially landed face first at over 60mph, and that without the helmet, her face would have taken the full force of the landing.
If your helmet doesn’t have a chin bar (full or modular)
Modular helmets will not protect your face adequately in a crash. Even with a chin bar, the face part tends to open up when you hit the ground. If you value your face, get a good full-face helmet. I have an AGV K1; it’s good, fairly lightweight, acceptably ventilated, and usually under $200. You don’t need to get a Shoei or an Arai; any full-face helmet sold on e.g. Revzilla is going to be fine, as long as it fits.
The AGV K1 looks like a motorcycle helmet. Would you wear something that heavy duty for commuting on a 20-30mph scooter/e-bike? Or is there something else a little more lightweight?
Even with a chin bar, the face part tends to open up when you hit the ground.
That’s just not true.
Just remember that ATGATT means helmet, jacket, pants, gloves, and boots, and all of them have to be intended and rated for riding.
Most “riding” jeans are trash, not worth the money you pay; they’ll have a little bit of Kevlar lining, and maybe a hint of padding at the knees, but that’s not going to help you significantly. Do yourself a solid and get some real riding pants that zip to your jacket, like RevIt!, or Dianese.
Leather costs more up front, and less in the long run. Textile apparel is usually destroyed in a crash, but leather is usually good for multiple drops. I’ve had four crashes (none hugely significant; partial tear to a rotator cuff on the last one); my jacket and pants look rough, but they’re still perfectly fine for protection.
Pants and jacket should fit fairly closely; you don’t want them moving around when you crash. Loose is not your friend in a crash. They should have CE1 or CE2 inserts at the knees, hips, coccyx, back, shoulders, and elbows. You may need to buy the inserts separately.
You can get pants and jackets used safely, as long as they’re in good condition.
Get gloves with palm sliders. Replace gloves about annually if you put more than 5000 miles on your bike each year; the palms will wear thin, and protect less as they get used. Gauntlets will protect your wrists; I suggest them over shorties. How much are your hands worth to you? Spend that much on gloves. I’ve burned through multiple pairs of Alpinestars Supertech and Knox Handroid gloves, and I’m currently using Five RFX1; these are daily ride gloves for me. (Supertech gloves are nice, except the palm slider is aramid fabric instead of TPU. Is $500 a lot for gloves? Sure. It’s about $15,000 less than reconstructive hand surgery though.)
Boots should protect your ankles; they should have some kind of armored cup there if they’re leather.
Do not accept anything less than a full-face helmet. Just, don’t. Never, ever, ever buy a used helmet. Never, ever, ever buy a helmet that isn’t from a recognized brand, and from a reputable source. (Amazon is not a reputable source.) If a helmet seems too cheap to be true, do not buy it. Helmets are one-crash only; if your head touches the ground, replace the helmet.
More motorcycle specific, but here’s a couple
- What’s a five letter word for road rash?
answer
jeans
- it doesn’t matter how good of a driver you are when there’s so many shitty ones out there.
I’ve heard that one phrased a lot of ways.
EDIT: took me five tries to get the spoiler right : D
Please don’t forgot to wear a helmet when riding on 4 wheelers or ATVs. I’ve seen far too many life changing injuries on those damn things. I forced my own brother to get a good helmet when he had one and it saved his life. He flipped the damn thing on top of him and only came out with a shattered wrist. His helmet cracked like an egg but his head was fine.
Please don’t forgot to wear a helmet when riding on 4 wheelers or ATVs.
Also, just because it claims to be an all terrain vehicle doesn’t make it true. I would avoid riding these in any wooded areas or on sloped or rough terrain while riding solo.
I work in a trauma ward that has an ATV season. I feel like the stigma of wearing helmets has reduced over the years, as I’m having to put less people in orthopedic helmets every year. However, there are just as many people getting crushed by their vehicles.
4 wheelers have a nasty habit of rolling and pinning their riders. If this happens and you’re alone it can easily cripple or kill you. One of the more common severe injuries is having your leg pinned against the motor or exhaust and having your leg or arm slowly cooked to the point where they need to be amputated.
I met a guy in middle school that got pinned under his dad’s 4-Wheeler. If he’d not been alone, he could have easily been pulled out, but he was suffocated by the 4-wheeler. No traumatic injuries at all. Just slowly ran out of air.
Unfortunately, that’s not an uncommon experience. For some reason a lot of parents who normally wouldn’t leave their kids unsupervised with a 700 pound piece of industrial machinery, are completely okay with letting them operate and drive a 700 pound piece of equipment with virtually no safety features.
My friend flipped a quad by himself and the end of the handlebars landed on his face, shattering his orbital socket. He laid up there half blind on the top of a mountain until his wife got worried and went looking for him a couple hours later. Thankfully he had a full recovery, but sheesh!
When my kid was a kid he was riding around on one of those little 50cc quads. They don’t go very fast, and he was just on flat, level, ground, so we didn’t bother putting a helmet on him. My friend and I were standing there watching him, and chit chatting. My son started getting more daring, and gassing it through figure 8’s and almost tipped the quad a couple times leaning the wrong way, so we decided that he should put a helmet on “just in case”. A couple minutes later he flipped the quad and broke the face guard of the helmet in half. That would have been his jaw, had he not been wearing the helmet. So yes, even when you’re going slow, and just diddling around on a quad, you should always wear your helmet.
Eat crayons, don’t become crayons
I know this. I used to ride. Got hit by a car swiping three lanes across traffic. They didn’t care to look. My head whacked the pavement hard. Got road rash and a concussion. The helmet saved my life though.
Weirdly had PTSD after trying to ride again and dropped it like a bad habit. Helmets save lives, on bicycles too y’all. Just shocking to see how many folks on both motorcycles and bicycles that don’t wear a helmet.
Yeah, that’s a common experience after bad motorcycle crashes. Glad you’re still with us!
