On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 1:10:29 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 6:45:44 PM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/23/2019 2:40 AM, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 5:02:48 AM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 1/22/2019 10:33 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jan 2019 13:19:29 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

And in his blog posts, he's
indicated a fair amount of helmet skepticism. But one sits on his
head in almost all photos.

The helmets in the photos protect him from idiots.

In a sense, that might be true.



That was true in case of my last crash 2 months ago because of an idiot coming out of the bushes in the dark. I was not wearing a helmet. I can't remember anything about the crash, going to hospital in an ambulance and most of the treatment in the hospital. I didn't passed out but just can't remember anything for 3 hours. Very weird. Still figuring out if I have to reconsider my helmet position as I realized that I can't anticipate all the stupid actions of other people but on the other hand I didn't die. For the time being I wear a helmet every ride now as I still have short moments of dizziness. YMMV.

A lot of helmet sales are driven by such anecdotes - things like "I
didn't wear one and I got hurt" as above, or "Good thing I wore one or I
would have been hurt." Not to mention the "He was not wearing a helmet"
statements when a cyclist gets totally flattened by a turning truck.

Funny thing is, any dispassionate look at the sources of brain injuries
proves that there are far, far more anecdotes available from pedestrians
and motorists. For pedestrians, that's true even per mile traveled.

Again, in the U.S., bicyclists are only 0.6% of brain injury fatalities..
Pedestrians are far more and motorists even more. But those groups
don't generate helmet anecdotes. Why? Because nobody has chosen to sell
or promote helmets for walkers or motorists.


--
- Frank Krygowski

Frank I didn't got hurt because I didn't wore a helmet. I got hurt because of a crash that I apparently could not avoid despite being very careful, wearing conspicuous clothes and running top of the line lights. Up to now my algorithm to wear a helmet was group rides, off road rides and rides in the mountains/hills. On all other rides I didn't wear a helmet. For the time being I do now wear a helmet on my winter evening rides in the dark. I'm not telling anyone what to do and as always YMMV.

When it comes to helmets Frank's mileage most definitely varies and he's strongly anti-helmet. No matter what a helmet does in a crash Frank will trot out his statistics about traumatic brain injuries. A number of years ago I crashed with such force that my head bounced twice on the asphalt. Funny thing though, I didn't get any scrapes or any other injuries to my head. I was wearing a helmet that day and I'k glad I did. I don't give a flying f*** what people say about MY accident. the simple fact is that I was able to pick up my bicycle, check it for damage and then continue my ride without even needing first aid for head cuts/scrapes. If people want to wear a helmet then that should be up to them not some person thousands of mile/kilometers away.

I'm glad you weren't injured worse.

BTW, another reason I like a helmet is because the mirror on it lets me ride with or without sunglasses and I have the mirror with me no which of my bicycles I ride. Ditto for external battery light versus dynamo lights. What works for one may NOT meet the needs/wants of others.

Cheers