Are Helmets Completely Worthless as a Safety Device for a Bike Commuter?

On Feb 21, 8:21 am, "Pat" wrote:
I also hit my head on a gravel lot one day coming home from school
(this in the days before kids got helmets with their bikes). It was
my first concussion. It was the day after the Evel Kneivel movie
aired on TV, and the incident involved a four-foot concrete retaining
wall and a long board that happened to be laying around...

What is the point of this anecdote?

Wear a helmet because you never know when you might
do something mortally stupid?

--
Michael Press

His "anecdotes" are real world experiences. The point? Accidents happen.
That's why they're called accidents and people need to be prepared....

I bet you think that utility belt looks really sexy!

On Feb 20, 6:37*pm, "Jay" wrote:
Dear RBT Bike Experts:

The only reason I would even consider wearing a helmet...is to attach steer
horns, such as these:

http://store.hornandleather.com/hl16br.html

Come on guys...I have been in plenty of wrecks. My head has NEVER been
injured. Wrists, hips, knees, hands, etc, YES. But not my head - not even
close. I suggest, helmets for low speed bike commuters ( 15 mph), are
simply a fashion statement. And for bragging rights to ladies at the coffee
shop (...I can afford to blow $100 on this useless accoutrement - and I
don't even care!)

J.

No, not completely useless. It may not save your life or protect you
from brain damage in an auto accident, but it may save the top of your
head from cuts and bruises. Plus I'd have thought a skater style lid
in Chicago would help keep your head warm.

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:23:10 -0800 (PST), Marz wrote:

On Feb 20, 6:37*pm, "Jay" wrote:
Dear RBT Bike Experts:

The only reason I would even consider wearing a helmet...is to attach steer
horns, such as these:

http://store.hornandleather.com/hl16br.html

Come on guys...I have been in plenty of wrecks. My head has NEVER been
injured. Wrists, hips, knees, hands, etc, YES. But not my head - not even
close. I suggest, helmets for low speed bike commuters ( 15 mph), are
simply a fashion statement. And for bragging rights to ladies at the coffee
shop (...I can afford to blow $100 on this useless accoutrement - and I
don't even care!)

J.

No, not completely useless. It may not save your life or protect you
from brain damage in an auto accident, but it may save the top of your
head from cuts and bruises. Plus I'd have thought a skater style lid
in Chicago would help keep your head warm.

It may also cause damage that a non-helmeted rider would escape.

There are better ways to keep warm.

On Feb 21, 8:52 am, Harry Brogan wrote:

Well, I was hit by a car and I must say that, even though I had a
helmet on, there was NO impact in that area. Helmet provided no
protection.

And for contrast: I've posted several times about the incident I saw
in Pittsburgh, where a pedestrian was hit hard by a car. His head
destroyed the windshield, his body flew higher than the roof of the
car, then he landed on his head in the road. But his only injury was
a slight scratch or cut above his right ear.

Of course, he had no helmet on. And of course, nobody thought he
should have. But if he'd had one, everyone would have claimed it
"saved his life!!!!"

- Frank Krygowski

On Feb 21, 9:21 am, "Pat" wrote:


His "anecdotes" are real world experiences. The point? Accidents happen.
That's why they're called accidents and people need to be prepared....

Fatal head injuries happen most often inside cars, despite seat belts
and air bags. They happen next most often to people walking around
their homes. They happen to pedestrians far more than they happen to
bicyclists. And that's not just because there are more pedestrians;
the per-hour rates I've seen were worse for pedestrians than for
bicyclists. Bicyclists are less than 1% of America's head injury
fatalities.

So if you're going to "be prepared" for that sort of "accident," you'd
better leave that helmet on all the time.

Or did you mean, ignore all the other times, and only "be prepared"
when you're on a relatively safe bicycle?

- Frank Krygowski

Jay wrote:
The only reason I would even consider wearing a helmet...is to attach steer
horns, such as these:
http://store.hornandleather.com/hl16br.html
Come on guys...I have been in plenty of wrecks. My head has NEVER been
injured. Wrists, hips, knees, hands, etc, YES. But not my head - not even
close. I suggest, helmets for low speed bike commuters ( 15 mph), are
simply a fashion statement. And for bragging rights to ladies at the coffee
shop (...I can afford to blow $100 on this useless accoutrement - and I
don't even care!)

It's religious.
No amount of rational argument will change anyone's view.
And, like religion, harmless until it comes to compulsion.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Tom Sherman
-snip snip snip-
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

wrote:
-more snip-
So you don't need a helmet. BTW, I've been meaning to ask you, what is
with your milk cow sig?

If you like Holsteins (and who doesn't?), Wisconsin's where they hang out:
http://re3.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/m1/2029201962

further reading:
http://www.cias.wisc.edu/dairysch.html
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:36:34 -0600, A Muzi
wrote:

Jay wrote:
The only reason I would even consider wearing a helmet...is to attach steer
horns, such as these:
http://store.hornandleather.com/hl16br.html
Come on guys...I have been in plenty of wrecks. My head has NEVER been
injured. Wrists, hips, knees, hands, etc, YES. But not my head - not even
close. I suggest, helmets for low speed bike commuters ( 15 mph), are
simply a fashion statement. And for bragging rights to ladies at the coffee
shop (...I can afford to blow $100 on this useless accoutrement - and I
don't even care!)

It's religious.
No amount of rational argument will change anyone's view.
And, like religion, harmless until it comes to compulsion.

My eldest daugther (16 or 17 at the time) lost a pedal on her bike
coming down a steep curve in the road and lost control of the bike.
She ended up against a concrete retaining wall with a mild headache
and a sore neck, with a split helmet.
Is there ANY doubt in my mind, or hers, that the helmet saved her from
serious injury? NOT A BIT!!!! And she was not going terribly fast
either (she was/is a rather timid rider).

That said, I still ride more often without than with.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Feb 21, 2:19 pm, clare at snyder.on.ca wrote:

...
Is there ANY doubt in my mind, or hers, that the helmet saved her from
serious injury? NOT A BIT!!!!

And there are lots of folks without ANY doubt - NOT A BIT!!!! - that
they were cured by their prayers, or by their witch doctor, or by
rubbing their skin with a potato that they then buried in the back
yard during a full moon...

- Frank Krygowski

On Feb 21, 12:36 pm, A Muzi wrote:


It's religious.
No amount of rational argument will change anyone's view.
And, like religion, harmless until it comes to compulsion.

Sorry, Andrew, but I disagree on two points.

First, there are many of us here whose views have been changed by
rational argument - or in my case, by investigation of actual data to
which people pointed me, which is the same thing. I was once pro-
helmet. I no longer am, because of that data.

Second, I do think America's intense helmet promotion is harmful, even
absent compulsion. The promotion is almost always done by stating or
implying that bicycling is really, really dangerous. That
exaggeration of the danger is a lie, but it still scares people away
from bikes, and works against cyclists who get hurt by negligent
drivers. It prejudices police, judges and juries.

I think it's important to show that ordinary cycling is an acceptably
safe and beneficial activity. Helmeteers, in general, disagree. They
claim you're not safe unless you're wearing a funny hat, despite the
fact that the hats haven't been shown to make a detectable difference.

- Frank Krygowski