Yup, my wife went over her bars last year after getting clipped by someone on a cruiser coming the other way on a bike path, split the helmet but no head injury. Personally, I never even owned one until I moved to the US but have 3 now. On occasion I won’t put one if I’m just spinning round the block to check the bike after making an adjustment or putting race wheels on etc and it feels pretty weird and unsafe…
little difference in bike handling skill between disco and your average joe rider though…
While I won’t sit and argue the benefits of a helmet, let’s not give a false sense of security while riding with one or wearing one improperly. For every 1 guy out of a 100 that isn’t wearing one, there are 55 in that same group wearing either the wrong size or the wrong way…negating the benefits. Or…how about the folks with the wrong chin strap, a broken adjuster or a ding’d up helment that would be deem’d unsafe if sent for inspection…
Of course…error on the side of wearing one.
In certain situation, I won’t wear a helment…but it’s rare.
little difference in bike handling skill between disco and your average joe rider though…
Doesn’t matter if you have one of those “moments” when you lose your balance, or run into a subhuman driver…
no…but those moments occur much less frequently when you’re good at what you do.
i wear a helmet all the time on my road bike…but can understand why some could justify not to.
when you’re a professional, you get to take certain liberties…ie NHL vs. amateur hockey
Even though the vast majority of riders here in Italy do not wear them, I feel naked and vulnerable without one. Having wrecked badly both motorcycles (racing) and mountain bikes and landed heavily on my noggin, I would not like to repeat the experience on tarmac without a helmet.
I do get funny looks sometimes though. But then, sometimes I get asked if I am a pro - probably because of the helmet and kit and not on account of my climbing skills though 
I do get funny looks sometimes though. But then, sometimes I get asked if I am a pro - probably because of the helmet and kit and not on account of my climbing skills though
Are you kidding?! I was on holiday in Lago di Garda this Summer and did a lot of riding and was the only rider amongst the thousands that I saw WITHOUT full Giro d’Italia team kit on - even some guy sat bolt upright with his knees and toes pointing out at 45 degrees (Gerolsteiner, I believe). So I cant see how you’d be singled out as a pro for wearing a bit of loud lycra in Italia
Fair enough though - very very few of them wore a lid … but then they did have very very nice hair
As you know, there has been lots of research into accident rates with/without helmets and the effects thereof in countries like NZ and Australia where wearing them is complusory and the sample size is manageable. Hard to believe, but the evidence (which I know you ST’ers love) does not conclusively land in favour of wearing them. But as someone above said its a common sense thing, after all its quite difficult to say “but I had the right of way and there is no evidence to say that helmets save lives” if you have a machine doing your breathing for you
Take care out there guys and girls, and Merry Xmas from TriTalk.co.uk
No not kidding - why jealous?
But I was not wearing Pro Tour type stuff, but our team kit from back in the US (with team water bottles etc.). And, in one case I had stopped to help someone with a flat so they knew I was English. This was in the middle of last winter so there were relatively few cyclists on the road (still quite a number on a sunday).
I guess they figured I was not ‘just’ a tourist… Hey, or maybe I really do look like I belong on the Giro
I wear my helmet 99 percent of the time when I ride. However, maybe once or twice a year I get out in the winter and ride the Blue ridge parkway without one.
Interestingly, during his interview with Competitor magazine Faris Al Sultan said that he never wears a helmet on training rides. Imagine how many miles he puts under his a belt a year! I think also a lot of pro cyclists train without helmets. I remember watching a documetary on Lance Armstrong and he went out on a ride without out a helmet and listening to an Ipod! Definitely not recommended.
People have the freedome to make bad choices so it does not get under my skin if I see someone ride helmetless.
D
Yup.
Always.
No helmet, no respect. Simple.
B
I actually first started wearing my helmet 100% of the time when I was a freshman in college. I took an abnormal psychology course, and the first day the professor put up 2 CAT scan images. One was from a student hit by a car wearing a helmet, one was a student hit without a helmet. The one who didn’t have a helmet had a brain full of blood. I have never gotten on a bike outdoors without a helmet since seeing those images. I did a fair amount of riding in the past 10 years, and the first time I really needed my helmet was Saturday. I have no doubts that my CAT scan would have been really ugly without it, if I had even made it to the hospital.
I will second the earlier opinion about people with poorly fitting helmets. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone cruising down the road with a helmet on where the strap is hanging loosely 3 inches below their chin. This will do no good in an accident. If you are going to wear it- get it fit properly!
About the seatbelt issue, since it was brought up…When I was a kid I wore my seat belt 99% of the time. One of the few times I didn’t we got in a bad accident, truck spun around 420 degrees and I was catapulted through the back windshield. I walked away from the accident (to this day I don’t understand how I wasn’t killed), but definitely learned my lesson.
Jodi
I think it is your right to ride without a helmet if you can ride by yourself and in an area without other people. What I don’t want is for you to decide to ride without a helmet crash and then I come onto your crash. I personally would have to stop and give firstaid, wait for the meat wagon , worry about your blood, and have my ride ruined etc. Many times we take chances and put others in danger or put them in a situation where they become responsible for us because of the recklessness. My children or family do not need to see your brains all over the road.
When people show up for a ride without a helmet they know that if they wreck we will stop to give help. Please don’t put us in that situation
What I think is odd (and I wear a helmet 99% of the time) is that people will turn into jerks if a person is at a group ride with out a helmet.
I don’t want to have it on my conscience if something happens. On a group ride a small incident could turn into brain injury or death for someone without a helmet. I don’t want to ride near anyone without a helmet and have to deal with that guilt the rest of my life (should something happen).
While I wear my helmet all the time, and think others should too. I’m less concerned if they are on their own solo ride.
While personally, I ALWAYS ride with mine, I don’t see the reason for mandating it. It’s the same with seatbelt and helmet laws. I wear mine, but really I couldn’t care less if someone else chooses to not wear one. There’s no reason, outside of liability, to require everyone in a group ride to wear one. Just my opinion.
MJ
I always wear mine. I’m more a ‘do what you want if you’re not hurting anyone else’ kinda people. Having said that, it seems like more and more around here, not wearing a helmet is a fashion statement. If I had a dime for everytime I saw a roadie with a black beanie, sunglasses (outside said beanie), matching windvest unzipped, no helmet, ipod… etc etc. They all look the same, and not wearing a helmet is just part of the ‘look’.
Liability? When people have accidents not wearing seatbelts the insurance rates (as an actuarial pool) increase for us all, both uninsured and insured motorist. We pay at one end of the specturm or the other. Who do you think pays for people without health insurance? The health insurance fairy? No, through subsidies are taxes (local, state and federal) which levy to pay for these things.
So sure, if the moron who wants to wear their beanie and I-Pod and no helmet could guarantee 100% self-insurance and is not judgement proof then let him have his way, though if he has fmaily I would suspect they would have their own compelling reason for him/her to wear their helmet.
But when directly/indirectly it affects all of us then doing something simple to virtually prevent close/open head injuries seems rather benificial.
If you dont wear a helmet, be cool and at least have your organ donor paperwork ready. Some good people will appreciate those eyeballs, heart and kidneys.
I always wear my helmet, it is the only place I can hang my mp3 player without it getting all full of sweat.
Right on dude.
Just another silly stupid and overtly dangerous way to get injured on the bike. But hey, you look uber cool and can yap to anyone (actually yell at them since you can’t hear anything), “It’s my right”.
I saw some rider take a really nasty spill and take down 7-8 other riders on a group ride. She was wearing earphones and had an I-Pod clipped to her jersey. She never heard the gorup yell “on your left” and decided to move out into the road from some reason. They all went down, lots of bloody knees, elbows, hands, etc. Lots of damaged Madones, P3’s. etc.
Funny thing was, the riders who were injured and had their bikes damaged all were quite pissed the woman was wearing and listening to an I-Pod on the group ride. They all asked “Why”? The woman, who was bloody too, said “It’s my God-D*** right”. I heard she also refused to pay anyone for damage to their bikes. She said, “It’s one of those things the other riders should have known about”.