You forget that casual rider crashes often involve cars and trucks that are going fast. I don't understand the animosity towards helmets but there is a surprising amount of it out there, particularly in Seattle.Enkidude wrote:I ride BMX and I go fast and wreck quite often. Only hit my head once and it wasn't bad. Of course, you could/will catch a bad one eventually. I just feel like the casual bike rider wearing a helmet is silly. You should wear one when your a pedestrian too and then wear a flame retardant suit when you drive. How about a parachute when you get on a plane instead of a life jacket. :eek: LMAO whats going on in the world??????? :confused:
EDC Helmet?
Our reason is quite satisfied, in 999 cases out of every 1000 of us, if we can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticized by someone else. Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
- William James, from The Will to Believe, a guest lecture at Yale University in 1897
- William James, from The Will to Believe, a guest lecture at Yale University in 1897
I think the casual bike rider helmet thing is more geared toward being hit by cars. Otherwise, you're still higher up than walking and almost always going faster than walking which will both increase the chance for more severe injuries. I spent a good 17 years riding , with about the last half of that being pretty serious. I rode street and dirt and i only ever hit my head twice in wrecks. One time was enough to black me out for a few seconds and the other was face first into a tennis court which knocked my teeth through my lip and gave me some nice road rash up the side of my face. The funny thing is, both crashes i would have had to wear a full face helmet in order to not be hurt the way i was. Overall my knees took way more beating from my riding days than anything else.Enkidude wrote:I ride BMX and I go fast and wreck quite often. Only hit my head once and it wasn't bad. Of course, you could/will catch a bad one eventually. I just feel like the casual bike rider wearing a helmet is silly. You should wear one when your a pedestrian too and then wear a flame retardant suit when you drive. How about a parachute when you get on a plane instead of a life jacket. :eek: LMAO whats going on in the world??????? :confused:
~David
To quote my brother, "I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of almost dying or the process leading up to it."
Casual or skilled riders still hit things, drop bikes, or are struck by cell phone drivers. At least locally helmet laws even apply to bicycles. What we are talking about here is everything else lurking to open up your melon or shake your brain till it turns off :p .
Casual or skilled riders still hit things, drop bikes, or are struck by cell phone drivers. At least locally helmet laws even apply to bicycles. What we are talking about here is everything else lurking to open up your melon or shake your brain till it turns off :p .
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SolidState
- Member
- Posts: 1760
- Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:37 pm
- Location: Oregon
I wear my helmet because of cars, not because I suck at jumping off of things on my bike.
"Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer."
Sir Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy
You bicycle naysayers, consider this little story.
I worked in a corrugation factory years ago making all types of things but mostly boxes. The machines would make a lot of scrap, that got collected up and fed through a shredder and recycled. There was a guy who's job was to go around pushing a big flat bed on wheels collecting this scrap and shredding it. One day he was pushing his load of scrap to the shredder, when a forklift driver wasn't paying attention and backed into his flatbed. He only bumped the flatbed enough to knock the guy back on his butt, but the guy hit the back of his head when he landed. Consider that this is from a standing position, not at ~10-20mph that you can easily do on a bicycle. The guy was unharmed, just a bump on the head. The next couple days he complained about headaches which he shrugged off as a bruise on his head. He died in his sleep from bleeding in his brain. A simple bump on the head can be a lot more dangerous than you think, especially when you're cruising along on a bike and wreck and then your head is propelled 20mph into the ground instead of just from a standing fall.
When i was very young my older brother was hit by a drunk driver while riding his bike. It broke his left knee cap in 9 pieces and literally cracked his skull open and almost killed him. I would feel safer riding dirt trails jumping 20 feet off the ground doing backflips without a helmet than i would riding through downtown streets with traffic.
I worked in a corrugation factory years ago making all types of things but mostly boxes. The machines would make a lot of scrap, that got collected up and fed through a shredder and recycled. There was a guy who's job was to go around pushing a big flat bed on wheels collecting this scrap and shredding it. One day he was pushing his load of scrap to the shredder, when a forklift driver wasn't paying attention and backed into his flatbed. He only bumped the flatbed enough to knock the guy back on his butt, but the guy hit the back of his head when he landed. Consider that this is from a standing position, not at ~10-20mph that you can easily do on a bicycle. The guy was unharmed, just a bump on the head. The next couple days he complained about headaches which he shrugged off as a bruise on his head. He died in his sleep from bleeding in his brain. A simple bump on the head can be a lot more dangerous than you think, especially when you're cruising along on a bike and wreck and then your head is propelled 20mph into the ground instead of just from a standing fall.
When i was very young my older brother was hit by a drunk driver while riding his bike. It broke his left knee cap in 9 pieces and literally cracked his skull open and almost killed him. I would feel safer riding dirt trails jumping 20 feet off the ground doing backflips without a helmet than i would riding through downtown streets with traffic.
~David
Sorry to hear Evil 
. Agreed though. Wilderness, especially open areas with less dense ground, is MUCH safer than anywhere around vehicles or cement/metal objects.
People often use the, "It never happened to me," which really just means statistics have been in your favor. I can say, "Well I've never been mauled by a vampire raccoon." and the chance of that actually happening is pretty darn slim. Say the same phrase about falling or cashing is false security.
Wearing a helmet every day? it's kinda silly (even in the alternate awesome helmet universe proposed). Doing anything remotely high-risk it's pretty smart, especially in activities where leather pants are considered safety equipment. :p
. Agreed though. Wilderness, especially open areas with less dense ground, is MUCH safer than anywhere around vehicles or cement/metal objects.People often use the, "It never happened to me," which really just means statistics have been in your favor. I can say, "Well I've never been mauled by a vampire raccoon." and the chance of that actually happening is pretty darn slim. Say the same phrase about falling or cashing is false security.
Wearing a helmet every day? it's kinda silly (even in the alternate awesome helmet universe proposed). Doing anything remotely high-risk it's pretty smart, especially in activities where leather pants are considered safety equipment. :p
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SolidState
- Member
- Posts: 1760
- Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:37 pm
- Location: Oregon
I have been hit by cars on 6 different occasions, only once would I say I was run over. I can say that a helmet would have helped had I been wearing one in two of the collisions. Now I wear a helmet.
"Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer."
Sir Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy
Blerv wrote:Sorry to hear Evil
People often use the, "It never happened to me," which really just means statistics have been in your favor. I can say, "Well I've never been mauled by a vampire raccoon." and the chance of that actually happening is pretty darn slim. Say the same phrase about falling or cashing is false security.
Wearing a helmet every day? it's kinda silly (even in the alternate awesome helmet universe proposed). Doing anything remotely high-risk it's pretty smart, especially in activities where leather pants are considered safety equipment. :p
It really makes you think. I've probably hit my head harder on the roof of my car getting in and out than this guy did hitting the ground. We really are fragile when it comes down to it. Had he went to the hospital he would have lived, but honestly how many of us go to the ER after bumping our head on something? I admit that i still don't wear a helmet when i ride, but i don't ride seriously anymore, just poking around with my kids on the sidewalks. They do wear helmets though. And, sidewalks aren't always safe either...my brother was on one when he was hit. They never caught the guy either, he drove away.
~David