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.
I don't get their logic either. You can clip a rock and fall of your bicycle pretty easily at speed. TBI is no joke.
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
They just think they're all such good cyclists, and therefore never have an accident. Weird.
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.
It's the "don't tell me what to do" mindset
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
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.
"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...)
I always wear a helmet, except in bed.
different kind of helmet
it's crazy how my brother doesn't wear a helmet. Even my adrenaline junkie dad always wore a helmet (he did have some accidents when he was younger so that probably helped)
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.
Stupidity.
There isn’t much to get. These people are stupid and can’t make logical decisions.
Not everyone is cut out to live past 40.
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.
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.
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
Found the marine.
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.
You kidding me? Not weird to have PTSD at all. Your conscious brain might have shrugged it off but your body remembers the whole "I could have died" feeling.
Yeah, that's a common experience after bad motorcycle crashes. Glad you're still with us!
Thank you! very appreciative to be alive!
Fuck anyone who advocates against wearing a full-faced helmet. Fuck modular too, the kind moto cops wear that pop open... Cuz guess when they'll unfortunately pop open?
There's a fortnine video advocating against wearing armor, that kevlar alone would take care of abrasion injuries etc. You know what I like when I crash? Not getting pebbles embedded into my elbow or knee flesh.
Have fun, get there, and get old.
My friend had a minor head injury and his doctor advised him to wear a full face helmet whilst riding his bicycle. The cops pulled him over and he had to show them the note the doctor had written about it. I guess the concern is that if your face is obscured they can't track you down if you commit a crime? Still seems pretty dumb to me.
I like my modular helmet that pops up. It's pretty secure and I haven't seen one pop open during an event. They also say they're rated to be protective with the face up or closed.
I unsubbed from fortnine after that, he sucks now
But, the modular helmets are fine if ECE22.06 rated. They have steel latches
ATGATT
When I started riding I had a BMW modular helmet, Made by Schuberth, those things do not give up. I know some of the Harley-Davidson helmets are Made in China though Scorpion. No thanks.
He's now advocate for airbag so there's that.
Nice misinformation.
I'm assuming you're referring to the Fortnine video discussing the pads for impact protection and how they don't protect you from impact. If you're wearing gear you won't get pebbles embedded into you. The pebbles will not go through your abrasion gear.
With the important sidenote that the protective gear has an abrasion rafting that's only valid with the default protectors installed. If you remove them, the abrasion protection of the garment will likely be a bit lower.
We have laws which force people to wear helmets, and wear seat belts. These are common sense laws to prevent people from killing themselves. Nobody bats an eye.
This is the example I'd use during covid when people were complaining about masks being against their rights, even when it would protect them from being sick.
My guy, you're someone who wouldn't wear a helmet if the laws had only just changed to enforce them. You're a hazard to yourself.
There are people who try to bypass those also, or cheat em. Usually for some personal comfort. One of my sisters was like this. She wasn't that tall, and complained the seat belt shoulder part was uncomfortable, so she'd either not wear it or put that part behind her.
Then someone swung into her lane causing her to rear end em (she was in a moving normal speed lane and they were backed up in an exit lane). Without the seat belt there, what instead slowed her movement forward was the steering wheel shattering her jaw. She's fine now, but a painful lesson that included reconstructive surgery.
You're a hazard to
yourselfothers.Only psychologically, it may not be pretty but the direct physical harm of not wearing a helmet is largely restricted to the rider.
My guy, you’re someone who wouldn’t wear a helmet if the laws had only just changed to enforce them. You’re a hazard to yourself.
Also, in countries with socialized cost of healthcare, you have a duty to do your best to avoid becoming a weight for your society.
In Florida Darwin wrote the NTSB standards.
There are still plenty of idiots who make a stink about helmets and seat belts unfortunately.
I'm confident the overlap between seatbelt and mask wearing is >99%
Buh muh rightzz!!
I would wear a full face one on my e-bike, but I'm worried about looking like a dork.
I guess an alive dork is better than a dead dork, huh?
Or a faceless dork.
If you're riding a european pedelec (pedal assist) up to 25km/h, bike helmet should be fine, if you're riding electric motorcycle (25km/h+, accelerator) then maybe motorcycle helmet is more appropriate.
You won't look like a dork when road rash makes your face look like Voldemort made out with a cheese grater.
Maybe you can get a mountain bike helmet instead of a motorbike one, I guess the protection is also more adapted to the speed of a bicycle.
A while back I had a friend take a dive on an electric scooter. Black eye, broken collar bone, broken lower leg. If you're on two wheel, definitely wear a helmet.
100%
Pls be safe
Depends on your infrastructure, yank.
I
No kidding, that’s my helmet after a slide at 100km/h
Mine wasn't nearly as bad looking but I was going maybe 40, just some minor scratches. However, when I took off the chin bar I realized the anchor was close to torn out and there were spots in the EVA foam that cracked. Wearing a helmet saved me from a pretty nasty head injury or worse.
Just curious, how are you after that? I trust my helmet and feel safe about my head, but I'm worried about fractures.
Every crash is a bit different, but overall tbi are the most dangerous aspects of survivable motorcycles mva. For the most part, fractures aren't as big of a deal as one would first think. Mostly because if you end up laying your bike down and then hit something at speed you're either dead, or in such bad shape that fractures are the least of your worries.
Soft tissue damage is usually what you'll see in accidents not involving another vehicle. Lots of gnarly hematoma, lacerations, and friction burns, which will need to be debrided by a nurse with an acrylic brush and saline. Judging by the amount of tough biker dudes I've seen scream and cry for their moms during brushy brushy time.....it seems like one of the more painful things that happen in the trauma ward.
Oh, and last but not least..... Motorcycle mva are one of the most common reasons for traumatic based castrations. In accidents where the rider is ejected forward, their boys will make some pretty extreme contact with the fuel tank. Causing them to swell up to the size of mangos, which often leads to the need for surgical removal.
My head was absolutely fine, the only real injury was a dislocated shoulder.
Jesus, looks like a wolverine/Sandslash/moderately miffed cat took a serious dislike to you.
Glad you're still around.
This one is not mine, but I have been saved by a helmet before. Glad I'm still here too, thanks!
Same. The side of the helmet looked like this. I'll never forget the sound or images of sliding half a block down the road on my helmet.
Yeah, got one just like that.
Helmet means full face, fuck everything else.
Cat owner?
It wouldn't have gotten so scratched up if you'd have left it home. Jeez.
(J/K)
Always wear an approved brain bucket and gear or become a road pizza.
Cool but can I get another model? I feel like the white shit wouldn't be great for visibility
Don't forget leathers or some other full body protection, too. Dress for the slide, not the ride.
This breaks the rider's collarbone. (Still better than not having a face though)
I thought it was just wrapped in plastic at first and was confused until I realized those were scratches on the front glass.
A few years back I was training to ride the Seattle to Portland in the 1-day format. Had a training regimen I put together and was steadily progressing and building endurance and strength.
One day I go on a training ride on a very cold and rainy December day in Seattle. Decide to take the trail that rides through the train yard then pedal up to the docks.
As I'm riding along the trail there's this segment that crosses some train tracks at an angle. The temperature is also colder here next to the shore than by my home and the rain here is mixed with snow.
Having ridden this segment dozens if not a couple hundred times in rain or shine, I didn't think too much of it. However the added mix of snow and colder temps caused those rails to become the slickest surface known to man.
I come up to the gentle curve at speed, my front tire hits the rail of the track and my bike goes sideways while I continue moving forward. I land in puddle on my right side and then the water acts like a slip-N-slide on the blacktop and I proceed to slide along the trail at speed and slam head first, which deflected to the side, then followed up to my right shoulder, into a bollard.
I was wearing a helmet when this happened and I still laid dazed in that cold ass puddle for a good 2-3 minutes before standing up, pulling myself together, and called my wife to pick me up and take me to the ER to get the confirmation that I had a concussion and to rule out anything worse. My shoulder was also bruised and sore for a good week.
Even with the helmet, I had memory issues for 6-10 months.
If I weren't wearing a helmet I'm not sure I'd be here telling this story. If I were to have survived I would have had some serious trauma and recovery if not permanent damage.
One time I turned too sharp on my then-new ebike and pitched forward head-first into the asphalt.
I was wearing my helmet, so I didn't end up with any damage other than a bit of a scare, but I'm sure if I wasn't I'd've ended up with a chipped tooth or a concussion. Always wear your helmet.
Derby skater here:
Hell yes wear your helmet.
I got thrown off a horse recently and my head hit the ground so hard the riding helmet cracked. Scary shit. Idk if I'd even be alive rn if I wasn't wearing it.
I had a banana fall in derby once and fell right on my head. My mouth guard and S-1 Lifer helmet prevented me from getting a concussion. If you're doing anything on wheels without a seatbelt, you gotta wear your helmet.
Don't wear this particular helmet, kiddo
Good time to remind people, any helmet that has been in a crash, even ones that have just been banged around really hard, should not continue to be used.
Helmets have crush zones and structures that are designed to fail (inside and out) to protect you, but once they're used/deformed theyre done. Reusing a helmet beats nothing but you really should get a new one after each incident.
whoa there, squiddo
