On 6/21/2018 8:18 AM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:

All this fear mongering [...]

Perhaps this is an American issue. Here, the
streets are filled with people who ride their
bikes every day, many several times a day, and
very, very few use helmets. Riding a bike is
not considered dangerous!

Here, it is. Some helmet promotion sites have sections where they
attempt to rebut helmet skeptic arguments. In response to "But bicycling
isn't dangerous" they say "The U.S. is not the Netherlands. Riding here
is much more dangerous." It's fear mongering.

And BTW, I've seen websites that claimed that it can be fatal to even
fall off your bike while standing in your driveway. The fear mongering
here can be ludicrous.

The road bike people and the MTB people use
helmets but they are a very small minority.

These days, in my area, if you go to a paved bike trail - the kind that
Americans drive their cars to, mount their bikes and ride a few miles up
and back - about half the riders will wear helmets. Even more weird, on
those trails I've passed riders on low recumbent tricycles like this:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...jzt-iSeZBR0L5y

Again, a helmet for a trike you cannot possibly fall from, used on a
car-free bike trail! Are they afraid they'll trip when they try to get
off the bike? It's ludicrous.

Intuitively, I feel like if you ride a road
bike at that speed and have an accident
involving traffic, that sounds like a very
serious situation with or without a helmet, but
I think I'd use one anyway.

I believe you can make a case that performance oriented riders
"training" (that is, pushing for speed) might have more likelihood of
some helmet benefit. But then you get into risk compensation. I _know_
friends of mine take risks they would not take without the helmet, and
I'm sure those extra risks easily exceed the tiny protective capacity of
a bike helmet.

With the MTB people, I don't see why you can't
simply trip over a stock, and hit your head
into a rock. I don't see why a helmet wouldn't
reduce the impact?

I won't argue against a bike helmet for challenging mountain bike riding
- except to say (as Mayer Hillman did) that you may be safer with the
helmet, if you can just pretend that you're not wearing one.

Many years ago, Bell Sports (then the biggest helmet manufacturer and
promoter) had a notorious advertisement: "Bell - Courage for your Head."
It showed a "first person" view from a guy looking down a steep, steep
cliff at buddies who had apparently just ridden down it. The
implication? Put on our certified-for-14-mile-per-hour helmet, then risk
your life.

I no longer do that sort of mountain biking. When I do ride my mountain
bike, I wear an ordinary cap.

--
- Frank Krygowski