helmet beliefs behavior

I'm reposting this question here as the Solstice thread is just too
long

My take is that there is little convincing going on, those who believe

that research shows helmets are great, those that believe that helmets
are not so great, and those who believe that the data is compromised
and they just don't know all appear to hold their positions -certainly
within the time frame of this forum

So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.


I'll start. I'm pretty well convinced that the myriad studies show
differing results. So, my current position is that I just don't know.


That said I wear a helmet all the time. However, I do not do a great
variety of riding types. I ride high mileage (5,000+ miles /year) all
on the road. I ride solo and in groups but purely for recreation and
enjoy speed and (while I am terrible at it) long climbs. I ride only on

a racing style road bike.


For the first 30 years of my riding I never wore a helmet. When the
early Bell helmets came out I was a slow adopter, I bought one but
found it so heavy and uncomfotable that I seldom used it. My transfer
to helmet use came with the introduction of the early soft shell
helmets. They were light enough to be pretty comfortable, they were
pretty inexpensive and I saw no downside. With the introduction of the
light weight hard shells I switched over as I found them to be lighter,

more comfortable and cooler.


While not convinced that helmets provide a statistically high degree of

added safety my logic is that they are now very inexpensive (on a per
year or per mile basis) very comfortable- I really don't find them
annoying at all, and given my agnostic view of their efficacy I simply
figure--"Why not?!?!" For me I see no downside.

gds wrote:
I'm reposting this question here as the Solstice thread is just too
long

My take is that there is little convincing going on, those who believe

I agree no matter how long party "a" argues his point, party "b" in not
likely to change opinions,based on party "a"s opinion.

that research shows helmets are great, those that believe that helmets
are not so great, and those who believe that the data is compromised
and they just don't know all appear to hold their positions -certainly
within the time frame of this forum

My thoughts exactly, if you love helmets for the protection they offer
fine, if you think it's better to wear one than not then do so. If you
think they are worthless and wouldn't buy one unless it became illegal
to ride without one, fine.

So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.


I'll start. I'm pretty well convinced that the myriad studies show
differing results. So, my current position is that I just don't know.


That said I wear a helmet all the time. However, I do not do a great
variety of riding types. I ride high mileage (5,000+ miles /year) all
on the road. I ride solo and in groups but purely for recreation and
enjoy speed and (while I am terrible at it) long climbs. I ride only on

a racing style road bike.


For the first 30 years of my riding I never wore a helmet. When the
early Bell helmets came out I was a slow adopter, I bought one but
found it so heavy and uncomfotable that I seldom used it. My transfer
to helmet use came with the introduction of the early soft shell
helmets. They were light enough to be pretty comfortable, they were
pretty inexpensive and I saw no downside. With the introduction of the
light weight hard shells I switched over as I found them to be lighter,

more comfortable and cooler.


While not convinced that helmets provide a statistically high degree of

added safety my logic is that they are now very inexpensive (on a per
year or per mile basis) very comfortable- I really don't find them
annoying at all, and given my agnostic view of their efficacy I simply
figure--"Why not?!?!" For me I see no downside.

I don't wear one at anytime right now, however at some point in the
future I may. I ride on the road, last year I rode over 3,000 miles,
some for my commute, some for exercise, some just for fun. I haven't
seen any numbers that scare me enough to buy one now, perhaps if I see
an accident involving a cyclist with a head injury maybe that will
change my mind.

Ken
--
You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you're
having a good day. ~Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

Homepage: http://kcm-home.tripod.com/

gds wrote:
My take is that there is little convincing going on, those who believe
that research shows helmets are great, those that believe that helmets
are not so great, and those who believe that the data is compromised
and they just don't know all appear to hold their positions -certainly
within the time frame of this forum

While I doubt any of the active participants will suddenly have a
revelation and switch sides, some readers who previously hadn't given
the subject as much thought may be persuaded one way or the other.
That's certainly what happened in my case. I was once of the opinion
that essentially all the studies agreed on the effectiveness of helmets
since those are the studies that tend to get publicized. The
discussions here showed that not to be the case and led me to read some
of the studies in detail to understand how the discrepancies could come
about.

So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.


I'll start. I'm pretty well convinced that the myriad studies show
differing results. So, my current position is that I just don't know.

Pretty much agreed although my feeling is that the effectiveness, if
any, of helmets must be much less than claimed by the widely cited case
control studies.

I've also become convinced that the emphasis placed on helmet use has
been detrimental to casual cycling. Telling people they *must* wear a
helmet every time they ride tends to portray the activity as one that's
especially dangerous - far more than the actual injury and fatality
data indicates when compared to other common activities. So parents
who may have been undecided on whether or not to have their kids ride
bikes to school may decide to drive them there instead (and in the
process make the area around the school even more dangerous for
others). Adults deciding on exercise activities may decide to go to a
fitness center instead of cycling if they view the latter as too
hazardous, etc.

For the first 30 years of my riding I never wore a helmet. When the
early Bell helmets came out I was a slow adopter, I bought one but
found it so heavy and uncomfotable that I seldom used it. My transfer
to helmet use came with the introduction of the early soft shell
helmets. They were light enough to be pretty comfortable, they were
pretty inexpensive and I saw no downside. With the introduction of the
light weight hard shells I switched over as I found them to be lighter,
more comfortable and cooler.

I got a Bell Biker within a year of their introduction and wore a
helmet on all rides for the following 25 years. More recently, as I've
become more skeptical of helmet effectiveness, I've used a helmet less
often. Most of my riding is with bike clubs and there I wear a helmet
to comply with their rules, but I no longer wear one when riding to the
store or on solo rides. I do very little off-road cycling, but would
wear a helmet for that kind of riding where the chance of falling is
much greater.

gds wrote:

So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.

I'll start. I'm pretty well convinced that the myriad studies show
differing results. So, my current position is that I just don't know.

I concurr, and while I believe bicycling is very safe regardless of
helment use, I do believe the helmet could help in certain situations,
and is very unlikely to do harm (despite those who argue otherwise.
I've heard the arguments, I don't believe them).

I rode and crashed often as a kid without a helmet and never got
seriously hurt. But now I wear one all the time. I started wearing one
when I started mountain biking about 15 years ago and have worn it on
every ride, mountain or road, since. (I got my helmet free from someone
that won it in some contest. It didn't fit them, it does fit me)

I've crashed a fair number of times while off-road, but the helmet has
no cracks or crushed areas so I've not bothered to replace it. It has,
however, helped when hitting low-hang branches when riding on the local
MPUs.

I see no downside.

Rich

I don't think reading yet another helmet thread is going to change
anyone's mind. I wear one 100% of the time that I ride, though I ride
solo almost all the time and could do whatever I want. I do think that
cycling is relatively safe, if the rider uses simple common sense, and
feel more confident of that the more I ride. At present, I ride about
2000 miles a year and ride some almost every day in an urban setting.

gds wrote:


So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.

I'll start. I'm pretty well convinced that the myriad studies show
differing results. So, my current position is that I just don't know.


My position has changed somewhat in that I no longer refuse to ride with
helmetless riders, and I make sure the anti MHL position is presented
when the subject comes up. But I almost never go helmetless myself.
Never saved my life but prevented a nasty head injury. Most folks I
know have similar stories.

gds wrote:
So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.

Okay, I'll bite.

I never wore a helmet through college, and somehow managed to survive. :-)

At my first job after college, a bicycling coworker strongly encouraged me
always to wear a helmet, so I did. IIRC, he argued that "you could die from
a bicycle accident at 5mph without one", or something similar. It seems
rather unconvincing, now.

Since then, I've read discussions and studies. I still wear a helmet
whenever I'm cycling, but I think I have more reasonable expectations for
the level of protection it provides. I always wear cycling gloves, too, but
I don't expect either the helmet or the gloves to save my life in an
accident. But they have reduced the "pain and suffering" resulting from a
couple minor accidents, and that's worth something.

Plus, the helmet is a handy place to attach a rear-view mirror, and an
extra blinkie light at night. And it's a convenient place to store the
gloves between rides.
--
Darin McGrew, , http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, , http://www.HTMLHelp.com/

"If at first you don't succeed, then plug it in and try again."

Darin McGrew wrote:

Plus, the helmet is a handy place to attach a rear-view mirror, and an
extra blinkie light at night.

I almost never ride at night. Way too dangerous....

"gds" wrote in message
ups.com...
: I'm reposting this question here as the Solstice thread is just too
: long
:


I wear a helmet when I ride. I wear it because my wife feels better when I
do.

Sure, I could win an argument over whether a helmet provides any incremental
safety. It really doesn't. But am I better off by winning an argument over
a trivial issue like helmet wearing? Probably not. So I wear a helmet and
smile knowing my wife feels better.

The helmet came in handy last summer though. I went down a road I had never
rode. There were branches hanging over the road. They caught me by
surprise and instead of turning out of the way, I ducked down. The branches
hit the helmet and I safely rode on. Praise FSM, the helmet saved me from
the minor inconvenience of getting smacked by a branch.

gds wrote:


So, l'd like to understand a bit more how holding one position or
another actually effects helmet use and under what circumstances.

I'd like to enter proxy votes for all the world's cycists before the
year 1975 - several billion of them, I suppose - and nearly all the
world's cyclists today.

In their opinion, cycling wasn't/isn't dangerous, so there's no need
for a helmet.

Of course, I'm in general agreement.

- Frank Krygowski