Why I don't wear a helmet when biking

It's a stupid article. The author presents reasonable arguments against *mandatory* helmet laws as reasons not to wear a helmet herself. I'm against mandatory helmet laws too, but I wear a helmet myself.

She doesn't wear a helmet because some people are less likely to ride if they have to wear one, or some riders are more reckless when they wear one. Really? What does that have to do with her own helmet use?

I wear a helmet. I picked it up from Performance Bike shop for something like $60. It's lightweight, comfortable, cool, and it takes essentially no effort to put on and take off. The cost of wearing it per ride is approximately zero. It in no way makes my ride less enjoyable or deters me from riding. For me, there is no tradeoff between obesity/heart disease and wearing a helmet. I have rarely crashed, and I've only had one hard head impact where one could argue the helmet may have saved me from a more severe injury beyond a concussion, but the cost of a severe head injury would have been *extremely* high. My personal cost benefit analysis has convinced me to keep wearing my helmet.

Which prevents you from responding to "Hey Stupid" even slower. Unlike many who frequent this site.

I'm another vote for the pro helmet crowd.

Mountain biking and I went too slow over an obstacle, couldn't hold my line and went head first into a tree. Very glad I was wearing a helmet.

One key difference I note between running (I also Nordic ski) and cycling is that when on a bike you can't break you call with your hands so impacts will be worse.

The writer said he was done wearing one during casual riding.

Mountain biking is different.

I think the takeaway is that you're not stupid for not wearing a helmet, at least for casual riding. It's a "might make you a bit safer" decision rather than a "there's only one rational choice" decision. (Totally different from Motorcycles, where we do actually have pretty good evidence that helmets matter.)

I never wear one when I'm riding just for transportation. My speed isn't that much faster than tempo run pace, and I'm pretty cautious about zipping through traffic.

Star wrote:

Mountain biking is different.

Interestingly, I feel a lot safer mountain biking without a helmet than road biking without a helmet. That's because I go a lot slower while mountain biking than road biking (due to all of the turns and obstacles), and because if I fall it'll be mostly on a mix of dirt and rocks rather than asphalt.

I usually wear a helmet because it's easy, but if I realize that I forgot it inside I'm probably not going back for it (unless it's a road ride of over 10 miles). I also definitely agree that helmets shouldn't be mandatory.

I've been biking most days for years, and I had never hit my head during a fall (banged it on a tree one time while mountain biking, but wouldn't have been a big deal even without a helmet). Until like three days ago, when I got clipped by a car and slammed into the asphalt. I mostly broke my fall with knee/hip/elbow/hand, but my head did bounce off the road. I don't think I would have died without a helmet, but my helmet definitely saved me from a (worse?) concussion.

It's funny how I thought that my views were based mostly on statistics about bike safety (like it being no more dangerous per mile than walking on the sidewalk, and only slightly worse per mile than driving - and we don't wear helmets while walking on the sidewalk)...but now that I've had a fall where a helmet saved me, I definitely feel like my views have shifted a bit! Maybe I'm not quite as rational as I thought.

Runner on a bike wrote:

Not sure I agree, but it's a well written argument:

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/transportation/2015/jun/26/why-im-done-wearing-helmet

I am too lazy to read the article, but it is careless and perhaps stupid not to wear a helmet if you are a racer. With that said, as a casual/recreational biker for many years I didn't wear a helmet until I had kids and felt I needed to set the right example. When I use to travel, the only people I saw wearing helmets were cyclist.

Interesting, Consumer Reports just published an article about this. Here are some fun facts from that article...

* Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by almost 70 percent

* Cycling sends more people to the ER for head injuries than any other sport - Twice as many as football, 3.5 times as many as soccer

* 87% of cyclists killed in accidents over the past two decades were not wearing helmets

I advocate a helmet, but understand why the college student biking about one mile at a casual pace around campus would not wear one.

This is True Man wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

something like 700 people a year are killed on bicycles in the US. Compared to somewhere in the ballpark of 30,000 in automobiles.

I wonder how many auto fatalities could be prevented if the passengers wore helmets? Seriously. Even with airbags and seat belts I bet a lot of car passengers get wanged in the head. More than 700 even.

This ^ is true. I have often thought that if people were serious about safety then wearing a motorcycle helmet while driving should be mandatory (like wearing seatbelts).

Waste of time. Ayrton Senna was wearing a helmet in his car and he still died.

thinkaboutit wrote:

Interesting, Consumer Reports just published an article about this. Here are some fun facts from that article...

* Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by almost 70 percent

* Cycling sends more people to the ER for head injuries than any other sport - Twice as many as football, 3.5 times as many as soccer

* 87% of cyclists killed in accidents over the past two decades were not wearing helmets

I advocate a helmet, but understand why the college student biking about one mile at a casual pace around campus would not wear one.

You do realize that science and studies have absolutely no place in on this site right? Like 0.

Anecdotes and snarky insults are the way rational decisions must be made.

Does anybody really think that we should look at what college students do as an example of how to lead a safe life? When I was in college, a friend of mine changed drivers in a pickup truck by crawling out the window of the passenger door, into the bed, and then in through the drivers window. The original driver had the easy part--all he had to do was slide over when the acrobat came in the window. They didn't have an accident. Does this mean everybody should change drivers this way, because college students do and survive it? Should we look at their drinking patterns and emulate those too?

Smell the coffee wrote:

Running in traffic is far more dangerous than casual biking without a helmet.

Yeah, except that with biking you tend to be going way faster than with running.

Oh yeah, and on a bike you are far less maneuverable than on foot.

Of course a bike adds width and increases the chance that a car will clip you.

And in the event of a crash falling off a bike is much more awkward/out of control than falling down running.

But yeah, besides that going helmetless on a bike makes just as much sense as going for a run without a helmet.

college students are smart wrote:

Does anybody really think that we should look at what college students do as an example of how to lead a safe life? When I was in college, a friend of mine changed drivers in a pickup truck by crawling out the window of the passenger door, into the bed, and then in through the drivers window. The original driver had the easy part--all he had to do was slide over when the acrobat came in the window. They didn't have an accident. Does this mean everybody should change drivers this way, because college students do and survive it? Should we look at their drinking patterns and emulate those too?

Yes. That is how I did it.

For the same reason I don't wear clean underwear?

thinkaboutit wrote:

Interesting, Consumer Reports just published an article about this. Here are some fun facts from that article...

* Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by almost 70 percent

* Cycling sends more people to the ER for head injuries than any other sport - Twice as many as football, 3.5 times as many as soccer

* 87% of cyclists killed in accidents over the past two decades were not wearing helmets

I advocate a helmet, but understand why the college student biking about one mile at a casual pace around campus would not wear one.

To your second point, sports that take place on a field in an organized environment have different mechanisms for handling injuries. My high school football team had a whole crew of trainers at practices, and an orthopedic surgeon on the sideline during games. If you dislocated your shoulder or tore your ACL playing football, you would most likely receive on-the-field treatment and then be sent straight to a specialist when/if necessary. There would be no need for a stop at the ED, since most of the ED's job (stabilization, triage, and determination of what specialist to send the patient to) would be done on the spot.

Cycling happens on the open road, so the ED is the likely first stop for any injury. While the football player who dislocates his shoulder will be sent by team/school staff straight to an ortho, the cyclist who falls and dislocates his shoulder will likely head straight to the ED, given lack of immediate access to another medical/training professional.

drain bamaged wrote:

On time I got clipped on the back wheel by a newbie. I hit my head on asphault. I thought I was going to die or be paralyzed it hit so hard.

Helmet was shattered in and I got a mild concussion with road rash and broken collarbone.

So here is an n=1 who is for helmets.

I decided to go out for a short ride without even leaving the community I was living in at the time. Speed limit was 25mph. I made a U-turn at the end of a cul-de-sac and hit a piece of wood hidden in the shadows. It flipped me over the bars and cracked my helmet. I had a mild concussion and headaches for weeks. Pretty sure I would have had serious brain damage or worse without a helmet.

Vruking wrote:

Smell the coffee wrote:

Running in traffic is far more dangerous than casual biking without a helmet.

Yeah, except that with biking you tend to be going way faster than with running.

Oh yeah, and on a bike you are far less maneuverable than on foot.

Of course a bike adds width and increases the chance that a car will clip you.

And in the event of a crash falling off a bike is much more awkward/out of control than falling down running.

But yeah, besides that going helmetless on a bike makes just as much sense as going for a run without a helmet.

Running is faster than walking, or sitting on your sofa. So I guess you would want us to wear a helmet when running.

Driving you're less maneuverable than on foot. Same for lying in bed. So I guess you want us to wear helmets at those times.

Eating food increases your width and thus the chances a car can hit you. So you want us to wear helmets when eating, or shortly thereafter?

Falling down a flight of stairs is more awkward than falling when running. Do you believe helmets should be worn by those using stairs?

Actually I do think people such as yourself are supposed to wear helmet when walking around.

You just mad they make you wear it in front the pretty girls, huh?

I was on a group ride just 3 days ago, about 20 of us. We were coming down a steep hill and the ones up front weren't sure if we were supposed to turn. Dude in the middle started to turn then didn't and wrecked his bike going pretty fast. Road rash elbow, but his helmet bounced twice on the pavement. It all happened in about 2 seconds. No time to react. He would've had a serious head injury if not for the helmet.