I would be dead a few times if not for my bike helmet.

Eww, a helmet discussion on the internet! Lemmy had a good run almost without them.

Anyway, stupid hat 😆

Had a workmate that said helmets are ‘just for kids’, he was riding his bike home from work one evening and slipped on some sand on the path while rounding a corner that he’d ridden hundreds of times prior. No cars involved, nothing but him his bike and a pavement. His head hit the cement path, and he was dead before an ambulance arrived.

No helmet.

His funeral was the largest I’ve ever attended (200+) and his teen son reading a eulogy was something I’ll never forget.

I miss him. He was a great guy, intelligent and funny and always had interesting stories, enjoyed discussing conspiracies - but more the ones with evidence (COINTELPRO etc) over pure speculation. The one dumb thing I thought he did regularly was ride daily without a helmet.

So yeah, you guys who think helmets make no difference - you’re wrong. The impact forces delivered to your skull is enormously reduced by wearing a helmet, and everyone that chooses not to wear one is convinced, “that won’t be me, I ride safe, I know the path well”. You’re wrong, and you’re gambling with your life - for what?

Most stupid discussion ever. I remember a couple of years ago when there where motorcycle riders protesting a new helmet law ( I think it was NYC). Dude won the Darwin awards smashing his head and it was concluded that he probably had lived if he had a helmet.

Studies in USA show automobile drivers perceive helmet less bicycle riders to be more dangerous so they give them more space. Therefore it is safer to not wear a helmet, up until the point your head makes contact with something. That said I always wear a helmet. Been hit by cars twice, twice cracked my “styrofoam hat” but not my skull.

I wear a helmet. Either I’m mountain biking, or I’m in a bike lane along cars, where I’m riding in the 22-25mph range and the cars are in the 45-50mph range. If I get directly run into, it probably won’t make a lot of difference, but if I get clipped/knocked down, way more likely, it quite likely will.

I don’t think they should be mandatory, but it does bring up the same arguments that get made about motorcycles - if you don’t wear one and you crash, will the (horrible, shitty, awful, stupid, American) insurance industry try to reduce their liability? Rhetorical question, of course they will.

Biking is safe whether or not you wear a helmet. The life-extending advantages of biking outpace the life-shortening risks either way. If wearing a helmet makes you more comfortable and you bike more, then that makes a bigger difference than the helmet itself.

This video is a great example of a seemingly simple topic having more nuance than you might expect.

For me, the truth is I barely notice I’m wearing a helmet, and cars barely notice me as a cyclist even exists.

So even if a helmet only does half of what it claims to do, I’ll take that chance in an accident with a giant metal box on the road.

Ever since I learned in motorcycle training that having your head go into a immovable surface (curb, tree, etc) at just 10mph can easily kill you, I wear one while skiing and bicycling. Just like seatbelts in a car, I don’t feel safe enough anymore without wearing one. I’ve always worn ‘heavy’ helmets for the motorcycles anyway, so the lighter ones for bikes and skiing are barely noticeable.

If you feel safer in your Styrofoam hat wear one, if you don’t then don’t.

We’ve been debating this shit for 40 years

@lgsp I’m a fan of requiring them over 25kmph. Yes this is largely unenforcable, so no one will be fined. But it still gives the message that if you go fast you should wear one.

But it also gets out of the way of people riding to the corner store for milk

As a BMX flatland rider (not in traffic), I’ve found that helmets cause the rider to be unnaturally top heavy, which affects the abilities of the rider to perform a lot of tricks, particularly the many one wheel tricks the sport has to offer.

If anything, in BMX flatland, elbow pads, knee pads, shin guards, and perhaps gloves, offer the most necessary protection for the sport. Pretty much all flatland riders ditched helmets back in the 90’s for the very reason I mentioned, it affects the balance while performing complex tricks.

Now as far as regular road commuting, even though I’m not one to wear a helmet, I would tend to recommend a helmet for the average rider. Vehicles are big and heavy, and plenty of drivers out there don’t pay nearly enough attention to bicycles or pedestrians.

And that in itself brings up another question:

If bicycle riders should wear helmets, then shouldn’t pedestrians also wear helmets…?