No Helmets?

Look at these cyclists, on ice and not one of them is wearing a helmet and none of them crack their heads open and die.

I posted this more in jest than an actual representation of not needing helmets.

Recently the Womens Institute has been looking into backing mandatory helmet laws. As adults who have cycling experience, you are unlikely to fall of your bicycle by your self. You are more likely to be knocked off your bicycle by a hard moving vehicle. A collision which involves forces outside of the design parameters of a bicycle helmet.

Just look at the other countries which have mandatory helmet laws, cycling levels have dropped but a considerable amount.

It would be better to target the cause of bicycle accidents rather than try to force people to use protection which doesn’t actually protect you in all circumstances.


7 thoughts on “No Helmets?

  1. Ha …. Hillarious!

    Im with you on the helmet thing 100%

    But on the last stats that I have seen (TFL 2009) about 2/3 of cycling casulties (of ALL sorts… to be fair) do not involve another vehicle. Often the bike breaks or they just ride into a wall or something of the sort. It is certainly true in my case! Many years ago I got my worst ever bike injury (elbow mashed up) due to poor bike maintainance… totally avoidable.

    Cycle training looks at the source of these casulties very early on in the syllabus by teaching a basic mechanical check and correct control skills. Cliping a bit of plastic to yourself will never be as effective as removing the source of the risk.

    -L

    1. “Cliping a bit of plastic to yourself will never be as effective as removing the source of the risk.”

      Never a truer word spoken. Much reviled as ‘elf and safety is I don’t think anyone has ever applied this very sensible (and seemingly) obvious thinking to our roads.

  2. This video disturbs me.
    1. Did this person set this up?
    2. That music! I Soooo hate that kind of music, it just offends my ears in a way that immediately make me angry!

    This looks like this person set this up to watch people have “accidents” there is nothing funny about it. I watched and know just how much a broken hip can hurt. Same goes for a a lot of these so called “comedy” fall videos you see banded about. When someone actually gets hurt its no longer funny. If its just a little pride before a fall then it is amusing. But this video demonstrates to me the former.
    As for cycle helmets, I do not believe they are useful in protecting our bonces from much more than a little knock. I rarely wear one.

  3. Actually, there is 1 wearing a helmet – the kid being carried on the back. Also note that everyone who crashes has a natural reaction to lift their head up, away from the ground, as they fall. Also, you may jest, but there’s likely a set of related reasons why there are so many cyclists in that country (the Netherlands), why cycling is so much safer there, and why so few wear helmets. 😉

  4. I’ve always been against helmets – until I bought mountain bike for my wife and daughter. I was out on a back road with them for a short five miler. My daughter got off the road and tried to get back on too shallow. She went down right in front of me. Rather than run into her, I did the fatherly thing and went down…my head missed the pavement by an inch or two. I bought a helmet the next day and haven’t been on a ride without it since. My girls need a dad that can provide for them. Period. I don’t care how silly they may seem, I have to protect the melon.

    1. The situation you describe is pretty much what cycle helmets were designed for, so yes a helmet would provide you with a measure of protection.

      The situation you found yourself is was due to your daughter making a mistake and the environment being unforgiving to the mistake. A sensible assessment would be why was the road that you were travelling on not designed to prevent your daughter having to make a dangerous maneuver in the first place?

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