To tell everyone who goes cycling (and their kids) to wear a fucking helmet ?

[ApocalypseCheeseToastie]

Had a phonecall off my sis last night about eldest brother who's a keen, confident cyclist.

She'd phoned him to nag for something or other and found out he'd been laid up for the past ten days after flipping over the bonnet of a car, doing a here's Johnny moment through the windscreen (his head smashed the window) and flipping over the roof.

Luckily he's a bit of a cycling nerd, he wears a high vis vest, refelective strips on trousers etc and most crucially A DECENT FUCKING HELMET

The helmet he was wearing was smashed into little pieces, it protected him from major injury and ultimately saved his life. Leaving him with a few cracked ribs and a dodgy coller bone, without it he would have been killed, a 42 year old guy who has everything to live for. He would have left behind a family who love him, and a 12 year year old daughter who he lives for.

So please, do a shocked cheese a big favour and if you don't already have one, go out today, buy a fucking helmet for everyone, including the soddin dog if needs be.

I thank you.

Well, I'm not really sure what 'attitude' my post represented really. I wouldn't call it any kind of 'attitude' to wish cyclists used cycle paths where they exist in decent form. Various people have stated several reasons they don't, fine and perfectly valid opinons. (Loving the one about not liking speed limits btw, wish I had that option when I feel 30 mph isn't fast enough for me in the car!)

But thanks for the clarification on how drivers hold you up.

i think many drivers find it hard to share the roads with other vehicles.

Shed loads of Bath Spa university saying you are safer without the gear because drivers go alot closer to cycilists with all the gear. I don't wear a helmet and neither does my son but we tend to stick to back roads and cycle paths its a tricky area my SIL died and the upshot was if she hadn't have been wearing a seatbelt she would have been thrown clear. We make our choices and we live with the consequences.

I've said this before on here and I'll say it again. One of our friends (recently become an A and E consultant) says that nearly all the cycling fatalities she sees are as a result of the cyclist hitting the edge of the kerb and slicing open their frontal lobe. Those she sees who have been wearing helmets still have head injuries but they are not fatal.

Many helmets are being worn incorrectly and provide little or no protection in the event of an impact. This is most often seen in children, who don't like the tight feeling of the strap under their chin, or whose helmets are being worn too big or too small. The top of the helmet should fit snugly to the head, with just a little give in the straps when lifted up. The strap should be worn under the chin, not on it (as DS1 likes to do.)

We all cycle. We all wear helmets. If the kids can't find them/have left them somewhere, they don't get on their bikes til they have them again.

I'm sorry to hear about your SIL Doowrah .

I agree with MissBetsy.
A tip to check the helmet is fitted right is that once it is placed on the head lean forward (best have hands in a catch position!) The helmet should stay in place without feeling tight. Clearly if it falls off it will offer no protection. it shouldn't be so tight it induces headaches either!!
Bike shops will let you try on different helmets to see what suits and fits you best.

I would add make sure the helmet fits properly. I saw two little girls today with the helmet hanging back from the neck strap exposing their foreheads.

Most cycle paths aren't suitable for people who want to cycle reasonably fast ie at a speed which makes commuting to work by bike possible. They can also be dangerous when they change from one side of the road to another, involving waiting around waiting to cross. Not everyone who cycles moves at around 8mph or less and does so as a recreational Sunday run.

Cycling is actually a sport you know - in other countries, such as France, they even close roads for it to take place. Britain has the current Olympic Road Race Womens Cycling Champion, Nicole Cooke!

People like Flowery make me sad. More than that, she makes me not want to live in a country like the UK, where people don't take exercise outdoors, who spend their lives driving from a little concrete box to another concrete box in a little tin box, never expanding their horizons and used to everything being artificial. I don't find it particularly civilised or progressive.

Flowery - have you ever lived in another Northern European country, where things are done differently?

Most of our cycle paths are shared cycle/walking. I do cycle pretty slowly along them, but I'm constantly scaring pedestrians who wander slowly around, also toddlers, dogs, buggies. However carefully you go you feel as though you are upsetting the other path users and shouldn't really be there.

Seriously? People who would prefer cyclists to use cycle paths where they exist in decent form make you want to leave the country? It's a different opinion not persecution! Good lord!

Perspective having clearly disappeared out of the window I'm off, but I will answer the question no I have never lived in Northern Europe.

Despite your dramatic and slightly bewildering underestimation of my intelligence and general awareness of the world, I am in fact fully aware that cycling is a sport. Although I will confess to not being entirely clear as to how that is relevant to non-athletes' use or otherwise of cycle paths in my town.

Anyway I shall leave you to ponder whether to emigrate as a result of my views.

Stick to mountain biking that's what I say!!

That way you avoid all the shared cycle path malaky and bimbling along at a couple of miles an hour.
Get on some good tracks and let your hair down (underneath your helmet of course!!)

Flowery, it's your attitude towards other road users that I see as a problem.

You wrote:
My pet peeve is cyclists who go on the road holding up all the traffic when there is a perfectly decent cycle path. USE IT!!!! Tends to be 'proper' cyclists with all the gear on who think (I guess) that cycle paths are beneath them or something. So dangerous because people get frustrated and overtake too close when there isn't really room.

The cycles ARE part of the traffic.
Cyclists know that cycle paths are more dangerous and slower than the road, and they are often put in by traffic engineers who aren't cyclists themselves, so they are designed badly. Tell us which one you are talking about, and I'm sure someone will know it.

And as for "people get frustrated" - you mean that car drivers are impatient and inconsiderate of other road users, don't you?

mountain biking isnt particuarly useful for commuting to work. Unless your work is on top of a mountain

agree with Taghain. So many drivers think they are the only ones entitled to the road. Its for all traffic and some of that traffic is bicycles, horses and disability scooters. So you have to wait? tough. You are in the privilaged position of sitting coccooned from the elements where the only effort required is to lift your foot slightly. And compared to other road users, you are pretty safe in that metal box.
So wait until its safe to pass, leave 3 feet between you and the slower vehicle and get a grip.
Although in this city average traffic speeds (for motor vehicles) is 12 mph. Us cyclists breeze pass, overtaking safely.

As usual with cycling threads this has degenerated into a cyclists vs motorists argument.

I had to use a bike go get anywhere before I passed my driving test and I hated every single minute of it, especially when I was in my teens. We lived in a very isolated spot so walking wasn't really an option, my dad worked long hours so couldn't very often give me lifts and the bus stop was over a mile away and the bus only ran a few times a week.

My real problem with cycling was not so much the traffic or car drivers (althouth I did have a few nasty experiences - usually pervs rather than aggressive drivers) but the sweaty, rainy-wet, muddy or just plain exhausted state I used to arrive anywhere.

I wonder if, however, most of the bile in these debates is generated from urban rather than rural experiences?

I cycle regularly on a dual carriageway. I have a helmet and hi vis. I know it wont stop me being killed if Im hit by a truck but otherwise Im much happier knowing its my helmet hitting the floor before my head.Traffic does get closer if your wear a helmet. Id love to fit a helmet-cam to show people just how close traffic gets !

I really resent people telling me to wear a helmet. Its my business what I do. I wear a helmet when I'm out on the road for a training ride but if I'm on a slow shopping bike going round the corner for some milk then I don't wear a helmet. Its my decision and its not required by law to wear one. So mind your own business.

Patopopo Mind your own you might say . . . but do you ever stop and think about the people who would have to scrape your brain off the pavement? I think you should and yes it is their business.

personally, i think anyone who cycles without a helmet in London traffic is insane. the parents who put their kids on the back of their bikes and the kid doesn't have a helmet make me . i saw one changing lanes across a 4 lane roundabout near me...

and basing your helmet wearing decision on how car drivers treat cyclists is a bit nuts imho.

I left the thread earlier because I felt perspective had been lost and in the context I didn't really have anything further to say. However on reflection I want to just come back and sincerely apologise to Apocalypse for inadvertently derailing her thread.

I had no idea I'd wandered into such an Issue, or that my mild rant about what I felt was a minor irritation would be so objectionable. I do feel there may be a little bit of projection going on in places as I get the sense I've stepped into an uneasy cease fire following heated and extreme debate previously and had some of that 'previous' assigned to my own views or something given the reaction.

However lesson learned and I will add cycle paths to my list of Issues it's probably best not to be drawn into in future!

WhoseGotMyEyebrows you're more likely to get hit by a car driver as a pedestrian than a cyclist. Are you suggesting they should also be wearing helmets so some poor person doesn't have to scrape their brain off the pavement?

Karstan What a pointless post!

Pointless how? You're suggesting that cyclists are irresponsible for not wearing helmets as someone else might have to pick up the pieces. I'm wondering why you don't think the same would apply to pedestrians?

Karstan Possibly because pedestrians are walking on the pavement and cyclists on the road inches from cars?!

Cyclists sometimes cycle on the roads, sometimes they're cycling in separate cycle lanes, pedestrians cross the roads and cars mount pavements. Approx. 4 times as many pedestrians die in collisions with motor vehicles as do cyclists. So why do you think it's the cyclists that should be forced to protect themselves and not pedestrians?

I am a keen cyclist and until this week was a bit lax about wearing my helmet. I fell off on Wednesday in the rain, and smacked my head on the road. I was in the middle of the Lake District, with no phone signal and hadn't told anyone where I was. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet I could potentially have been very seriously injured. I am always going to wear it from now on.

Cycle paths are generally regarded by motorists as somewhere to park or as an additional 2 ft of road in which to drive into when joining another road. I'm cycling at 20mph+ on my commute, at times touching 30mph, I don't think pedestrians want me on a shared path. If I can keep up with the traffic I adopt primary position ie the middle of the lane - I am not holding traffic up I am moving with the traffic. If I move slower then I pull over to the left. Motorists should only overtake if it is safe to do so - not roar thro' a 20mph zone with pinch points at 30+ and tell me I am impeding them. I choose to wear a helmet but wouldn't enforce them on people. As for holding motorists up - am I taking a few seconds off their busy day?