to think Wiggins should be wearing a helmet?

[alphabite]

Set a good example to the kids Wiggins and put your helmet on!

Well done though, great race!

[IOutrunBoltInMySpareTime]

He did a press conference (last night? I saw it on BBC Breakfast) advocating the wearing of cycle helmets, and promoting safe cycling. OP, are you happy now?

[DanniWeston]

... and will we be expecting parents to wear them and set a good example?

[DanniWeston]

I saw an excellent device called the "Thudguard" on "The Apprentice.

hey advise helmets for toddlers due to the high number of head injuries when children are at this vulnerable stage.

They are also endorsed by Doctors, A/E consultants and have stories of children who were saved from serious brain injury by these helmets.

How many of those advocating cycle helmets are going to use Thudguards ?

[HellonHeels]

He's just won Olympic gold! in the course of which he was wearing a helmet. Do bore off with this worthy setting an example business.

[pimmsgalore]

bumperella have done exactly the same thing myself but DH did point out that without the £40 of the helmet down the drain I would have been upside down with a large bump on my head, possibly blood pouring out, floating off to the big kayak in the sky

[bumperella]

I wear a helmet kayaking. Capsized in brand new one, hit rock, helmet split apart. Typical, £40 down the drain.....

Am pro-helmet. But Olympic medal winner wearing one for a short pootle at v low speeds on a road with no traffic seems excessively risk-averse, even to me....

[RedHelenB]

I would say ALWAYS wear a hard hat on a horse cos they can be spooked by anything & you have further to fall. Pedalling slowly on a road without other traffic is safe, really unlikely to fall hard on your head.

[dexter73]

He was also cycling around with both his hands off the handlebars!! I think he had other things on his mind than being a good safety role model to children!

[HmmThinkingAboutIt]

less safely around cyclists with helmets than cyclists without helmets even!

[spoonsspoonsspoons]

I know someone who was told by medics that his helmet saved his life. The fact that he wasn't wearing one had passed them by!

[CakeMeIAmYours]

hmmthinkingaboutit is spot on. I was seriously about this when DH first mentioned it, but was forced to eat my words when I looked at the evidence.

[HmmThinkingAboutIt]

There is a theory called Risk Homeostasis.

Its been proven that the way people behave changes according to how they assess risk. So sometimes if you use a safety device, you think you can take more risks as you are under the mistaken notion you are safer - thus increasing your chances of having an accident rather than making you safer. So you are no more or less likely to be injured overall.

One of the things this has been studied on is cycle helmets. Drivers have been shown to behave less safely around cyclists with helmets than cyclists with helmets.

Its also been used to compare drivers with ABS and normal brakes and found comparable rates of accidents due to differences in driving style and risk assessment.

Its an interesting theory, and one that makes perfect sense whilst making you go "Wow really?" at the same time.

[mummymeister]

set a good example for the kids you said OP. Well that is exactly what he has done. issues with his father when he was a kid. obviously a shy and private man who has gone out there and won gold. thats the example i am showing my kids not a couple of minutes at snails pace waving to the crowds without his lid on. all this obsession about helmet wearing gives some people the feeling that if they are wearing one then they are invincible which of course they are not. My kids wear them for cycling and watersports and could well see why he wasnt wearing one at the end. surely thats the point - educating your kids so they know what is the appropriate thing and when.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

And I am all for helmets but seriously - I don't think it mattered but I know people were snarky when his son did his little ride with Bradley after he won the tdf minus a helmet.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

And his zip was undone - he could have got a nasty graze if he'd come off his bike

I am so pleased for him

[yellowraincoat]

The biggest cycling club in the UK actually thinks that wearing helmets would have a negative impact on public health overall. Drivers take less care when they see you're wearing a helmet, they can strangle you and it's not even proven they are useful in a crash.

Beyond that, the very idea that Wiggo is suddenly going to have a fatal crash when going about 3 miles an hour on an empty road is laughble.

[cardibach]

The caption is correct, DontEat, she was competing in the dressage element of the eventing dressed like that. As pointed out ^^ the chances of falling in this are minimal. THey wear helmets for the show jumping and cross country elements of the eventing.

[Pagwatch]

It references a funny thread the other day Wiggy.

Just a poster with an odd style including 'sadface' a lot.

[Lovelynewboots]

He did wear one?

[geegee888]

A world in which people cannot think for themselves scares me more than one in which someone casually cycles a short distance from A to B without a cycling helmet.

[Ithinkitsjustme]

Would I be wearing a helmet cycling round at that speed with no cars in sight? Yes - but that's because I can fall off my bike without any excuse. Would it have set a good example to kids - possibly. Was it necessary for Bradley Wiggins to wear one in the precise circumstances - I think not, YABU

[DontEatTheVolesKids]

So the caption on this Telegraph article is wrong, it doesn't show the Queen's Grand-daughter immediately after completing 2012 eventing?

Would have sworn some of them only had fancy hats on yesterday, but then I watch the horses more than the riders anyway. :)

[WigGold]

Bit of a hijack - but what's all this 'somethingface' thing that's appeared over the last couple of days? I'm sure there's a marked increase in it - are we taking the piss out of someone?

I'vemissedsomethingface

Cluelessface

Nochangetherethenface


?

[HarrietSchulenberg]

Riders in eventing and showjumping DO wear proper hats. I don't think dressage hats are reinforced but the chances of coming off when you're mid turn-on-forehand are so minimal as to be non-existent.

The difference between horse riding and cycling is that if you fall off your horse at speed there is a fair likelihood of getting kicked in the head. Only a very specialist bike would do that to you!

As you can tell, I am a hat-wearer for horses but am firmly sans headgear when on bikes.

[Pagwatch]

I noticed he wasn't wearing bicycle clips either.
Flapping Lycra can be lethal in a stiff breeze.

Judgeyface