Need to consult the MN oracle - teenaged boys and cycle helmets!

[Greensleeves]

My 14yo wants a new bike for Christmas. He also wants us to stop insisting that he wears a cycle helmet, because apparently we are the only parents who make our teens wear them, none of his friends do, and it's embarrassing (to the point that he would rather not cycle)

DH and I don't want to cave in on this one...AWBU?

That’s a bit of a daft analogy tbf, cars have seat belts, air bags and all sorts of safety equipment! Ona bike it’s your skin & bones versus the road.

Would he choose a ‘cool’ helmet like a bmx rider type maybe?

Not really, as people suffer head injuries in cars every day. And if you are worried about skin, do you also campaign for people to cycle with leathers on?

Start a petition at Change.org.

Yes in an ideal world, we would have an infrastructure similar to the Netherlands, but we don't.

Petitions on Change.org can be spread via social media and once you have so many signatures, it has to be debated in parliament, I believe.

Not sure about what you should do re DS, but I never wear a helmet on bike, but only cycle on off road cycle tracks for pleasure and never ever on roads. So bit different.

However I do ride horses and would never consider even getting on one without my helmet. When you compare my riding hat (£100 plus) with the bike helmet the bike one does seem totally rubbish. DD has one, a proper BMX one which wasn’t cheap, but honestly it looks like it’s no where near as safe as a our riding hats. My riding hat has been testing to withstand the weight of a half tonne horse shod with iron shoes kicking or stamping on your head. And believe me they work. The cycle helmet seems nowhere near as robust. It’s basically just some polystyrene in a thin plastic case ? As horse riders we are taught that a cycle helmet must never ever be used as a substitute for a proper riding hat.

You can start a petition if you like.

Bear this in mind: everyone agrees that cycling without a helmet is better for you than not cycling at all.

So, you'd be campaigning to ban something that's good for public health - on public health grounds.

Leaving aside whether it's okay to try to tell others what risks they may take, this has to be close to the definition of madness.

And yes, I know it would be better if everyone cycled with a helmet than without. But the overwhelming evidence from Australia and NZ - countries with a combined population of 25m - is that it sends cyclist numbers through the floor.

When you make public health policy, you have to remember that people take decisions based on factors other than their health and safety. Otherwise we'd've successfully banned all fatty foods, smoking and alcohol by now.

I'm a cyclist and car driver; since I returned to cycling after decades not being on a bike I had exactly the same kind of response to wearing a helmet as your DS .

It only took one ride out on my local roads and cycling path to change my mind about wearing a helmet. But I did a bit of searching on the internet and found a Kask women's helmet and it looks really cool on me, even if I say so myself.

Have a look OP, they do a huge range of cycle helmets at various prices for all ages with increasing levels of safety; today's helmets are far more sophisticated than the earlier ones if you don't mind paying a bit more for the style and cool factor. I couldn't imagine going out on my bike without my helmet now and other posters are right - all the professionals wear them no matter what kind of bike they're riding.

Tell him that he's more likely to get Alzheimer's if he doesn't wear a helmet.

There's a new airbag thing for cyclists. You wear it around your neck and it looks a bit like a scarf. It expands to cushion your head if you have a fall. It's pricey though.

all the professionals wear them no matter what kind of bike they're riding

They were forced to wear them by the International Cycling Union, which made helmets compulsory for sanctioned races maybe 10-15 years ago (can't be bothered to look up exactly when). If you look at footage from the Tour de France from 20 years ago, you'll see very few helmets.

In any case, kids pootling round the estate are a different proposition than bombing down a mountain road at 60mph.

Tell him that he's more likely to get Alzheimer's if he doesn't wear a helmet.

But he's much more likely to have a stroke or get heart disease if he doesn't grow up active.

This is it:
hovding.com

As an adult I went to visit someone knowing I was going on a bike ride, but I forgot my helmet. I carried on and went for a ride anyway. I ended up having an accident and went flying over the handlebars, I was incredibly lucky not to break any bones, but I really messed my face up and had to have a bit of glue to stick my cuts together. The n next day I got my housemate to take several pictures of my face. I didn’t have kids at the time, but I took the pictures with the sole intention of showing them to future kids who say they don’t want to wear a helmet!
I was the same as a teenager and think you have to be very blunt about why they need to wear one. Although, I got off reasonably lightly, my face would have been damaged if I had on a helmet.

I’m in Australia where it’s mandatory and I’m really surprised at the ‘cycling numbers have dropped since it became mandatory’

I live in a beachside town though so maybe that’s why we have so many on bikes around here? There’s a bike trail that runs through 7 towns along the waterfront, and everyone rides to the beach.

Our DC’s school always has full bike racks and there’s a teacher on ‘bike duty’ every day who checks each students helmet is fitted correctly before they’re allowed to unlock their bike. This has been going on for years and I can’t say it’s made a difference to the number of kids that ride to school.

My DC know no helmet = no bike. Even if they’re just riding on the driveway. They picked their own helmets and decorated them with stickers from cool surf brands and their a sporting clubs

The Hovding costs north of £200 and once it's gone off once, that's it. It's also made of air and plastic, and like an ordinary bike helmet is not going to save you in a serious collision with a car.

OP, if you've got £200+ to spend on your son's cycle safety, I think you're better off:

Getting him a visible jacket if he hasn't got one (it doesn't need to be flourescent yellow, just light-coloured)
Buying him a decent pair of gloves (you're much more likely to 'deglove' your hands than your head - the clue's in the name)
send him on a proper cycle safety course

I think all of these together will make more of a difference than a styrofoam helmet that comes off as soon as he is out of view.

thedancingbear so cycling without a helmet is better than not cycling? I thought the stat about Alzheimer's would persuade him to wear a helmet.

Wouldn’t!

mrsdoctorspencerreid here are the stats for cycling in Australia. It's not completely fallen off a cliff but there is a significant drop.

www.cycle-helmets.com/cycling-1985-2017.html

thebookswereherriends, I'm sorry you had an accident, but unless you were wearing a full-face helmet (like BMXers wear) it wouldn't've saved your face. I work with someone who stacked it on a mountain bike and who properly mashed up his face: he was wearing a helmet.

@PhilomenaButterflyyep exactly that. That is what all the research shows.

I'm under no illusion that a bike helmet will save my life in a serious collision. I wear it because it decreases the chances of a brain injury if I come off the bike and hit my head.

And i also agree with dancingbear that the helmet is part of the safety story on a bike - hi vis clothing, gloves and so on for the vulnerable body parts all help decrease injury in a fall situation.

I’m guessing that the majority of car vs bike collisions occur when the car driver doesn’t see the cyclist or the cyclist doesn’t see the car. So the car drivers take more risk ‘argument’ when you wear a helmet is a bit of a red herring for the majority of accidents.

Not disputing the wearing of other protective equipment, but that should be used as well as helmet, not as an argument not to wear a helmet.

The helmets are just polystyrene and plastic, don’t cover everywhere and only work at low speed. - Any covering will offer a higher degree of protection than nothing and while they won’t stop you breaking your face/nose, worn properly they could stop you fracturing more vulnerable parts of your skull. As for the speed argument just because they won’t protect you from a speeding car smashing your body apart, they will protect you to some degree from a lower speed incident - as you have no idea what type of incident you’re going to have, then why would you not wear one?