AIBU // Bike Helmets...

[TryingToDad]

All my four children, and I, wear helmets when we're out on our bikes. My husband frequently removes his, or doesn't wear one altogether, usually claiming it makes his head too hot. I think he's a bloody idiot and I'd rather not have to explain to my kids why Daddy died because his head was too hot!!! AIBU or should I chill out a bit...? His suggestion...

The problem is, as an item of safety equipment they have never been sufficiently demonstrated to deliver the benefits they so often are claimed to provide. As demonstrated by this thread....

Professional sports drivers wear helmets in their cars. It would save lives if we all wore crash helmets in our cars. Why don't we do that?
There is no logic in extrapolating helmet wear among sports cyclists riding at speed and at the limit of their capabilities to leisure cyclists.

The biggest risk to cyclists is getting hit by a car. If you don't cycle in traffic, you've removed the biggest risk, irrespective of helmet use.

you are being ridiculous. Not wearing helmets does not kill cyclists. cars do. There is also lots or research and helmets don't make cycling saver. Of course, there will be always anecdotal and highly emotional evidence if someone's second cousin but it doesn't change the facts.

Look to counties like the Nethetlands. People don't die en mass there because if cycle injuries.

you are most likely to sustain a head injury when being involved in a car accident (as driver and passenger). Do you put a helmet one when you get into the car? If not, why is it such an issue with getting in a bike?

Helmets are only effective IF they are worn properly and IF you are going slowly enough (about 12 mph).

I think it's sensible to wear one on trails as you could collide with a tree but if you get squashed by a car a helmet is not going to save you.

I agree with Cycling UK's advice.

Most people (me included) wear one to avoid the unwarranted moaning from drivers, not because we actually think they will do anything to save us.

Depends on how well he cycles. I'm dutch, I bloody well cycle better than that I walk (I'm not even joking here). To me wearing a helmet when cycling would be just as idiotic as wearing one when walking. Not going to happen.

Oh and your husband would be safer cycling in a skirt with a blonde wig.

True, although the blonde wig would probably be hotter than a helmet.

Not wearing helmets does not kill cyclists. cars do.

Specifically the most dangerous part of the car, the nut that holds the steering wheel.

This is truly insane. The car plague is killing hundreds of thousands of people directly and millions indirectly worldwide, and so many people want to have a pop not at the ravanous dinosauars but the small furry herbivore cyclists.

My cousin had a bike accident. His wife was told that if he hadn't been wearing a helmet he would have been dead. Instead he is paralysed, unable to speak, ventilated and fed by a tube. He is expected to be in that condition for the rest of his life, which could be quite a long time as he was a fit 30 something. It's been about 8 years so far.

Just as well he was wearing a helmet or it could have been worse?

@TryingToDad When its really hot your husband could try soaking a snood or cotten cycling cap in water to keep his head cool. Also some helmets are better ventilated than others so maybe he needs a new helmet. Also his head will feel his lot if he's wearing less layers.

But when cycling with the children he absolutely should wear his helmet to set a good example, and really when he's out without them too.

www.cyclescheme.co.uk/community/how-to/how-to-manage-the-heat-when-wearing-a-helmet

I wear a helmet every time on my bike. DD’s have to wear a helmet, I insist on it even in the garden. We have trees in the garden, what’s to stop them hitting one of those? I am under no illusion the helmet will save me if I’m hit by a car, but I could easily hit a branch on the road and fall off that way and the helmet might help me then.

Helmets are compulsory in Western Australia.

The safety benefits are still up for debate. But if he wants his children to wear their helmets, he should lead by example! Don't let him make it one rule for them and another for him.

If he's overheating, he should try a different helmet.

My first time on a bike the helmet got left at home because a family friend was supposed to teach me and we were running late. I crashed into a fence and ended up in hospital. I was lucky to escape serious injury but it was years before I regained the courage to get on a bike again and even longer before the scar on my head faded.

@peajotter

How about a compromise rule that you always wear them on roads? Otherwise the kids will start to copy him as they get older. We do this- helmets can be removed if hot and we’re on a quiet cycle path.

I would phrase it as setting an example rather than worrying about his safety. Hopefully he will agree that he wouldn’t want his teens on the roads without a helmet, as they don’t have the same risk awareness.

You do realise that if you fall off your bike and hit your head anywhere you'll most likely still fracture your skull? By the same token, do you take your seatbelt off when driving in a 20mph zone? My DS worked in a head injury rehab unit when training to be a nurse. She said half the head injuries were cycling accidents.

@BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup

One of my brother's belongs to a cycling club. Two of his club mates died on a training exercise on the road. They were wearing helmets. They were not fully looking where they were going.

Helmets only protect you at slow speeds. They do not protect you from not being road aware while cycling or from a motor vehicle going over your body.

Oh and your husband would be safer cycling in a skirt with a blonde wig.

Very much this.

Road helmets are made from thin plastic and shock absorbent foam. An effective helmet would look much more like the full face helmets mountain bikers wear and even they are compromised due to the demands of the sport.

A helmet will help in a low speed collision only - falling off your bike at traffic lights or similar. They're not designed to ameliorate high speed impacts, such as being hit by a car, they just can't do that. Yes a bit of plastic and padding will help in the sense it's better than nothing but it's not effective really and will not prevent brain injuries or skull fractures.

All these people saying a helmet will save your life, well actually that is quite unlikely. And that lady with the concussion - a helmet didn't prevent that. A concussion is a serious brain injury.

It encourages complacency imo. I still wear a helmet on my bike, it is better than nothing after all, but it is nowhere near effective and isn't a magical talisman preventing head injuries.

If you are cycling for sport (fast/downhill) or on roads shared with cars or are a learner/child you should definitely wear a helmet. I think we have a serious problem with drivers in the UK that it's now so risky to use the road.

Tootling around on dedicated cycle paths is a different matter to be honest and the risk is hardly more than walking. In many countries where cycling is much more popular (Netherlands), there's less risk and less helmet wearing. Having said that I can't get anywhere useful without going on the road so I usually wear mine.

The far bigger risk to people's health is lack of fitness and activity, the small risk of a cycle accident is just perceived as worse. Our safety conscious office has actually debated whether staff should be encouraged to cycle to work in case they have an accident!

Our safety conscious office has actually debated whether staff should be encouraged to cycle to work in case they have an accident

Years ago I was a school governor and the school refused to allow the kids (7-11) to cycle to school (even accompanied by an adult) because they said it was too dangerous. I was the only governor who was in favour, all the others agreed with the headteacher.

The more bikes on the roads, the more drivers have to get used to it.

"I wont wear one either. They're too hot and uncomfortable. I'll wear it on roads but I never ride on the road anyway so mostly I just don't. Its my risk to take."

It will be your family and loved ones having to care for you when you get a brain injury. Your family crying about you and having to help toilet you, help feed you and help explain things to you for the millionth time. Your loved ones that will have to give up work, and your children if you have any, having caring duties. Please just wear a helmet.

Amber - and the rates of cycling in Australia have dropped because of that rule

It will be your family and loved ones having to care for you when you get a brain injury. Your family crying about you and having to help toilet you, help feed you and help explain things to you for the millionth time. Your loved ones that will have to give up work, and your children if you have any, having caring duties. Please just wear a helmet.

How far do go though? A cycle helmet is unlikely to prevent such severe damage, a motorcycle helmet should. As such you should be arguing that cyclists should be wearing motorcycle helmets....

...but only if you think the risks are that great, current research suggests they aren't.

He should probably wear them if you are cycling on roads. Even then I understand they can give drivers and cyclists a false sense of security.

We don't wear them on paths and we cycle fairly slowly. Road cyclists go fast, no way would I do that.

I pretty much never cycle fast any where, road, path

If his only objection is his head gets hot then he needs one with better airflow. I suffer with a hot head but I love my Lazer Z1 Helmet so much I bought one exactly the same after I had an accident. There are so many large airflow holes in it that I need to wear sun cream to avoid my scalp burning on very sunny days

I was reading this morning about a very experienced cyclist who was out on a ride with friends (luckily) when 3 spikes on his wheel broke which jammed the brakes. This caused him to go over the handlebars. His helmet split almost in two and he was left with a broken nose and concussion. Without the helmet, his skull would have split into two.

A sweaty head vs being killed instantly from being catapulted into the tarmac at high speed. I think I know which one I would choose.

You don't have to be on the road or be hit bay a car to get it wrong and find yourself heading for the ground faster than you would like.
Cock up getting out of your toe clips when coming to a stop? Discover the ground wasn't as even as you expected when you put your foot down into a hole and topple over?
Hit some loose gravel on a corner when your going a good speed?
Get tangled in a stick and your front wheel jams and over the handle bars you go?
I know i'd rather be wearing a helmet just in case. Hopefully you'll never get to see the inside of a neuroscience hospital ward where they are treating brain injuries - it is not a pleasant experience seeing peoples lives and personalities destroyed by brain damage.

He's talking bollocks if he's claiming he's too hot - that's just making excuses. He's on a family cycle ride with his kids, not on a mountain stage of the tour de france. It's more like the hangover from the 90's of them being 'uncool'. How cool are you going to look having to have someone feed you or change your adult nappies for the rest of your life?

For those that seem adamant that they do not work, have a watch of the attached clips of how a watermelon is massively protected by the helmet deforming on impact. You can even try this yourself, and no need for the 4m drop to simulate 19mph. I'm sure dropping it from your head height when seated on a bike should be revealing enough.

And for those that seem to be confused by it 'just being a bit of polystyrene and a thin bit of plastic that won't do much'. Do try and understand how these things work. The foam is more advanced than just the polystyrene that you got in your last parcel but it protects in similar way by sacrificially deforming to reduce the deceleration forces on your skull as it hits the ground so your brain doesn't do a ping pong ball impression inside your skull. The plastic is mainly to protect the foam from damage in normal every day use.
It's not going to save you from every injury in every accident but it will in some and it will reduce the severity of many others and by god i'd rather be wearing one if i was ever coming off my bike regardless of the speed.

I watched my 7 year old fall off his bike at speed. He slid and bounced down the road and his helmet slammed the ground three times, it was like watching it in slow motion. The helmet was pretty busted up.

Despite him wearing jeans and a t shirt he was missing a full chest of skin, both arms had huge 4+ inch scrapes and he'd ripped through his jeans. Even the bits still covered by his jeans had lost skin. It was that bad the only way to clean all the grit out was to put his whole body in a bath full of cool water. Everything from his hands to his bottom was scraped away and bloody.

And all I can think is that he would almost certainly be dead had he not had a helmet on. His head and face were the only parts of him that were undamaged.

I will never be convinced that helmets aren't necessary or "do more harm than good" (yeah, that's said often on here!)

OP, your husband can do what he likes but that doesn't mean your kids don't have to follow your rules. There are plenty of things we adults do that kids know they can't! Such as drinking, driving cars, smoking cigarettes, choosing when to go to bed etc.