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...

[quote user1471447863]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.

[/quote] Where did I say 'it wouldn't do much'? That's a gross misrepresentation of what I actually said.

If you read what I wrote, and not what you want me to have written so you could argue with it, you would see that I largely agree with you.

Scooters and professional cyclists etc are irrelevant to family cycling.

Most death and serious injury caused to cyclists is by crushing. E.g. a lorry squashing them against railings etc.

One of the most serious types of head injury is rotational, where your head twists round.

Helmets may make that type of injury more likely, not less. Partly because they increase the size of your head, which, if it was its normal size, may not have become twisted (or indeed bumped) in the first place. And partly because they are smoother and more likely to turn around with a small amount of force than a head is (i.e. less friction).

So sometimes whacking your head is preferable to the other options. And it's still fairly unlikely to happen badly anyway.

So actually I think it's people who insist you can't cycle safely without a helmet who are setting a bad example. It's like a religion.

Gosh there's some nonsense on here.

The heat from his head (or his fashion ego) won't prevent his skull hitting the tarmac, or anything else. A helmet will.

It's very, very, simple.

I always wear a helmet, however a helmet needs to be specifically fitted to your head shape and size, so getting a random one off the peg isn’t ideal.

I agree with the chill out approach. The risk is very small indeed.

@rosiejaune

Scooters and professional cyclists etc are irrelevant to family cycling.

Most death and serious injury caused to cyclists is by crushing. E.g. a lorry squashing them against railings etc.

One of the most serious types of head injury is rotational, where your head twists round.

Helmets may make that type of injury more likely, not less. Partly because they increase the size of your head, which, if it was its normal size, may not have become twisted (or indeed bumped) in the first place. And partly because they are smoother and more likely to turn around with a small amount of force than a head is (i.e. less friction).

So sometimes whacking your head is preferable to the other options. And it's still fairly unlikely to happen badly anyway.

So actually I think it's people who insist you can't cycle safely without a helmet who are setting a bad example. It's like a religion.

It's so nice to read sensible posts like this on these threads. We all have a built-in helmet anyway, which does a pretty decent job.

And to the person who said "it's very, very simple," it's only simple when you haven't given the matter much thought or research.

The evidence that they are so important for safety just doesn't exist, so I don't think it's reasonable to tell adults what they have to do. People get caught up in this business of someone fell and their helmet was damaged, so they would have been horribly injured otherwise - that isn't necessarily true.

It's simple enough if you want your kids to wear them - you say it is a choice for adults, not for kids.

"WeaselKnickers

I agree with the chill out approach. The risk is very small indeed."

Try telling that to people who work in a brain injury unit, or to people like me who have someone in their family with a brain injury.

Kids: Learning to ride. Don't know their limits. Go too fast. High centre of gravity. Special case.

'Try telling someone with a brain injury....'

Tell them what? That a helmet would have made a difference? This is an untestable hypothesis.

Might also say try telling someone with a broken neck that they'd be fine if they hadn't worn a helmet.

This would save more lives

There are two things that would save cyclists' lives and neither of them involve wearing a helmet:

(a) drivers treating them with respect; and

(b) not cycling up the inside of large vehicles indicating left.

Cock up getting out of your toe clips when coming to a stop I don't use them, specifically because I don't want to fall over.

I've liked after far too many children who've had major head injuries from not wearing a helmet. It was always. "They usually do, but only popped round the corner"

Helmets are designed to bear the brunt of impact, they are very good at what they do
No they aren't. Cycle helmets are designed for impacts up to 12 mph, the equivalent of an adult falling off a stationary bike and striking their head on the floor. They will of course take some of the impact at any speed, but if your head hits a moving car, helmet or no helmet, the outcome will be bleak.

These are all the same style of excuses that were trotted out when seat belts were introduced.
"It wont save you in all accidents, so there's no point"
"They are uncomfortable/make me too hot/i cant breathe with one one"
"if you have xyz very particular accident circumstances it will make it worse"
"I'm a grown up I know whats best and i don't want anyone telling me what i can or can't do"

I think there is a general lack of understanding of simple physics doing on here and what happens when your head hits something solid and comes to an abrupt stop vs when your helmet comes to an abrupt stop and deforms allowing your skull to decelerate at vastly reduced rate.

There are plenty of helmets which allow airflow whilst being perfectly safe, I'm sure plenty of cyclists get hot heads so this has been done before. He is setting a terrible example to the children and also putting himself in uneccessary danger.

Helmets save lives, end of. Nobody leaves my house without one. More importantly a helmet can prevent or reduce brain injury, far more likely (in a car accident you don't necessarily stand a chance helmet or not but flying off your bike from skidding on mud and whacking your head enough to split the helmet is more common, I've done it!)

@Macncheeseballs

Would you expect your medical bills and care costs and lifetime benefits following head injury to be met from the public purse - if so wear a helmet. I wear a helmet skiing too, nearly everyone does now and should be compulsory downhill (using lifts)

Bicycle helmets are tested to 12mph, a motorbike helmet is tested to 17mph. A bicycle helmet sold in the US will be tested to 14mph.

Bicycle helmets protect from head injury in 63-88% of cases. I have had accidents where my head didn’t take any impact, I did however have a serious accident about four years ago when I was knocked off by a van and my helmet struck the corner of a granite curb, I use lazer helmets with a honeycomb structure, they are always rated the best helmet to protect against skull trauma and concusion in VTs independent testing. Even with my helmet I had minor concussion and bruising, without I would have suffered a fractured skull which would also increase my risk of brain injury.

Helmets do make you a bit hotter, but I’d rather be hotter and decrease my chance of a head injury.

Helmets save lives, end of

But that’s the point many of us are making, actually, when you look at the the research, the physics of how injuries occur in a crash. The behavioural psychology implications of wearing safety equipment, and compare data from countries that have compulsory helmets vs those that don’t (allowing for infrastructure and cultural variables)

no. Overall, they don’t.

And yes, we all have a relative who was in all probability saved once, by wearing one. But there’s a much, much bigger picture here.

I do wear one, as do my kids. But I do so with an awareness that they’re not all that.

These are all the same style of excuses that were trotted out when seat belts were introduced

Not really, TRL demonstrated the effectiveness of seatbelts, the evidence was proven. Cycle helmets have not been tested this way, that is why the HSE won't class them as a form of PPE. They don't work as effectively as all the "helmet = life saver" folk are making out.

In addition while medics tend to recommend them, road safety professionals don't, for the reasos already stated. There is far more to falling off a bike than just the final impact, and even that is not a given - check out rotational head injuries for more info.

In addition while medics tend to recommend them, road safety professionals don't, for the reasos already stated

This is quite pertinent. In our wider family we have a road safety professional and a specialist in Head injuries. The medic was understandably absolutely and vociferously pro—helmets until the RSP showed them some of the wider evidence. The medic now realises that their worldview was a little skewed, since all they ever see is horrible head injuries. They can see there is a much bigger picture, and are now more relaxed about it (was wanting helmets made mandatory, until they saw what happened in Australia and New Zealand)

If he wants the kids to wear one, he has to wear one.

I can still hear the noise my helmet made when it hit the ground after a car knocked me off my bike. And it’s that memory that puts me firmly in the pro-helmet camp forever.

the fault in the accident at post 2 was 100% with the killer driver who was playing with her dickphone while the car was moving. I hope she is sent to prison for a very long time for manslaughter. Nothing to do with the cyclist victim or his helmet.

kids do need bike helmets because they muck about. Not so clear cut for adults, yes they can save lives but they can also cause injuries. That's why helmets for adult cyclists are not mandatory.

cycle racers do need helmets.

teach your kids to do as they are told regardless of what an adult is doing.

seat belt argument utterly irrevelant, study some physics. Cars go faster.