Kids wearing cycling helmets, parents not

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Sorry but this is such a bugbear whenever I see it - a child on the back of their parent’s bike rightly wearing a helmet but the parent cycling isn’t. What if there is an accident, yes the child will be safe but their parent is risking their child seeing them with head injuries or worse. Please, please, please, from an ex-A&E nurse, wear a cycling helmet (cycling with a child or not)! No one thinks it will happen to them until it happens to them. Looking after your child means looking after yourself too!!

When I took up cycling again my best friend made me promise to wear a helmet as the injuries she’d seen working in hospital scared her.
The only time I don’t wear one is when renting a cycle on dedicated cycle lanes in the city centre.

My 3 year old has a recently got a bike and he wears a helmet even with stabilisers. If he doesn’t want to wear the helmet he doesn’t ride the bike simple as.

A helmet is a safety device and a good quality one is an investment.

I know there are opinions on not wearing them but I couldn’t cope with a what if

I have no clue what cycling defensively entails. Does it prevent something getting caught in your front wheel, bringing you to a sudden stop and you flying over the handlebars? Or skidding on leaves? Or a kid running into the street and you having to brake suddenly? Or a sudden puncture? Or a drink driver ramming you? You really cannot control all variables that determine your own safety. You're foolish to think otherwise

No I said no one wears helmets and there is less aggression, there could be many reasons and it may not be coincidental. The data does show that the more safety gear cyclists wear then the less human drivers perceive them to be.

I fell off my bike the other day, some of my clothing got jammed in the chain, bringing it to a stop and causing me to topple sideways as I couldn't get my foot down. I didn't hit my head but the handlebar somehow jammed into my boob and I had a MASSIVE bruise. Do you think I could stick a helmet on each one? They're pretty big.

Saw this today.

New study on bike helmets has some shocking findings:

⛑️ Cyclist with helmets are seen as less human
🦺 Cyclists wearing safety vests as least human
😱 Dehumanization leads to being discounted, ignored, mistreated, or deliberately harmed

Link to study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847823001018

I do this when DS is on the back of my bike. The idea is that I feel more vulnerable without a helmet, which means subconsciously I will be more careful.

Nope. The facts don't support.

Most cyclists aren’t wearing helmets that are actually appropriately fitted, they’re just in off the peg generic helmets, they’re no use. My husband wears a helmet as he road races, so his helmet is custom made for his head and does offer a certain level of protection, a crappy helmet from halfords is a waste of time.

I don’t wear one, the times I’ve come off my bike I’ve managed to use my face as a brake, something a helmet wouldn’t prevent.

I've ridden 2 wheel bikes since being around 5 and been a utility, commuter and hobby cyclist ever since - way over 50 years.

Don't like wearing a helmet as I like the wind in what's left of my hair. A polystyrene hat and/or its straps are in the periphery of my vision and, at least subliminally, muck around with my hearing. Some have half decent ventilation but most are sweaty as soon as you're in stop/start urban traffic.

I wear glasses and have to take them off to don or remove the hat. While I was using the enonymous folder in London I'd have left the damned helmet on the train at least twice a year.

I know I'm taking a risk. Like the poster above I ride defensively using observation, hands on brakes, avoiding the nearside gutter or sneaking inside traffic etc etc.

Spent ten years of my working life with people with brain injuries. Working at height or in areas where something might fall, driving massive distances etc are high risk. So is walking home after a skinfull.

One cyclist amongst them. Sort of rider with no lights at pushing midnight, pedalling on his insteps, totally pickled and, as above, going home after a skinfull.

Best cycling pic of all time is of the French professional rider Laurent Fignon on an Alpine descent bareheaded and with his signature ponytail hairdo trailing behind.

He didn't die falling off his bike but in his bed with cancer of the colon.

My knowledge, my risk, my life,

Op I wear a helmet due to people like you, you’ll not be able to berate my daughters if I have a crash.

I did have a crash and the helmet smashed up into pieces and I had concussion 🤕 so fat lot of good it was

tje the A&E nurse tried to blame my shoes 🤦‍♀️🙈

I doubt that very much.

It means riding in such a way that if any of those happen, you have not put yourself in a situation where you can't deal with it. It comes with experience and knowledge.

I think the reason will be being in the habit of being careful with your kids but just forgetting to prioritise yourself, similar to how I often find I put suncream on my DC and forget to put it on me. I doubt it's thought through.

Maybe just mind your own business and leave people alone.

If you have no idea what cycling defensively means, then are you not commenting on a subject you are not fully qualified to comment on?

Bromptotoo, great post

I do this weekly for a very specific reason. I use a child seat on the back or have a small child alongside on their bike. There are three pinch points on our way to an after school activity that cars do NOT give enough space for. If I wear my hair down and no helmet, they give me bags of room and wait if another car is oncoming. If I wear a helmet, my elbows get bruised by wing mirrors and I have been close passed dozens and dozens of times.

I know it doesn't make sense, but on that particular journey, I am safer without a helmet.

But how is that possible unless you're going no more than say 10km/h? Seriously, my dad was cycling in the Netherlands at rush hour, so by no means racing. He got a branch stuck in his front wheel and next thing he knew he was in an ambulance being blue lighted to hospital. How would you avoid that happening? Or a sudden puncture? Or a drink driver knocking you off your bike?

I was being a bit goady, but I am yet to be convinced that it is possible to ride a bike in such a way that you are never at risk of a head injury that might have been prevented or lessened by wearing a helmet. Please explain (and that I do mean genuinely, not goady!)

Also, having relevant knowledge has never been a prerequisite to comment on MN. Sadly😅

I agree the research isn’t definitive - there is also a suggestion that riders wearing helmets take more risks so that is also a factors. But I doubt you have read much of of the research - anecdotally I am passed much closer and more aggressively by cars when Lycra and helmeted up on my road bike than helmet less on my cargo bike.

My reading of the collective body of research suggests that if you have a crash you are generally better of having a helmet on but that you are less likely to crash in the first place wearing one, therefore when riding with a child I put a helmet on them to ensure they are safest if we crash but don’t wear one myself to reduce the risk of a crash happening in the first place. I’m really not anti helmet - I wear one daily, I just don’t wear one when my child is also on the bike as I believe this makes her safer.

I avoid things like this by not riding into branches. It's about being very alert to your environment and ready to stop.

Less likely to crash NOT wearing one (urgh fat fingers)

Also how do you know there not wearing one of these

https://discerningcyclist.com/hovding-3-inflatable-airbag-cycling-helmet/

That’s precisely what a helmet’s supposed to do. It smashes to absorb the energy which would otherwise have been transmitted to your skull.

you had a concussion, yes, but ever thought it might have been much worse without the helmet to dissipate some of the force?

I was hit by a car. I remember my head hitting the ground and bouncing off, my helmet cracking in the process. Thinking thank god that could have been my skull.

having been to nl recently their cycling culture is completely different.

Oh well done you. It was a stick of the kind that a dog might carry in its mouth, not half a tree blocking a road! It was dark so he didn't notice it. I guess your reply would be not to cycle in the dark. I'd rather wear a helmet and be able to cycle normally (following all road rules and paying attention to the traffic) than only be able to go out in daylight when the roads are dry and visibility is 100%. I am still not convinced that you can avoid all scenarios in which you needed a helmet to keep you safe. What about the drunk driver?