Discussion
A friend went down in an accident last night and is now in hospital with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. He wasnt wearing a lid, he never has but he is a very experienced cyclist who probably clocks up over 5000km a year, i'm not going into details as those those involved may read this and it may turn into a police matter but he wasnt at fault, it didnt involve a car and it was at a speed of about 15 mph.
Naturally i'm quite emotional at the moment and its your choice whether you wear a helmet. This isnt an invitation for pro/anti helmet comments, links to "research" etc, please, if you dont wear a helmet, just take a moment to re-consider your current actions.
Naturally i'm quite emotional at the moment and its your choice whether you wear a helmet. This isnt an invitation for pro/anti helmet comments, links to "research" etc, please, if you dont wear a helmet, just take a moment to re-consider your current actions.
- not good - hope he's ok...Hope your chum is okay Pablo, coming off a bike on the road (in public) helmet or not is a dangerous, embarrasing, painful and scary experience.
I fallen badly twice, once with, once without a lid.... without the helmet I smacked my head badly and was very shaken and had to be dragged out of the road by a dustman! With the helment (same type of accident- lowside drop) managed not to land on my head but got massive gravel rash on my arm & hip- but was consious enough to crawl out of the myself.
I hope the goverment never rules on helmets, it'll be a mess (like everything else they do...) wear one if you like, don't if you dislike- YMYC, Just be careful either way, you can still hurt yourself badly.
IMVHO once the accident involves a car even motorbike leathers and helmet wouldn't be enough, 1500kg Vs 100kg is never a fair fight.
I fallen badly twice, once with, once without a lid.... without the helmet I smacked my head badly and was very shaken and had to be dragged out of the road by a dustman! With the helment (same type of accident- lowside drop) managed not to land on my head but got massive gravel rash on my arm & hip- but was consious enough to crawl out of the myself.
I hope the goverment never rules on helmets, it'll be a mess (like everything else they do...) wear one if you like, don't if you dislike- YMYC, Just be careful either way, you can still hurt yourself badly.
IMVHO once the accident involves a car even motorbike leathers and helmet wouldn't be enough, 1500kg Vs 100kg is never a fair fight.
All the best to your friend Pablo and hope he has a quick recovery - serves as a reminder to all but only usually kicks in once you hear of an event like this unfortunately.
I'd never ride without mine - get a decent one and you wouldn't notice it was there. It's true that in a car v bike incident, it may not do much, but in a fall on a slippery surface, it may be the difference and I'm not willing to risk that!
I'd never ride without mine - get a decent one and you wouldn't notice it was there. It's true that in a car v bike incident, it may not do much, but in a fall on a slippery surface, it may be the difference and I'm not willing to risk that!
Mrs Digga hit the deck at about 15mph after landing a (very small) jump wrong. Didn't notice until we got home that she'd cracked the lid - replaced at 'cost' under Specialized excellent crash replacement policy.
Cannot for the life of me understand why people would (nowadays) choose to ride without a helmet. It's not as though they're particularly costly or uncomfortable.
Healing vibes to your mate.
Cannot for the life of me understand why people would (nowadays) choose to ride without a helmet. It's not as though they're particularly costly or uncomfortable.
Healing vibes to your mate.
Each to their own, but I almost always wear a helmet on the bike - on and on road. The only time I don't is pootling along the canal to the pub (where I guess the return leg probably warrants one...).
Hope your mate recovers Pablo. I've seen a mate suffer minor brain injury as a result of landing a jump headfirst, with a helmet on, and it's just not nice.
Hope your mate recovers Pablo. I've seen a mate suffer minor brain injury as a result of landing a jump headfirst, with a helmet on, and it's just not nice.
OP, hope your friend makes a full recovery.
I crashed last year, 15.1 mph from 8ft in the air in the middle of a bloody forest, and landed on my head. I was out cold for 15 mins and worked on by paramedics for over an hour before I was stable enough to be moved to hospital. I had a very substantial Giro Flak helmet, knee pads etc but still sustained sever injuries, fractured skull, eye socket, cheek bone, swollen brain and a huge blood clot behind my right eye - along with a huge list of other broken bits.
When I was well enough to go home I went to visit the paramedic station and drop off loads of biscuits, choccys etc as a way of saying thanks. I was luck enough to speak to the crew who scraped my sorry ass off the forest floor, there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever in their mind that my helmet saved my life, without it, the force at which I landed would have caved my head in.
Some months later I inspected the helmet that I was wearing at the time of the accident which had been hanging up in the garage as a sort of a trophy of the accident. The Giro Flak is a pudding basin type helmet with some very dense polystyrene lining. Where the helmet made contact with the ground and absorbed the energy from the impact, the majority of polystyrene had almost turned to dust. To change the composition of the polystyrene must have taken a hell of a lot of energy, without it between me noggin and the hard packed clay of the forest floor, there would have been nowhere for the energy to go, and no way my skull would have absorbed it - game over.
I don't feel the need to preach about wearing helmets etc, its a personal preference based on an individuals attitude to risk. I have two young kids I would like to see grow up and do great things with their lives, and who I would hate to have a house without a Dad - that is why I wear a helmet, and for me it paid off!
I crashed last year, 15.1 mph from 8ft in the air in the middle of a bloody forest, and landed on my head. I was out cold for 15 mins and worked on by paramedics for over an hour before I was stable enough to be moved to hospital. I had a very substantial Giro Flak helmet, knee pads etc but still sustained sever injuries, fractured skull, eye socket, cheek bone, swollen brain and a huge blood clot behind my right eye - along with a huge list of other broken bits.
When I was well enough to go home I went to visit the paramedic station and drop off loads of biscuits, choccys etc as a way of saying thanks. I was luck enough to speak to the crew who scraped my sorry ass off the forest floor, there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever in their mind that my helmet saved my life, without it, the force at which I landed would have caved my head in.
Some months later I inspected the helmet that I was wearing at the time of the accident which had been hanging up in the garage as a sort of a trophy of the accident. The Giro Flak is a pudding basin type helmet with some very dense polystyrene lining. Where the helmet made contact with the ground and absorbed the energy from the impact, the majority of polystyrene had almost turned to dust. To change the composition of the polystyrene must have taken a hell of a lot of energy, without it between me noggin and the hard packed clay of the forest floor, there would have been nowhere for the energy to go, and no way my skull would have absorbed it - game over.
I don't feel the need to preach about wearing helmets etc, its a personal preference based on an individuals attitude to risk. I have two young kids I would like to see grow up and do great things with their lives, and who I would hate to have a house without a Dad - that is why I wear a helmet, and for me it paid off!
k s
pablo said:
A friend went down in an accident last night and is now in hospital with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. He wasnt wearing a lid, he never has but he is a very experienced cyclist who probably clocks up over 5000km a year, i'm not going into details as those those involved may read this and it may turn into a police matter but he wasnt at fault, it didnt involve a car and it was at a speed of about 15 mph.
Naturally i'm quite emotional at the moment and its your choice whether you wear a helmet. This isnt an invitation for pro/anti helmet comments, links to "research" etc, please, if you dont wear a helmet, just take a moment to re-consider your current actions.
Sorry to hear about your mate. Hope he recovers back to full health, ASAP.Naturally i'm quite emotional at the moment and its your choice whether you wear a helmet. This isnt an invitation for pro/anti helmet comments, links to "research" etc, please, if you dont wear a helmet, just take a moment to re-consider your current actions.
What makes you think that had he been wearing a helmet he wouldn't
have suffered a similar injury in this particular incident?
Long Drax said:
What makes you think that had he been wearing a helmet he wouldn't
have suffered a similar injury in this particular incident?
i don't think the OP is saying that. all i think the OP is saying is if you are going to ride a bike then give yourself every chance that if you have an accident you don't end up too badly hurt. you are right - it might make no difference. but the chances are it will. if you don't want to take that chance then fine - it's your life (although you will be dragging in the lives of others who may have to spend the rest of their lives looking after you which seems a bit unfair).have suffered a similar injury in this particular incident?
Hope your friends gets better soon, it's never a fun thing to hear. So far I've only known one major accident (off-road) involving a friend, and a few minor (on-road) ones, the latter mainly causing my piss to boil as I hear about the attitudes of some people on the roads... the one major one was very unpleasant, his memory went all the way back to childhood. On a lighter side he also suffered inhibition loss and kept hitting on the women in the office - luckily they were all very understanding that it was not his normal behaviour!
I hate to complain, but... it does seem that, despite your best intentions, this thread is inviting a helmet debate - it's entitled 'helmets', and you're inviting people to consider their actions: I very much expect the people here on both sides of the argument have considered their actions, so you may as well respect other's opinions on this as frankly no-one's going to convince anyone else of anything. FTR the guy in the major accident was wearing a helmet, and all but one of the other accidents I've seen involved non-wearers, but I don't see that as evidence helmets don't work, and wouldn't base my decision on that sort of evidence either way.
I hate to complain, but... it does seem that, despite your best intentions, this thread is inviting a helmet debate - it's entitled 'helmets', and you're inviting people to consider their actions: I very much expect the people here on both sides of the argument have considered their actions, so you may as well respect other's opinions on this as frankly no-one's going to convince anyone else of anything. FTR the guy in the major accident was wearing a helmet, and all but one of the other accidents I've seen involved non-wearers, but I don't see that as evidence helmets don't work, and wouldn't base my decision on that sort of evidence either way.
paranoid airbag said:
Hope your friends gets better soon, it's never a fun thing to hear. So far I've only known one major accident (off-road) involving a friend, and a few minor (on-road) ones, the latter mainly causing my piss to boil as I hear about the attitudes of some people on the roads... the one major one was very unpleasant, his memory went all the way back to childhood. On a lighter side he also suffered inhibition loss and kept hitting on the women in the office - luckily they were all very understanding that it was not his normal behaviour!
I hate to complain, but... it does seem that, despite your best intentions, this thread is inviting a helmet debate - it's entitled 'helmets', and you're inviting people to consider their actions: I very much expect the people here on both sides of the argument have considered their actions, so you may as well respect other's opinions on this as frankly no-one's going to convince anyone else of anything. FTR the guy in the major accident was wearing a helmet, and all but one of the other accidents I've seen involved non-wearers, but I don't see that as evidence helmets don't work, and wouldn't base my decision on that sort of evidence either way.
its not inviting a debate, people are capable of considering their actions without responding to the thread. I hate to complain, but... it does seem that, despite your best intentions, this thread is inviting a helmet debate - it's entitled 'helmets', and you're inviting people to consider their actions: I very much expect the people here on both sides of the argument have considered their actions, so you may as well respect other's opinions on this as frankly no-one's going to convince anyone else of anything. FTR the guy in the major accident was wearing a helmet, and all but one of the other accidents I've seen involved non-wearers, but I don't see that as evidence helmets don't work, and wouldn't base my decision on that sort of evidence either way.
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