An observation about cyclists...

I passed about 8 cyclists.  I think I've always been a careful and courteous driver with cyclists but now that I have a bike and road cycle myself I guess I just pay more attention to them.

Anyway, out of the 8 cyclists I passed this morning, only ONE was actually wearing a cycle helmet.  This is in busy but fast moving city traffic, lots of lanes etc.  I'd never noticed it before?  The 7 people not wearing one today were all very different, male, female, commuters, older, younger etc.  The one guy who wore one looked like a pro (clipped in, lycra etc).

I always wear a helmet on the road.  It would be like not putting my seat belt on.  It just wouldn't feel right.  I know just wearing a helmet doesn't make you any less likely to have an accident, if you're not road wise etc.  But surely its safer wearing one?

I just wonder if anyone can shed some light onto why people take the unnecessary risk?  Are they just worried about a bad hair day?

... one of them was bald.

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Comments

  • Its natural selection!
  • mtbrDotmtbrDot ✭✭✭

    Farnie: err, are you saying that people without helmets have better survival skills?

    image

  • They are just dumb

    I grew up when cycling helmets didn't exist and I will not go on a bike without one.

    Some folks just don't think they will need them. I 've seen adults make their kids wear them then promptly get on their own bike lidless.

  • Nam we are having an on going battle with harry, 11, over wearing his bike helmet,

    He "forgets" it, leaves it in the shed and if not I'm pretty sure he takes it off as soon as he is out of sight.  

    It's getting to the point where I'm thinking of saying, no helmet, no bike.

    We both wer one and he always did until very recently.

  • Since taking up proper cycling and competing in tri's etc. I always wear a helmet. However quite how I've survived up to now without a helmet is amazing! Guess I just look where I am going and cycle sensibly!
  • You should always look after your helmet, and your helmet will look after you.

    (quote from the local Genito Urinary clinic doctor, who is also an avid cyclist......so I hear)

  • LOL @ "natural selection"...  image
  • There was a study recently that showed that motorists give cyclists a wider berth if they aren't wearing a helmet. Especially if they wear a long blonde wig instead, and have a little wicker basket strapped to the handlebars of their bike, and wobble around a bit image

    So those cyclists were following appropriate safety procedures.

  • I always aim for lidless people when I am in the car. 

    That'll teach em!

  • MedalsMedals ✭✭✭

    I cycle into work (about 12 mile round trip) most days and yes, I do wear a helmet. 

    But if I'm just nipping up the shops on a weekend I must admit I don't.

    Had one serious accident on a cycle, got T-boned by a bus in 1988, wasn't wearing a helmet and I didn't hit my head so wearing one on that occasion wouldn't have mattered and it hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,hasn't affected meimage 

  • as Stump says - they're just dumb

    I always wear a helmet on road and off - I've crashed too many times not to!! if you've ever crashed and split a helmet on impact as I have - and this was at low speed - you know why you wear one
  • Passed one this morning ..........  all the gear, pedalling like buggery

    no helmet and plugged into an ipod,  what a pillock.                                        

  • Seen two mountain bikers being rescued round here recently.

    One helicoptered off unconcious. No helmet

    One walking wounded. Busted collar bone, bent bike, broken teeth, split helmet.

    Go figure....

  • Funnily enough I hardly ever wear a helmet. The only times I do is in competitions and yet the nearest I've ever come to being knocked off is whilst cycling like a loony in a race! Do cars and lorries not understand that I have right of way on any roundabout and I am on a pb and definitely not slowing down!
  • Ah... But you fall differently if you wear a helmet, dumb asses! image
  • Isn't there is movement that suggests it's just the nanny state and it's my choice if I want serious brain damage? Hmmmm, not really the right battle to choose to fight I think. Helemet for me all the way.
  • MedalsMedals ✭✭✭
    You would have to be nuts not to wear one biking on a mountain.
  • When I eventually get round to attempting to learn to ride a bike then I'll deffo wear a helmet (and any other form of padding/protection I can find!).  I'll have enough bumps, bruises and scrapes anyway without having a fractured skull too!
  • Rarebit Man saunters over to cupboard dusts off helmet and polishes.
  • M.eldy:  I-pod!!  Yup!!  Seen that to the other day.  Big lass on a shopper weaving around the buslane, blissfully unaware of the bus behind her!! image
  • There are way too many people who can't ride in a straight line. Pisses me off.
  • WaboWabo ✭✭✭
    Always wear mine!  re ipods, lately I have seen people driving cars with ipod ear plugs in! Seriously!
    possunt quia posse videntur - we can because we know we can 
  • I ride with a helmet 99% of the time, but I really dont have a problem with people riding without them.

    Its just a bit of foam - if you get hit by a car - its gonna do bugger all.  If you fall off the bike by yourself then yeah, it probably will help you.

    We have guys in my club that have been cycling for 60 years with no helmets to speak of and they arent suddenly gonna wear one now. 

    A lot of it is marketing and its new cyclists that seem most fanatical about wearing lids, like its a deathwish not to wear one.  We've had one guy killed on the road this year - the car hit him from behind in broad daylight on a quiet road.  A helmet against an impact like that isn't gonna help.

     We need to stop making cycling out to be such a dangerous activity. Who of us here rode bikes when little with a helmet on ? They werent around. Nowadays it seems like little Johnny is gonna die if he pootles round the playground without full body armour.

    The benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks.

  • It'd numb your senses. I rely massively on my hearing when I ride into work.
  • many other sports are adopting helmets for safety reasons - skiing and windsurfing being two...........

    it's easy to smack a head crashing while skiing - and I know having done it ending up with a broken jaw - but like Cougs cylcist friends, I've been skiing for so long without one I really don't know if I can be bothered starting but maybe I should.....
  • That's the iPod thing...

    Anyway, hasn't this topic been done to death about three billion times already?

  • We need to stop making cycling out to be such a dangerous activity. Who of us here rode bikes when little with a helmet on ?

    I see where you're coming from Cougs and generally I agree that people overdo things in terms of kids safety and stranger-danger etc etc so that no one plays outside anymore.  But having said that...  when I was cycling as a kid (before the days of helmets) there was harly any traffic and I lived quite rurally.  There's no chance I'd let my kid (if I had one) cycle to school in the inner city traffic I negotiated this morning.  It really would be lethal.  Coming to think of it...  I did wear a skull-cap horse riding as a kid... unless it was really hot...

  • I did do a couple of rides with an ipod in just to see. Pretty low volume, but even on the quiet country roads round here I found my attention wandering and not being aware of things going on around me.  So I won't ride with one again.

    I think ipods are more dangerous than no helmets.

  • Yeah... Imagine riding along without a helmet, though... Then some fecker throws an iPod at you and it hits you on the bonce.

    One must prepare for any potential danger, Cougles...

  • If its those hard drive ones then that would really hurt.

    Although the little ones would prob go straight through the 'air intake ports'

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