CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

THE Helmet Thread

(895 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from gembo

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  1. gembo
    Member

    Boardy arguing for pensioners to wear helmets at all time due to the risk of falls. Nice. Also quick to get to nay main point that the Helmet Debate is a diversion from the infrastructure debate.

    Classic UK argument - instead of addressing the issue we shall blame dem victims

    Posted 5 years ago #
  2. gembo
    Member

    Just received the phone book through the letterbox. Big picture on the front of a bike shop or more specifically a bike helmet shop

    Posted 5 years ago #
  3. wee folding bike
    Member

    Phone book? Really?

    I’ll be wearing a plastic hat on Saturday. It’s a requirement for the Brompton World Championship. It’s already in London.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  4. gembo
    Member

    Yeah phone book. A lot smaller than it used to be.

    Posted 5 years ago #
  5. neddie
    Member

    Got told by the driver of one of this lot, stuck on the North Bridge, "Where are your helmets?" (tandem) and "You lot are a law unto yourselves", and something about "weaving through traffic"

    https://smartgassolutions.co.uk/

    ME: "Aye, that's what bikes are for, you should get yourself one."

    And when I mentioned they don't wear helmets in the Netherlands, "We're not the EU, we're British!"

    "So you voted Brexit then?"

    No answer.

    The apprentice in the passenger seat was bemused.

    During this "discussion", another completely unrelated man walking up the North Bridge, on the other side of the road, shouted "Just go and deck him, go on".

    Such is the hatred...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  6. acsimpson
    Member

    What does British even mean in this context? I can't think of any part of stereotypical britishness which would cause people to don a plastic lid.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Oh, I dunno...

    Posted 4 years ago #
  8. Greenroofer
    Member

    It struck me that in the picture of a rammed Porty Prom that's visible all over the BBC website right now, only one of the four people with bikes has a helmet on.

    'Beware of the devil in small samples sizes' and stuff, but it was still notable in my mind.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  9. Blueth
    Member

    I have noticed similar on my travels and find it refreshing that "new" cyclists don't see cycling as a dangerous enough activity to warrant being armoured. I was also impressed to see cycle mounted police patrolling London parks not wearing helmets, though I don't favour the baseball cap as a form of headgear.

    It might be interesting to see how many of these tyros have been turning up at A&E and with what injuries - we may be pleasantly surprised. I'm sure the media would have been all over it had there been notable numbers of injuries, but I've seen nothing.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  10. wee folding bike
    Member

    The BBC had a piece about cycling in Leeds and the presenter didn't wear one. I was waiting for the backlash which followed John Humphries but I've not seen anything.

    Geoff Mitchell who did All the Stations on YouTube had one but the clip wasn't clipped.

    Base ball caps work on a bike. You can stuff them in your pocket and they tend to stay put on your head. I like pork pies and trilbies but they blow off more and are difficult to stash when you take them off.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  11. gembo
    Member

    Neither Billy Gibbons, his wife or the reporter used a helmet in their cycle down the Las Vegas strip. Billy did have a funny beanie thing. Bit like old fashioned swimming cap. Shades, black clothes, 50s beetlecriushers. Looking good.

    Posted 4 years ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

    When you start a business all your focus goes into designing and creating a product. And then its launch. Early on in my research and development for creating a cycle helmet, I realised that they had a built-in obsolescence. The eps foam within a cycle helmet degrades over time so helmets need replacing every five years. My first helmet – the carbon fibre version – has a new type of liner that I developed that uses a foam called Arpro that never degrades so you don’t need to replace your helmet unless it’s been crashed.

    https://www.thefabuloustimes.com/talking-sustainable-cycling-gear-with-dashel-founder-catherine-bedford/

    Posted 3 years ago #
  13. neddie
    Member

    The eps foam within a cycle helmet degrades over time so helmets need replacing every five years

    Nah. A helmet's only for show, so it doesn't really matter what state the polystyrene is in.

    My helmet is 10 years old and still perfectly fine. Although it hasn't had much use in the last 5 years, right enough.

    Would this also be the same polystyrene that's expected to still exist in the environment in around 300 years time?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  14. gembo
    Member

    @neddie I am always cheered by your smiley coupon when I see you when you are wearing your tweed cap.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  15. neddie
    Member

    Am missing the high fives already.

    Bring back the commute (or mibbie noo!)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  16. Gresham Flyer
    Member

  17. Frenchy
    Member

    What the...?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

    Gracemount Primary School will be taking extra measures to ensure their road safety standards are met.

    I’m really surprised by this. Apart from the whole debate about ‘road safety and helmets, the headteacher (unless he has left very recently) has always been VERY keen on encouraging cycling at several schools.

    He will also be aware that some parents won’t consider helmets to be a priority for spending money on.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  19. Baldcyclist
    Member

    Personally, my child does wear a helmet when cycling to school.

    However, whether a child wears a helmet or not while not being cared for by the school is none of the schools concern.

    Perhaps children can be stopped cycling within school grounds without a helmet, but to and from, nope.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  20. Dave
    Member

    Amounts to blackmail of the parents really.. "help them keep their bike safe" aka not stolen only if you follow the school's own rules out in public - it's not enough just to obey the law.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  21. chdot
    Admin

    "help them keep their bike safe" aka not stolen”

    A sad school (not this one) tale.

    A parent reported a bike stolen from school shed.

    CCTV showed bike taken by parent.

    A Christmas present that it wasn’t possible to keep up the payments on.

    Don’t know if the present included a helmet.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  22. chdot
    Admin

  23. Roibeard
    Member

    The may be promoted in Denmark, but wearing them didn't seem common a few years ago...

    However, when riding a horse, you've got a much greater distance to fall!

    Robert

    Posted 3 years ago #
  24. gembo
    Member

    Does seem odd given the Modal Share in Copenhagen that all this money has been spent on a long, arty and funny Public Information Film? AS @Roiberard says it will largely be ignored?

    In worse news Cycle Legal were a bit rubbish on R4 this morning.

    Some lawyer wants us to wear tabards with a license plate on it so that a member of the public can report us to the polis for jumping red lights

    As this is what a member of the public can do with cars (though as we know nothin much then happens)

    So Cycle LEgal then led with what they had prepared about Obesity which was not wrong BUT what they should have asked was

    How many members of the public report motorists for RLJing every year and what if anything happens? And why are you trying to introduce legislation that will only lead to lawyers getting healthy fees for a non existent issue. Is it because you are seeking to bash Spaces for People by any chance ?

    Posted 3 years ago #
  25. Dave
    Member

    Bringing the girls home from nursery, a driver came past us (and other kids walking on the pavement) with their phone balanced on top of the steering wheel. This on a main road!

    I have it on video quite clearly. Can I be bothered to take it to the police station? No way. The only time I tried this was when a driver failed to stop at a give-way line in front of me and I had overbearing video evidence they were on the phone, as they waved their hand with phone in it in front of me while blowing me off. They received "advice" from the police aka nothing happened.

    What do people think will happen if they try and report a cyclist? Will you really go to the police station, give a written statement with two officers, do all the stuff with the footage, then attend court? No way.

    What I did do was post it on the local Facebook group. The administrators deleted it! Even driving past kids holding your phone literally in front of your face will not be condemned around here.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  26. neddie
    Member

    why are you trying to introduce legislation that will only lead to lawyers getting healthy fees for a non existent issue

    Probably because the proponent of this scheme is Mr Loophole - the lawyer guy who gets criminal, dangerous, drunk-drivers off the hook.

    This isn't about safety of any sort, it's about clearing cyclists off the roads.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  27. neddie
    Member

    Dave, you can get a successful prosecution from video evidence if the video clearly shows the driver interacting with the phone and the driver can be identified - this means being able to see the screen of the phone on the video, and the driver using social media, text, or phone (as opposed to using Sat Nav capabilities)

    Cycling Mikey on Twitter has prosecuted many this way

    Posted 3 years ago #
  28. Dave
    Member

    He's not in Scotland though... he can just upload his footage and the police assess it. I would use a scheme like that.

    I once bumped into Mikey in a London park and he let me ride his recumbent (this is how I originally encountered him online, through laid-backness). I've thought about this meeting a few times since he was teaching rollerblading, something I've been trying to teach myself in lockdown :)

    Posted 3 years ago #
  29. glossywolf
    Member

    I’d be interested to see a study on the link between vaccine distrust and helmet distrust.

    Posted 3 years ago #
  30. neddie
    Member

    People who 'distrust' helmets can also see their negative effects at population-level.

    Whereas people who distrust vaccines cannot see the negative effects at population-level.

    Posted 3 years ago #

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