now this is just silly!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
At the risk of sparking another h****t debate!
(23 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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makes sense to me
until you think that if you don't get hit from behind is it still as effective?Posted 14 years ago # -
The footage does show the "cyclist" going over the handlebars and also falling off sideways, where in both instances the helmet inflates. Ingenious... Also the black box idea is great, I think, that could be very useful.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Great idea but at $450 for a single use helmet they're gonna have to get the price down. Or at least make it reusable.
Posted 14 years ago # -
expensive so you can pose and keep your style
bet nobody would wear one on top of a tshirtfriend at work knocked of his bike a few months ago doing 20 down Minto St by a car doing 10 in the oppostie direction, head hit windscreen, broke it, helmet took the blow. He's putting his survival on the fact he wore it.
will that do for those who say above 12mph lids are useless?Posted 14 years ago # -
Yep in a situation where your head hits an object/car./person/ground it is definitely better to have a helmet on than not to have a helmet on. I have a baseball bat and a helmet in my garage and would gladly test this theory on the anti helmet brigade.
( I have a helmet but I generally don't were it.....but that's just my choice.)oh no what have I done.........
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yep in a situation where your head hits an object/car./person/ground it is definitely better to have a helmet on than not to have a helmet on. I have a baseball bat and a helmet in my garage and would gladly test this theory on the anti helmet brigade.
( I have a helmet but I generally don't wear it.....but that's just my choice.)oh no what have I done.........
Posted 14 years ago # -
you have a were helmet?
do you grow fur when you wear it?
:pPosted 14 years ago # -
you have a were helmet?
do you grow fur when you wear it?
:pYou whaaa??? Dunno whaa happen there..........computer madness....or maybe I hit my head on something.....
Posted 14 years ago # -
Spitfire,
I'd say it shows the power of the meme for those who believe. The same is true of many other totems. An interesting feature of similar memes is that, for some people, the stronger the evidence is against their belief the firmer they cling to it.
The 12 mph is part of the design spec of plastic hats. Can you find any manufacturer of packaging material as head gear who will claim anything outwith the 12 mph measurement in their advertising? Can you find any measurable safety claims at all?
The equation for kinetic energy is unlikely to be a subject of debate at this point.
I've fallen off a bike with no hat and survived. I've seen other people do it too. I don't feel the need to tell everyone about it.
You have an anecdote. This is not data. Perhaps if the person in question had been looking where they were going, applying brakes or doing something more useful than checking out their speedo then the outcome would have been simpler.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Just in case any one isn't aware of what folders is talking about with the 12mph rating....
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=1289&page=3#post-11963Posted 14 years ago # -
"You have an anecdote. This is not data. Perhaps if the person in question had been looking where they were going, applying brakes or doing something more useful than checking out their speedo then the outcome would have been simpler."
ooyah!! no need!!!
"I've fallen off a bike with no hat and survived."
Ah ha! Now I understand.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Personally, what I'd like to see is a crash test dummy test scenario involving a pretend cyclist being clobbered on the occipital lobe by the simulated wing mirror of a too-closely-passing public omnibus. Unless the airbag-collar-thing has special proximity sensors or an induction loop to detect the presence of large quantities of metal the accelerometers wouldn't help.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I work with someone whose brother was hit by a car at an estimated 30mph (he's not sure how fast the car would have been going), hit his head of the windscreen leaving a lovely huge dent in it, and walked away without so much as concussion. He wasn't wearing a helmet.
But. I don't use this tale to justify my view that, well, people can wear helmets, people can not wear helmets, I don't care and I'm not about to try and evangelise or convince other people to do as I do.
Why? Because it's just that, a choice, which people make for all sorts of reasons. I made my choice(s) (plural due to the choice changing depending on the riding) on the back of what I've personally read and what I choose to believe and put strength to. Other people read the same stuff and come to a different conclusion. Fine.
I have another friend who hit his head off the edge of a kerb, wearing a helmet, which split on impact (as it was designed to do thereby dissapating the force) and wears one because he's convinced it saved his life that day. That's his choice, and I'm not going to belittle it because it is just as justifiable and valid as the reasons behind my choice.
It's basically my philosophy with religion (which has remarkable parallels with the helmet debate, save for the fact we haven't had any wars over helmets. Yet). People can practice what tey want as far as I'm concerned. They can believe in everything from a divine carpenter to alien origins. As long as they don't try to convert me, and respect my decision to follow my path, we'll get along just fine.
I don't think someone is stupid for wearing a helmet. I don't think someone is stupid for not wearing a helmet. And I sure as hell am not about to tell them they are 'wrong' and stupid. In much the same way that I'm not going to think less of someone for the type of bike they ride; I'm not going to think less of them for what they do or do not put on their heads.
Simple as. Anti-compulsion does not equate to anti-helmet. Life is never quite that black and white.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I can't think of a way my not wearing a magic hat can affect other people.
People choosing to wear one can have an affect on me.
The assumption that they work should be challenged. Look what happened to dear old John Humphries when he didn't wear one on TV. The comments are much as you would predict.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/11/flat_pack_bikes.html
Posted 14 years ago # -
Interesting that the hatless Boris bikers appear not to be attracting outrage.
Mind you, awfully poor manners going out without a hat, I suggest a nice tweed one :)As to the h****t debate, I wear or don't wear dependent on the circumstance, respect others right to do the same and refuse to get upset/excited unless compulsion rears its ugly head.
Posted 14 years ago # -
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1192.html
Not sure if both of these links work but found them interesting. Particularly the notion that helmets manufactured today are not as good as they were in the early 90's. How making helmet wearing compulsory has caused a decline in cycling.
A woman at work said to me "I saw you were cycling without a helmet, well I am never going to speak to you again until you wear one". I won't say what I thought other than thinking it will be a very long time then that she won't be talking to me, and secondly how rude really as I would not/do not criticise people for making a choice albeit one that I may or may not agree with.
Posted 14 years ago # -
The Herding inflatable helmet also looks like it would protect the neck too in the event of a fall or being hit. There is a school of thought about cervical fractures may be more likely to occur when wearing a helmet because as you hit the ground your head is thrust forwards, backwards or sideways further due to the fact that the helmet is normally wider than your head causing at the very minimum a severe whiplash type injury and in the worse case scenario a cervical fracture/broken neck, leading to paralysis.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"I saw you were cycling without a helmet, well I am never going to speak to you again until you wear one".
"and likewise I shall not talk to you until you undertake some advanced driver training or pass an advanced test or re-test". (muttering under breath "and then, maybe!"
People like to forget, passing "the driving test", does not mean you are in any way a "good" driver, merely that you have reached the minimum standard required to be allowed to contuinue to learn to drive a motor vehicle without direct supervision...
Posted 14 years ago # -
"I saw you were cycling without a helmet, well I am never going to speak to you again until you wear one"
No great loss I'm guessing..
Posted 14 years ago # -
@Min ...I could not possibly comment!! Well, yeah, okay then ...you guessed right.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I can't think of a way my not wearing a magic hat can affect other people.
The only possible and extremely unlikely way would be the collateral for your family if when you fell off a helmet could have prevented more serious injury
all very hypothetical and unknowable as the medics do not collect data on whether or not injured cyclists were wearing a helmet which makes it odd that people at work/legal types/ etc always ask - were you wearing a helmet?
Posted 14 years ago # -
The memsahib's degree is some thing to do with stats so she understands these things.
Mostly kids just ask if I cycled in on days when they feel the weather is particularly bad. That's just the first years, those further up the school don't bother to ask.
Ohhh and they sometimes ask if I used the bike which doesn't go out in the rain.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Article in this week's cycling plus about cardboard helmets. Yet to read...
Posted 14 years ago #
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