Jaysus cycling! (6 Viewers)

[seanc]

They're right

I think you're going to get some friction there.

If you want to be statistical about it, motorists and pedestrians and people who drink alcohol should wear mandatory helmets. That would be better for society's general welfare.

This ties into a couple other chats here. I explained the above point to all the farmer boys back home once. Once I went through the logic of it, the farmers grudgingly agreed, being actually clever people. They still thought cyclists were still just basically in the way, especially during baling time.


I always wore a helmet while cycling, it actually makes you more aerodynamic. Thats not why I wore one, it just sort of made me feel better. But in a bad bad BAD incident, it won't do much for you.

 

[ann post]

I'm on the fence since i cycled round the netherlands. But entirely to give angry drivers less leverage and because i like to cycle fast I always wear one in town.

Meanwhile I completely planted myself on the clips on the end of the driveway recently. I didn't know the second foot had connected. But i still prefer the clips.

Meanwhile i've been bonding with the folding bike. It lives in the car boot and it's an amazing thing to have in the car boot.

 

[magicbastarder]

i wear a helmet when out on one of my 'good' bikes, which can involve hitting speeds of 60 or 70km/h occasionally. when cycling to the shops, etc., i don't bother with one.

 

[Deadmanposting]

I get it

Just never gonna wear one, except when it's race-compulsory

 

[Deadmanposting]

I completely planted myself on the clips on the end of the driveway recently. I didn't know the second foot had connected. But i still prefer the clips.

We are all gonna do whatever we like anyways and no one's gonna change our minds

Unless it's an Instagram influencer obvs

 

[seanc]

We are all gonna do whatever we like anyways and no one's gonna change our minds

Unless it's an Instagram influencer obvs

Wearing a helmet will make you faster-ish.

 

[Deadmanposting]

Wearing a helmet will make you faster-ish.

I believe you

Not a concern of mine though

Super zen and all

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I think you're going to get some friction there.

If you want to be statistical about it, motorists and pedestrians and people who drink alcohol should wear mandatory helmets. That would be better for society's general welfare.

This ties into a couple other chats here. I explained the above point to all the farmer boys back home once. Once I went through the logic of it, the farmers grudgingly agreed, being actually clever people. They still thought cyclists were still just basically in the way, especially during baling time.


I always wore a helmet while cycling, it actually makes you more aerodynamic. Thats not why I wore one, it just sort of made me feel better. But in a bad bad BAD incident, it won't do much for you.

The “actually pedestrians should wear helmets based on the stats” argument is pretty ropey. Often it’s people reporting the numbers wrong - there are more head injuries in pedestrians than cyclists overall but only because there are more pedestrians. It starts swinging towards cyclists once you start looking at time travelling or overall distance travelled. It also is very different when you compare men to women.

The other important thing to bear in mind that a lot of cycling fatalities are due to a head injury whereas in pedestrians it is more often due to compounded factors with head injuries contributing to other injuries. So a helmet might save your life or prevent a serious injury when you’re cycling but has less of an overall bearing on your chance of serious injury as a pedestrian.

And the clearest statistic is that an increase in the use of helmets by only a few percentage points (from like 20-25%) in the 00s reduced the number of head injuries by 80-90%. It is probably reflective not just of the helmets doing something but of an overall increase in cyclist safety and awareness but it’s a stark figure nonetheless.

And as someone who spent a few years studying brain trauma, I wear a helmet while cycling.

 

[seanc]

The “actually pedestrians should wear helmets based on the stats” argument is pretty ropey. Often it’s people reporting the numbers wrong - there are more head injuries in pedestrians than cyclists overall but only because there are more pedestrians. It starts swinging towards cyclists once you start looking at time travelling or overall distance travelled. It also is very different when you compare men to women.

The other important thing to bear in mind that a lot of cycling fatalities are due to a head injury whereas in pedestrians it is more often due to compounded factors with head injuries contributing to other injuries. So a helmet might save your life or prevent a serious injury when you’re cycling but has less of an overall bearing on your chance of serious injury as a pedestrian.

And the clearest statistic is that an increase in the use of helmets by only a few percentage points (from like 20-25%) in the 00s reduced the number of head injuries by 80-90%. It is probably reflective not just of the helmets doing something but of an overall increase in cyclist safety and awareness but it’s a stark figure nonetheless.

And as someone who spent a few years studying brain trauma, I wear a helmet while cycling.

Thank you. You know more than me, and we need that.

 

[magicbastarder]

The helmet argument usually hangs on the mandatory use issue. One of the best ways to reduce the level of cycling is to make the use mandatory.

 

[Deadmanposting]

I like to think that I have learned some things by riding city streets for 45+ years

 

[rettucs]

FWIW i once crashed the bike and i suspect that without a helmet, i might have broken my nose.

same, but in my case it saved me from serious head injuries (or worse). I hit my head so hard I couldn't see afterwards.

I know you're a mod over on boards. I haven't been on the cycling page for years (there really were a lot of argumentative saps over there) but I never understood those who argued against wearing helmets or wearing hi-viz, and said that its the responsibility of the motorist to see you and to avoid you (which I agree with, but which I'm never going to put any degree of faith in).

 

[magicbastarder]

i think for the vast majority of posters (not that i want to or can speak for the posters on boards), the annoyance about the helmet debate is the assumption from non-cyclists that helmets are the first step in making cyclists safe, the 'oh, you're a cyclist, i hope you wear a helmet' response. and i wear bright clothes most of the time on the bike, but as mentioned earlier, that's partly a reaction to the chance that i'll be blamed for not wearing it, in a situation where i'd be blameless.

 

[rettucs]

i think for the vast majority of posters (not that i want to or can speak for the posters on boards), the annoyance about the helmet debate is the assumption from non-cyclists that helmets are the first step in making cyclists safe, the 'oh, you're a cyclist, i hope you wear a helmet' response. and i wear bright clothes most of the time on the bike, but as mentioned earlier, that's partly a reaction to the chance that i'll be blamed for not wearing it, in a situation where i'd be blameless.

in my experience as a cyclist, not once has anyone ever said to me that they hope that I wear a helmet. I'm sure many people hope I wear one for my own safety, but the thoughts of not wearing as some kind of act of defiance because some car prick makes some snide comment, seems strange.

Funnily enough, on a couple of occasions while commuting, I have had people in cars talk to me at traffic lights to offer me advice, or to let me know that I was/wasn't very visible in certain situations. They identified themselves as cyclists straight away, to make it certain that they weren't car pricks being judgemental. I appreciated the sentiment, though never too their advice on board.

 

[magicbastarder]

huh. last time i was offered advice like that from a motorist was about a year ago, when he pulled out of a junction in front of me without looking. he apologised, and then told me 'but *i* wear a helmet and hi vis when cycling'

i was cycling the approx 2km to pick my car up from the garage.

anyway, the vast majority of posters on boards seem to be helmet wearers. there's a megathread about helmets where all that discussion is sent, and it's faily moribund.
but i have had the 'you're a cyclist? i hope you wear a helmet' response several times.

 

[magicbastarder]

and to be fair, in the last few years, i've heard less of the 'i hope you wear a helmet' sort of comment.

i remember at one point about 5 or 10 years ago, three times in the space of several months, i had to hold my tongue on comments about cyclists in social situations. one specific example was someone learned i had just bought (another) bike and immediately said to me 'but you have to admit, cyclists can be very dangerous on the road'.

if they'd said to me that they'd just bought a car, and my response was 'but you have to admit, motorists can be dangerous' they'd have looked at me like i had two heads. it's just funny how blind people are to motorists but cyclists stick out like a sore thumb; and i think it's partly that dynamic which makes the helmet debate unnecessarily fraught.

 

[rettucs]

and to be fair, in the last few years, i've heard less of the 'i hope you wear a helmet' sort of comment.

i remember at one point about 5 or 10 years ago, three times in the space of several months, i had to hold my tongue on comments about cyclists in social situations. one specific example was someone learned i had just bought (another) bike and immediately said to me 'but you have to admit, cyclists can be very dangerous on the road'.

if they'd said to me that they'd just bought a car, and my response was 'but you have to admit, motorists can be dangerous' they'd have looked at me like i had two heads. it's just funny how blind people are to motorists but cyclists stick out like a sore thumb; and i think it's partly that dynamic which makes the helmet debate unnecessarily fraught.

I definitely experienced the irrational hatred of cyclists. I got chased twice by motorists who, I presume, wanted to kill me. I think it died off a bit when covid hit and traffic jams stopped being a thing. But they are becoming a thing again, so I'm sure it'll be as-you-were, before long

 

[ann post]

I got 'i hope you wear a helmet' off a mate last week after coaching him through a minor brake adjustment on his bike via instagram messages.

 

[magicbastarder]

yeah, i've on a few occasions had people verbally threaten to punch my lights out.
one of them was amusingly (amusing in hindsight) a cyclist; a completely coked up lad on a presumably stolen bike, chasing me down the rock road and through the merrion gates.

 

[Anthony]

Agreed that a helmet won't do you much good in a fatal accident but I've seen people just come off the bike, when there are no cars around, and if it wasn't for the helmet they'd be quite badly injured.

You can slip on gravel etc..