To Helmet or Not To Helmet

Among the many things that cyclists and motorcyclists will debate over is helmet use. Since there's no way in hell I'd ride my motorcycle without a helmet (getting into a crash and slamming your helmeted head on the ground is a pretty solid convincer) I'll skip on over to the bicycle side of the debate.

It is my current frame of thought that there are extremely few reasons to ever throw a leg over a bike without strapping a helmet on at the same time. Absolutely for damned sure when I go riding off road for obvious reasons. And yet, I still occasionally see people out riding mountain bikes on single track in Nisene Marks sans lid. It boggles the mind. I'd not ride if I forgot my helmet. The risk versus reward calculation just doesn't balance out.

I don't know if that's because I'm a bit older and quite alot more aware of the myriad frailties of the aging male human body. I used to ride motorcycles in Arizona without a helmet. I used to take what looking back now are ridiculous risks with my life and am lucky enough to have escaped mostly unscathed though with loads of battle scars (which someone once told me chicks dig but even that mostly no longer matters).

Anyway. Helmets.

Are they always, always necessary? Nope, they're actually only necessary when you crash and fall off your bike. Which generally happens when you least expect it though will sometimes happen when you expect it. So if you have perfect knowledge of when you are going to crash on your bike then, by all means, where your helmet only on those days.

Oh what's that? You don't know for sure when you are going to crash next? Hmmm. That presents a little bit of a problem then doesn't it? Probably makes sense to be prepared unless you like to gamble with your higher brain function.

What about if you're playing around on your bike in a park on nice soft grass, there are no other things to smack your head or face on if you biff? Okay. Go for it. The risk versus reward is pretty balanced.

But riding my cruiser out on West Cliff? Nope, I am strapping up.

Others choose not to because their personal risk versus reward calculation came up groovy to go without a helmet. Which is neither good nor bad unless they happen to crash and then it is bad and likely worse for the lack of some safety gear.

In the instance that caused me to write this blog post. Fritz's post of Pink riding a too small road bike and I commented that she looked pretty good with the exception of not wearing a helmet. Someone else commented that she didn't need to have a helmet on since she wasn't doing anything special or going fast. I should have responded that she was riding a bike on a four lane street where there were obviously cars around her and that the situation, in my mind, absolutely called for a helmet. Instead I acted like a tool and am thankful that Fritz's blog allowed me the grace to delete the comment myself.

On top of everything else there's a semi-hypocrisy in mandating that children wear helmets when riding bikes. I'm not suggesting helmet laws because we've got plenty of laws already. But if kids always see adults without helmets and they have to wear them then you can be sure they'll ditch them the second they are no longer required to wear them.

I wear a helmet not only because I don't particularly like concussions or fractured skulls or worse but because I want to set a good example for my kids and other kids around me. Did I mention that I work at three elementary schools? Yeah. That probably clouds my thinking and judgment a tiny bit but only to add a little foam to the fanaticism.

But part of me wishes I'd kept the motorcycle helmet I had on when I catapulted over the stupid car that stopped in the fast lane. That thing had a serious crack where it saved me from a wickedly bad day and merely made it a pretty bad day (destroyed motorcycle, wonked knee and a four by eight inch deep purple bruise from my gas tank from one thigh to the other, yes, across my balls and yes, it was a brutally unenjoyable first night after the crash). It would serve as a great reminder of the kind of forces that can occur. I was only going 30 or so miles an hour, I can easily (well, maybe not easily) hit that on my bicycle.

Photo attribution: Found at TreeHugger on this article about a confirmed helmet wearer who saw the light (almost literally) after waking up from a coma.

Want more pro-helmet ammo? Check out the results of this Google search. There are truly no good arguments for not wearing a helmet just as there are no good arguments for not wearing a seatbelt in a car. You either value your brain's ability to process thoughts or you do not. Short trips, long trips, testing a bike in a parking lot, any of them can result in you falling and smacking your head on the ground and if you smack your head on the ground without protection,the ground wins and you lose.

At least that's the way I see it, I'm pretty fond of my higher brain function. And somewhere I know I just made my mom smile.

But hey, I'm open to dissenting opinions. Got something to say? Leave it in the comments.

Helmet Fit Check List

I was happy to replace to replace my aging and slightly battered cycling helmet the other day. Attached to the helmet was a handy little fit check list and I thought it would be useful to remind all the cyclists out there of how to get a good fit for yourself and for our little budding cyclists.

I've found that getting a good tight fit on a kid's helmet is harder than it is for me to get a good fit on my helmet. And its waaaay more important.

So here we go:
Eyes - The rim of the helmet should be 1 to 2 finger widths above the eyebrows.

Ears - The straps should form a "V" just underneath the ear lobe.

Mouth - When the rider opens his mouth, the buckle should feel snug on the chin and the helmet should hug the head.

Before using the helmet, check the fit, stand in front of a mirror and grab the helmet with both hands and twist it to the left and to the right. If the helmet fits right, the skin on the forehead will move as the helmet moves. If the skin does not move, then the helmet is too loose and is unsafe for use and you need to start over with the fitting. If it does fit right then grab the helmet with both hands and try to remove it by rolling the helmet forward and backward. If you can roll it off the head completely or so far that it blocks vision or backward enough to expose the forehead, then, surprise, it doesn't fit right and is unsafe to use.

Lastly, take a short test ride to ensure proper fit without being too tight. Most helmets these days come with a set of fit pads to finalize the fit and make it feel just right.

And, oh yeah, always wear your helmet when you go out and ride your bike.

Ride a Motorcycle? Wear a Helmet

Lack of helmets causes problems for all, not just bike riders

Just as I am shocked to find out that people don't bother taking basic precautions when driving by putting on their seatbelts, I'm similarly shocked that there are people who routinely ride their motorcycles on public streets without helmets.

A McLeod Health study of motorcycle crash victims treated at the hospital from 2003 to 2007 reveals that only 28 percent of 167 patients wore helmets.
...
In 2007, 41 percent of fatally injured motorcycle operators and 53 percent of fatally injured passengers were not wearing helmets. That same year, the NHTSA estimates that helmets saved the lives of 1,784 motorcyclists and that 800 more could have been saved had they been wearing helmets.

Twenty-eight percent is just barely over one in four. How much more harm did they do to themselves by not bothering with a helmet? Do they wish they'd been wearing one while they recuperate in the hospital following their accidents? If they still retain higher brain function then it would be a good bet that most do wish they had worn a helmet.

I get the freedom of the wind in your hair, I get that helmets are stuffy, constraining and hot. But I've been involved in three accidents over my motorcycling life, two of them involving collisions with another vehicle. One was a t-bone where the jackass made an illegal left in front of me and I mashed into his car between the front and rear door. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet, I would have mashed my head into jelly on the road when I landed after having flipped up and over his car.

The other accident would have had similarly unpleasant and permanent results if I'd not been wearing my helmet. In each case I suffered numerous other injuries but the greatest damage was prevented by my helmet.

I'll never ride my motorcycle, or my bike for that matter, without my helmet (obviously a different helmet for my bike). My brain function is far too important to not do what I can to protect my head and brain in the event of a crash. But then, I'm a bit older now and have a sense of my mortality.

Here are a big bunch of stats from the bicycle side. Short version? Wearing a helmet increases the likelihood of walking away from an accident substantially. Wear one if you've got some brains worth saving.