I'm not trying to shoot down the idea that helmets are good idea, I wear one every time I ride. But once everyone decides to wear a helmet, and someone with a helmet breaks their neck, are they now clueless?
Say I wear a helmet when I ride, but no other protection. Am I a clueless idiot when I break my neck or back for not wearing a leatt or something with spine protection? What about if I fracture an elbow or knee because I didn't wear other pads? What if I wear all that crap and some how manage to impale myself through the chest with my bike or branch because I didn't wear a roost guard?
What's an acceptable amount of preventable risk? And how many more precautions is a person required to take over someone else before he can call them clueless when they hurt themselves?
I know a lot of couch potatoes who could just call any one of us dumb for not staying at home and watching TV where it's safe.
I noticed most slopestyle and Rampage competitors didn't even wear elbow pads, although I believe most of them wore core protectors.
On the other hand, I am involved with the Norcal HS league, which requires all racers to wear helmets at all times you are sitting on a bike, including riding a stationary trainer!
I can't force anyone to wear a helmet. I have crashed super hard, and the times I've hit my head, yeah, I was glad to be wearing a helmet.
I wonder if anyone who thinks helmets are optional have helped another rider who smacked his head and required assistance.
I'm not trying to shoot down the idea that helmets are good idea, I wear one every time I ride. But once everyone decides to wear a helmet, and someone with a helmet breaks their neck, are they now clueless?
Yes, if severe spinal cord trauma gets up to 1% of ER admissions for bicyclists (I can't defend the actual threshold I picked other than it approximates the one I found for brain injuries).
Random thought: New Era should release a line of hat-helmets that look like the normal 59Fifty bull****, but with a low-profile layer of D3o underneath. Better than nothing, if possible.
Just an observation, everybody so far has used the comparison of a condom to a helmet. Helmets don't protect from disease and condoms don't protect from impact. I guess if you combined the two you would have a great piece of protection.
aitken crashed 360ing a 30+ foot set at posh. wearing a helmet don't do much when you land sideways going that fast from 15+ feet up there. i wear mine for the most part, rarely on street, sometimes on trails. park requires it.
Just an observation, everybody so far has used the comparison of a condom to a helmet. Helmets don't protect from disease and condoms don't protect from impact. I guess if you combined the two you would have a great piece of protection.
Hey dudes
Don’t even bother try to convince non helmet wearers to wear a helmet. It’s pointless. People are going to do what they want to do. But as a bystander of many head injuries at skate parks, dirt jumps and street sessions. But sometimes it takes them feeling that sick feeling that won’t go away after being knocked out or the rattle of the cordless drill as the er doc is drilling holes in your scull to relieve the pressure from the blood that is building up around your brain. Ya true storie. Before they think hey those look like a good idea. Im not saying that wearing a helmet would prevent all head injurys but it is defantly shown to reduce the severity of one.
Bones can be healed, ligaments can be fixed, and joints can be relocated, but you only have one shot with your brain and it can’t be fixed in most cases. I chose to wear a helmet because I’ve been knocked out cold even wearing a full moto helmet. I may look like a tool in my helmet as I ride my local dirt jumps but I think about not just me but the people who are around me in my life like my family, girlfriend, and friends and how I like to walk away and say dam that could have been alot worse.
Not to mention I hope those of us who do wear helmets are setting an example to the upcoming groms and hope fully the will follow suit and where a lid. If making helmets more fashionable made people wear them I would invest in that company in a heartbeat.
And also coming from the stand point of someone who is trying to work with the city to get dirt jumps legalized and built it’s the number one concern that they have against it. Because some one is going to be sued when little jimmies head cracked like an eggshell cause he wasn’t wearing a helmet because it didn’t look cool or trendy.
There’s my two cents and I Know I might get flamed for it.
ive slammed my dome in a helmet, without a helmet. and both ive gotten messed up, surely i prolly woulda been in really bad shape for the times i was wearin my bucket if i wasent wearing one. i still dont wear one all the time. dont know why i dont but whatever **** happens is all i gotta say. and those times ive broken my chin and stuff helmet didnt save me from ****. so let the people who wear helmets wear em and the people who dont, maybe theyll learn from their falls, then again maybe not. get over it jesus
Say I wear a helmet when I ride, but no other protection. Am I a clueless idiot when I break my neck or back for not wearing a leatt or something with spine protection? What about if I fracture an elbow or knee because I didn't wear other pads? What if I wear all that crap and some how manage to impale myself through the chest with my bike or branch because I didn't wear a roost guard?
What's an acceptable amount of preventable risk? And how many more precautions is a person required to take over someone else before he can call them clueless when they hurt themselves?
I know a lot of couch potatoes who could just call any one of us dumb for not staying at home and watching TV where it's safe.
I guess it all comes back to protecting what is valuable in your life. Maybe a few people don't have much going on upstairs and it is worth the risk in order to grab the cover of Ride mag. Anyhow, glad I could start a sh!t storm on here.
I wouldn't mind seeing more riders especially pros ride with helmets.
I do see the points of the non-helmet posts and truthfully, watching vids and looking thru the mags, the pics do look better without a helmet. Imagine what a bar spin over a rail would look like with a fullface moto lid? But I also gringe watching a kid take it hard to the head down a set of stairs. Like BeRad said, most injuries can be healed but head/brain stuff is serious.
I think if some of the current BMX designers borrowed some tech from mtb and mx helmets they could come up with something that looked decent, fit good and gave some protection. I haven't found a potty lid that fits all that great and I couldn't imagine wearing a fullface at the trails (I've used it for racing and it's hard to spot landings).
More and more towns have helmet laws for under 17 year olds so many kids have to use them anyway. And think of all the trendy colorways they could come up with.
Listen to Aitken speak in the video of him walking out of the hospital. Wow.
It looks/sounds like he is recovering from a stroke. I really, really hope he makes a full recovery.
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