Helmet......the cool factor

[EUC Extreme]

Every day goes truckload

[Phil Howell]

I always wear a helmet, wrist guards, knee guards and elbow guards. I have only had my Q3 for about 4 weeks so very much still learning but I have also just turned 60.

 

[SuperSport]

Been wearing this one every ride so far.  Will likely continue wearing it.

[Paulandjacquelyn]

Helmets are good!

[JFP9]

My mantra is: any scull protection is better than no protection!  

Besides, I don't want to damage the only few good remaining brain cells I have!

Cheers,

Jim

[Jurgen]

Please use a skate helmet that protects the back of your head

Falling backwards in martial arts: the first thing they teach you is to keep your chin on your chest, but this take a lot of practice as this is quite unnatural.

apart from that, may the Big Rider watch over you!

[Patrick Carroll]

I wear a mountain bike helmet (with more posterior protection) every time I'm riding my EUC, mainly to protect my head in case of a fall.  I've only fallen once where I hit my head, was on a rainy day and I misjudged a curb and fell onto my side, everything was fine after the fall, just got up and kept on going.  In after more serious crash it will provide life saving protection.  I've treated way too many patients with head injuries, even pronounced them dead who were not wearing helmets, not to wear one.  I also wear gloves mainly to keep out the cold but also for some protection.

[Guest]

I wear a BMX helmet now. After all these reports about accidents it's mandatory 

Everybody safe trips on their electric unicycles, we are avant garde ?

[Paddylaz]

I don't wear a helmet....because hair and because I'm a fool. Buuuttttt.....I highly recommend some heavy duty wrist gloves. I wear 'triple 8 hired hands' and they have splints on BOTH sides. Have saved my ass on the few tumbles I've had in the past.

[AlanR]

OK consensus is that helmets are a must; will change my habits.

I have had a fair share of tumbles, the wrist guard has been the most effective for me, but didn't help fall mitigation when reversing!

Shin guards were a saviour when learning and to a lesser degree knee pads.

Has anyone experienced a fall where they couldn't stop their head hitting the deck?

[esaj]

2 hours ago, AlanR said:

Has anyone experienced a fall where they couldn't stop their head hitting the deck?

Very first day with the generic euc, using strap... I ended up face first in the pavement (rider mistake), happened so fast that I didn't even get my hands in front of me (my other hand was still holding the strap). Full-face helmet, kneepads, elbow pads, didn't have the wrist guards yet at that point. No injuries, except for a bruised ego  

[AlanR]

@esaj Thanks for the comment on your experience; today I wore a helmet for the first time and will in future.

Didn't feel as dorky as I thought I would!

[Colestien]

I don't have the ear flaps on mine, but just the helmet helps keep me warmer.  I don''t even think twice about wearing mine.

[AlanR]

Haven't checked temperatures in Kansas @Colestien but here we often exceed 100'F; but that is / was not the reason for not wearing a helmet previously!!

[Colestien]

  I'm thinking any reason you can add to the pot helps.  If it keeps the sun out of your eyes in the summer your grab it and put it on.  If it keeps your head warm in the winter your grab it and put it on.   Of course safety is the main reason.  But all the other reasons do help. 

[dpong]

Helmets really fall into only 2 categories.   Dorky, and Not-As-Dorky, IMHO.  Sure it is subjective, so you be the judge. 

[Kwing]

Yea I wear it all the time... am quite profient on it but still managed yo fall!!

Also I am hoping to set an example and give excuse for the government to ban it because we are not taking safety precautions 

[Paulandjacquelyn]

It's become such the norm to grab my helmet.  In the end...people are staring at this weird thing your riding not your helmet.   I saw some really cool low profile snow boarding helmets.  Offer more back of head protection without the "egg head" look of skate helmets

[Jurgen]

@AlanR had one bad fall backward when braking too hard the wheel slipped from under me.

Head didn't hit the deck, because I have +20years of practice keeping the chin on the chest when falling backwards (martial arts), but still I wear a skating helmet.

I only have one good head (although sometimes I get one for free ), and brain cells don't regenerate (heal) so I wear an Oxelo skating helmet at ALL times.

All it takes is one bad fall to get killed, in a wheelchair or leave you a veggie for the rest of you life, no fun in that.

[AlanR]

Thanks @Jurgen  for relating your experience and agree with your comments on associated risks. It is said there is no fool like an old fool!

Its a helmet for me from now on!

Rather like @Phil Howell 's helmet - looks like a storm trooper!    Mine is a bike helmet like @SuperSport

[Mono]

@AlanR, there is no consensus on the necessity or even the net usefulness of wearing a helmet, it's just the most vocally expressed opinion here.^1

When it comes to cycling in the countries where cycling belongs to the day-to-day life of a considerable percentage of the population, the conclusion is however quite clear: in these countries most people don't find wearing a helmet useful or necessary. One obvious reason is that walking a mile is more dangerous than cycling a mile,^1 so it is rather hard to find a rational path to recommend helmet use for cycling without to recommend helmet use for walking. 

Now, I would go as far as to say that it is somewhat irresponsible to generally recommend helmet use, or discourage it, without having carefully investigated its effects. 

^1 Reviewing the first 20+ outside clips from a Youtube search for "electric unicycle" reveals a very different picture: less than 20% are done using a helmet. Or looking at a meeting in Paris with 99 participants where the percentage seems to be far below 20% https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyVBVqn-_J8

^2 second figure at http://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5621388/pedestrian-and-biker-deaths

[Pilotguy]

Now THIS is cool !!!! 

[Jurgen]

@niko From a technical POV: we are not talking about walking or cycling here, but about a pseudo-experimental personal transportation device, constructed with parts that are not designed for this purpose and put together by constructors that are not always the most reliable ones, which has inherent limitations that a bike doesn't have: only one wheel and no brakes,  + no safety systems (at least not for the rider), no redundancy in the design, and it can shut down or throw you off like a bronco any time at any speed without the rider seeing it coming.

So EUCs simply have a substantially higher risk of severe falls. Also, we are adults, we fall at higher speeds, have a higher (over-)weight, and slower reactions than kids.

For such high-risk situations, there's just no good reason not to wear a helmet.

 

[Mono]

28 minutes ago, Jurgen said:

@niko From a technical POV: we are not talking about walking or cycling here, but about a pseudo-experimental personal transportation device, constructed with parts that are not designed for this purpose and put together by constructors that are not always the most reliable ones, which has inherent limitations that a bike doesn't have: only one wheel and no brakes,  + no safety systems (at least not for the rider), no redundancy in the design, and it can shut down or throw you off like a bronco any time at any speed without the rider seeing it coming.

So EUCs simply have a substantially higher risk of severe falls. Also, we are adults, we fall at higher speeds, have a higher (over-)weight, and slower reactions than kids.

For such high-risk situations, there's just no good reason not to wear a helmet.

I would believe that this kind of fear-mongering is bound to hinder popularizing EUCing (what reasonable person wants to use a high-risk device, be it with or without helmet) and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it also would result in an overall net loss of life, as it probably has for cycling.

I can easily list a number of mechanisms why EUCing must be safer than cycling (and remember, cycling is safer than walking). However that's not the point. The point is that we don't know and listing mechanisms actually doesn't help to find out.

[Aaron Corsi]

26 minutes ago, Niko said:

I would believe that this kind of fear-mongering is bound to hinder popularizing EUCing (what reasonable person wants to use a high-risk device, be it with or without helmet) and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it also would result in an overall net loss of life, as it probably has for cycling.

I can easily list a number of mechanisms why EUCing must be safer than cycling (and remember, cycling is safer than walking). However that's not the point. The point is that we don't know and listing mechanisms actually doesn't help to find out.

I think @Jurgen was pretty reasonable in his assessment of the state of EUCs. I would like it to be the case that EUCs all had redundant protections built in like true Segways, but that is not the world we live in. Even my relatively mainstream Ninebot has dozens of components that would cause an instant faceplant if even one of them fails. Being realistic about the state of EUC safety is good to help prevent injuries and deaths until a serious company comes along and makes an EUC with enough redundant safety to be viable as mainstream product.

I have never fallen on my own EUC and I trust it to be reliable when riding hard but I did test a friend's EUC that he suspected was defective (it was) and when it shut off on me I was on the ground instantly. I'm in my 20s and was wearing wrist guards so I was able to walk away with just a scraped knee but that is not ever an acceptable situation for a mainstream transportation solution. If it was a known issue that cars randomly shut off the steering and brakes when you were driving then somebody encouraging extra protection would not be fear mongering, and I think @Jurgen's position is similar.

Really though, anything that discourages helmets in dangerous situations is a bad idea in my opinion. Helmets aren't cool, but protecting the brain is enormously important, people adding to the negative stigma of helmets aren't helping anybody. (I'm not saying you are doing this @Niko, there's nothing negative in your post about helmets) I think the right way to go is to promote the idea of wearing a helmet being the default for more dangerous activities and not something where you spend much time wagering whether it's really worth it for a given dangerous activity.