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Helmets - do they kill the fun?


Gasmantle

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What's your opinion on helmets?

I have a full face Steelbird helmet that I really like and wear probably 90% of my riding time but I still do think it kinda kills the freedom feeling of riding an EUC and chose not to wear sometimes.

Clearly helmets are an important feature of safe riding and potentially protect you from a serious injury but isn't life sometimes about taking a calculated risk and just hoping nothing goes wrong?

Do you sometimes take a risk in the pursuit of extra riding enjoyment?

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Helmets suck... Really nice ones just suck less.B) I always take more risk if the enjoyment is more. Can't easily smoke with a helmet on. More weight atop my head. Can't hear as well. Visibility is mitigated, have to remember to grab the damn thing. Have ot put in on. I grew up when it was customary to wear flip flops and shorts while riding bicycles and skateboards. I learned to ride a street bike in a no helmet law state. I abhor seatbelts and don't recall having a child safety seat growing up. Helmets have their place, but when spur of the moment and pure phyiscal comfort  is the goal, the helmet gets left on the shelf.  Having said that, there are times when COMFORT isnt the main agenda for the day. Sometimes it seems more freeing to be fully suited and removed from the elements. I reserve my right to choose to wear one or not, based simply on my own preferences..  Yup, can't get much more freedom than that!

Edited by ShanesPlanet
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This was a pro-helmet billboard back when they were working to pass laws that motorcyclists had to wear helmets: “you don’t need a helmet if you have concrete for brains”. (think about it for a sec, it’s actually pretty good!)

And yes, helmets do diminish the experience.

And yes, the billboard is correct.

But, you should do you, it’s certainly not my place to insist otherwise.

Edited by Tawpie
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I always wear one unless I'm just practicing at low speeds away from cars. Grassy fields, unused tennis courts, and whatnot are acceptable risks to me. 20+mph rides on hard surfaces near other people/cars aren't.

Edited by I_Must_Bust
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I guess it is one of those cost / benefit situations that mathematicians earn a living from number crunching.

The fact is helmets are good and can save you from serious injury. It is also a fact (in my case) that riding without a helmet is far more fun. I reckon I have approx 1000hrs of riding experience and only had 1 fall that I could say caused any pain (it happened before I bought my helmet), the injury was minor and a helmet would have made little difference.

Bare with me here I'm having a pint of the dark stuff and thinking aloud - with 1000 hours of riding and so far no injury that a helmet would have any appreciable benefit we can conclude significant injuries are comparatively rare, the down side is 100s of hours of diminished fun owing to helmet use that served no purpose.

It is fair to assume that after 1000hrs of riding without injury statistically I'm likely to be ok if I ride another hour 'sans helmete' and gain added enjoyment in the process - if I fall and suffer an injury then dependent on the severity it may be the price to pay.

We don't know the likelihood of the (anticipated) injury or it's severity but we can at least quantify the added pleasure of riding minus the helmet

I now need to figure out how to draw a graph of injury probability multiplied by injury severity divided by non helmet enjoyment.

Beer is fantastic stuff - a few pints and you can contemplate this kinda nonsense :)

 

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1 hour ago, Gasmantle said:

It is also a fact (in my case) that riding without a helmet is far more fun.

Sounds like you have a wrong kind of helmet. @Zopper laid out great points above. Statistics matter very little when one of the worst causes for injury is perfectly random and having nothing to do with your experience.

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33 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

Sounds like you have a wrong kind of helmet. @Zopper laid out great points above. Statistics matter very little when one of the worst causes for injury is perfectly random and having nothing to do with your experience.

Statistics matter even less when the focus of importance is biased towards fun. Of course its always fun until it isnt. Once I don a helmet, it doesnt lose its fun, it becomes more a detached and serious brand of fun. Embracing the superman syndrome a helmet provides me, is also fun. Not sure of injury stats as there's WAY too many variables, when you consider the gear influences perceptions and how I make decisions. Typically I request a helmet and say something like  "I need a helmet, this is going to get VERY stupid". A more laid back approach happens when Im in just street clothes..

Edited by ShanesPlanet
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I have a beautiful carbon fibre Lazer with the windswept back. I bought it new for paragliding about 18 years ago. It is in mint condition, still glossy and scratchless after all these years. I quit paragliding after 10 years of flying. The helmet sat in a closet until 6 months ago when I bought a KIngsong 18XL. I feel very comfortable in that helmet, safe, secure and protected. For me a helmet is essential gear, it gives me the confidence to ride.

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6 hours ago, Gasmantle said:

What's your opinion on helmets?

I have a full face Steelbird helmet that I really like and wear probably 90% of my riding time but I still do think it kinda kills the freedom feeling of riding an EUC and chose not to wear sometimes.

Clearly helmets are an important feature of safe riding and potentially protect you from a serious injury but isn't life sometimes about taking a calculated risk and just hoping nothing goes wrong?

Do you sometimes take a risk in the pursuit of extra riding enjoyment?

My answer. I am on video: 

 

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Why would they ruin the fun? My summer/spring full-face helmet is comfortable, light and barely noticeable, my winter motorcycle helmet has a great FOV, it's warm, cozy and protects my face from rain with the visor, seems like they only add positive things to my personal experience.

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1 hour ago, John Montpetit said:

I have a beautiful carbon fibre Lazer with the windswept back. I bought it new for paragliding about 18 years ago. It is in mint condition, still glossy and scratchless after all these years. I quit paragliding after 10 years of flying. The helmet sat in a closet until 6 months ago when I bought a KIngsong 18XL. I feel very comfortable in that helmet, safe, secure and protected. For me a helmet is essential gear, it gives me the confidence to ride.

I'd be careful, a lot of the protection from helmets is from the internal foam and it's supposed to become ineffective after a few years (they say 5 years). Of course that might just be the helmet manufacturers wanting more sales but there's probably some truth in there as well. You're also supposed to replace them after a crash - again because the foam can compress after taking an impact. The outer shell rarely cracks even in quite hard impacts (I've done a lot of personal testing over the years).

I remember riding a motorbike around the states and tried riding without a helmet for a while but I just couldn't stand listening to the constant wind noise and all the squeaks and rattles from the bike. I found it much more pleasant with the helmet on.

 

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2 minutes ago, TomOnWheels said:

My biggest concern is about how to store helmet when shopping, walking or at office. So I got this one:

It's just perfect for my usage and is not killing fun :-)

I solved that with a nylon strap and a snap hook that I loop through the helmet and my backpack so the helmet just hangs off the backpack and I can walk around hands free. 😁 Works with any helmet!

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2 hours ago, mike_bike_kite said:

I'd be careful, a lot of the protection from helmets is from the internal foam and it's supposed to become ineffective after a few years (they say 5 years). Of course that might just be the helmet manufacturers wanting more sales but there's probably some truth in there as well

Indeed, it is probably the case (plastics becoming brittle and such) but I'd like to know how much. If a helmet is 90% efficient after 5 years I'd still prefer seing it used for a bit more, even if the manufacturer can't guarantee the optimal specs. An ageing curve would be interesting.

To get back to the topic: Riding naked would be yet more fun, but sadly safety balance takes what it takes.. My helmets (Fox proframe & TSG Pass) are light and fairly unobtrusive.

Edited by null
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They dont kill the fun for me. As soon as I got my first "real" wheel after my 350W leaner wheel I also bought a good bicycle helmet. Now I wouldnt feel safe anymore without the helmet, just like I would be feeling anxious if I had to drive my car on the freeway without a seatbelt.

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14 hours ago, Gasmantle said:

What's your opinion on helmets?

I have a full face Steelbird helmet that I really like and wear probably 90% of my riding time but I still do think it kinda kills the freedom feeling of riding an EUC and chose not to wear sometimes.

Clearly helmets are an important feature of safe riding and potentially protect you from a serious injury but isn't life sometimes about taking a calculated risk and just hoping nothing goes wrong?

Do you sometimes take a risk in the pursuit of extra riding enjoyment?

I used to ride without a helmet but things have changed.

I was going down a hill at 50km/h on my 16x and a cop pulled me over.

He said "geez mate you were flying down that hill on that thing, you're gonna kill yourself". He had never seen or heard of an EUC before so he didn't say anything about the legalities of riding them. But he gave me a warning for not wearing a helmet. No fine.
Since then I started taking my helmet on every ride but you would often find me holding the helmet in my hands as I speed past on my Sherman. Once I even almost dropped the helmet and then nearly fell off the Sherman trying to catch the helmet. How stupid and ironic would that have been if I fell and hit my head. My god.

But then slowly I started to put the helmet on my head. The helmet is a full face downhill mountain biking helmet. I found that with the helmet on I would go faster on the Sherman and feel better about it. Feel less paranoid. I was using the helmet more and more.

And now I use it stringently when going fast. I will often still take off my helmet but I always slow down to jogging speed first. Then I put it on before speeding back up. I do this very strictly. So strictly that if I ever do try to ride fast with no helmet I feel very strange. I start to picture all of the ways that my face could interact with the road. So many possibilities.

Helmets do take away from the feeling of freedom though. It's literally like putting your head in a cage. But get a nice light one and it makes a big difference. Don't use a motorcycle helmet. They are so heavy that they will affect your ability to do rapid head turns when checking for cars behind you. And the weight makes them very uncomfortable.

What I recommend is to take off your helmet often during rides and enjoy the slow paced riding. Enjoy the nature trails. EUCs are fun for that.
And when you're ready chuck that helmet on and shoot off like a rocket. You'll have a blast riding like this and you'll be safe.

Oh and by the way, back when I used to ride with no helmet. I would ALWAYS wear knee pads and wrist guards. ALWAYS
Because I never fall on my head. I always fall on my hands and knees and I've had lots of falls. So I was playing the odds. But now I just feel like an egg shell playing the odds if I ride fast with no helmet. And it's gotta be a full face helmet for me now.

Edited by UniGrad
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