Why it makes sense to bike without a helmet

Does this mean you will now wear a helmet while driving, because it gives you 85-88% less chance of serious brain injury?

> So by this logic someone not wearing a helmet while in a car is also an idiot.

That may also be true, assuming that we have similar data showing that helmets help as much in cars as they do on bikes.

Considering that car incidents are vastly different however, I suspect a helmet in a car incident doesn't have quite the same affect on head injuries.

And even if they have proven to be useful, the studies are almost certainly with helmets that much more closely resemble a motorcycle helmet. In which a case the convenience and comfort helmet have a much more significant impact, which plays directly into my comment of "without a good reason"

Additionally, I'd really like to see the paper where that statistic came from, sadly it doesn't give the numbers in the abstract. And while it's totally anecdotal I know a non-zero amount of people (directly or indirectly) who have had a head injury cycling, yet zero as a pedestrian. Despite knowing vastly more people who spend vastly more time walking. Saying that you're more likely to get a head accident walking is a pretty strong claim. Thus I'd like to see strong evidence.

I am thinking about it, actually. My wife's mother died from a head injury in a car (in the 90s with no air bags). I hadn't thought about wearing a helmet in a car much until reading this, but my car is also equipped with air bags both in front of and beside me. Most of the statistics in this article were before side curtain airbags were as common, and the pie chart is from the 70s when air bags were not very common at all. So I have basically purchased a vehicle that has a lot of the helmet functionality built in. I would guess wearing a helmet with full air bags is probably more dangerous than not wearing one.

I have sold thousands of helmets in my time, they are an easy $$$ upsell with a new bicycle. The sale is simple, people even know the FUD and have heard all of the anecdotes. However, I don't wear a helmet myself and, when I sell someone a helmet, there are a few things I do for them:

Sell them a hi-viz tabard or coat. These are cheap (tabard) or slightly more than an average helmet (coat). The thinking is prevention better than cure. If you can avoid the impact in the first place then that is a better place to be. Hi-viz works, there are studies from 3M and plenty of others to prove it (if you think 3M are biased). In real life I have been ticked off for not wearing a helmet by riders in black - you know the ones - male, black clothing, helmet, smart-arse attitude.

Make sure the helmet fits. There isn't a lot of point being strangled by a blob of polystyrene foam. The straps have to be done up tight for the helmet to do what it is supposed to do. Generally I point customers away from the American brands - Giro, Bell - and towards the European brands because the straps are much better on the proper European brand helmets. They lie flat with the face and don't have buckles that catch the skin. Again, the no-viz riders in black protected by their magic helmets rarely do the straps up and you can flip the helmet up off their heads with a single finger.

Sell trouser clips and sensible footwear. In the UK leisure cyclists need to be aware that a denim trouser caught in the chain (or a shoelace) will throw you straight over the bars head first onto the road. Trouser clips (and stiff-soled cycle-specific shoes) prevent that from happening.

Sell lights that work. The front light is probably more important than the back. Just a basic flasher will do. Drivers are used to seeing idiot cyclists on the road in front of them riding without lights, they are easy enough to pick up with headlights. However, overtaking drivers do not expect some cyclist coming the other way. So lights are vital particularly during the spring/autumn/winter months.

For me, with interactions with customers, the helmet is also part of a use scenario. Mountain biking? Doing back-flips on a BMX? Road-racing? Small child on trailer? We actually have specialist and different helmets for those scenarios. Same for people returning to cycling from having not been on a bike for a while, we have affordable and easy to adjust helmets for those folk too.

My message is that cycle safety isn't just about wearing a helmet. Wearing a helmet does not make you safe any more than an airbag makes a motorist safe. True safety is to be found elsewhere, by being properly visible to all other road users and in riding a bike that isn't going to self destruct due to some unanticipated interaction with clothing. It is also in having the skills to ride a bike in a way that is neither cowardly or cocky.

If you ride the same route every day and know every pot hole, recognise the plates on the cars that pass you every day and have never had the slightest chance of a mishap you do have to think 'why am I carrying this block of polystyrene with me every day? Am I doing this just to please my car-driving mother?'

Finally if made-in-China polystyrene was that great they would make the fronts of trucks from the stuff.

An interesting case. If wearing a helmet when walking becomes half as socially acceptable as wearing one while biking, I'll seriously consider it.