Helmets anyone?

Radical Reed said:

*is it normal to not where a helmet?*

Oooowww boy, don't get us started... This subject has been slashed to
death. Let's just say there are two schools on this. :-)

Klaas Bil

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Depends on what you're doing eh? If you're just riding around I don't
see a reason why you should wear a helmet...

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It depends on many variables including the size of the unicycle, the
style of riding, and the context.

I wear a full face helmet for MUni, after needing 7 stitches in my chin
and repairs to a tooth following a face-plant on a rock.

I wear a conventional cycle helmet for normal riding, including road
ridng and cross country. This helmet has never hit the floor, but has
hit overhead obstacles.

I wear wrist guards for all riding except parades and performances,
after chipping a bone in my hand in a low speed Coker fall onto grass.

I wear no helmet or guards for performances and parades, and have never
had a fall.

The likelihood of your head hitting the floor in a unicycling accident
is very slight. You are more likely to injure your hands, wrists or
knees. However, the consequences of a head injury are potentially very
severe: brain injury, paralysis, epilepsy, death. Or just a painful
bump. You must also consider the possibility that your head may be hit
by a car or cycle if you are in a collision.

Helmets only protect you against certain types of impact, and the
protection is far from perfect - but if you need it, you'll be glad you
have it.

It is a judgement we all have to make. In a society that is becoming
more and more afraid of everything (except the insidious health problems
of poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking, drinking, recreational drug
use, and, of course, bad driving) it's easy to feel pressured or bullied
into wearing a helmet.

Wear one because you think it's the right thing to do, or don't wear one
but accept that the risk is there, and the responsibility is yours.

As a topical example of our attitude to risk: the number of people
killed and injured in the London bombings of 7/7 is slightly lower than
a typical week on the roads in this country. An injury or death is an
injury or death, however caused. Which worries us most? I've had
friends saying they wouldn't possibly go to London, yet they think
nothing of driving to the coast on a hot afternoon. I am not in any way
belittling the severity or barbarity of the attacks - just pointing out
how irrationally we assess risks.

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Okay yes there are fights on both sides, but lets be reasonable, there
is a happy medium. You don't need a helmet to do everything, you dont
wear a helmet when you run, or cross the street, so lets be realistic.
If your dooing freestyle, you don't need a helmet, if you fall in
freestyle chances are you know it and have plenty of time to catch
yourself, begginer, and low level trials, you doon't need a helmet, if
your getting high up on palets, and other objects, put a fricking helmet
on. Muni, you should wear a helmet when you muni on a 24" or larger
wheel, 20" your going to slow to have very hard impacts. Distance
ridding, you should wear a helmet if your on a 29" or larger, if yoru
just pedaling through town on your 24" you fine.

This is my opinion ^^ What you guys think? Personaly when i fall on my
uni, I generaly know i'm going to fall way before it actually happens,
and have plenty of time to catch myself.

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cyberpunk said:

*and low level trials, you doon't need a helmet, if your getting high
up on palets, and other objects, put a fricking helmet on. Muni, you
should wear a helmet when you muni on a 24" or larger wheel, 20" your
going to slow to have very hard impacts. Distance ridding, you should
wear a helmet if your on a 29" or larger*

I agree, I sometimes wear my helmet when I'm riding thru the forrest
though, so I dont have to duck all the branches, when I ride a
proffesional mtb track I leave it at home though, no branches there (I'm
doing a 20" atm, havnt decided if I want a coker or a decent muni first)
I'd suggest wearing it with trials though, when me 'n my brother were
EVEN CRAPPIER :p he once nearly broke his skull on a tile that was
standing horizontally (he missed it with an inch)...

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cyberpunk said:

* I generaly know i'm going to fall way before it actually happens,
and have plenty of time to catch myself. *

Unless of course you fall near to a wall or railing, or at the top of
some steps.

It's a question of assessing the risks, and accepting a given level of
risk. That's what life was about for every generation in history until
about 20 years ago. Now it's becoming more to do with following
prescriptive rules - delegated thinking.

Better to die than never to live. If we wanted to be completely safe,
we wouldn't unicycle. If we wanted to follow conventions and rules, we
wouldn't unicycle. Each of us is free to make a decision, based on his
or her own priorities. All the rest of us should do is present the
evidence and the arguments.

The arguments against wearing helmets are discomfort, inconvenience and
image. The arguments for are less trivial. However, the risks are not
great for the vast majority of riders.

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I wear a helmet whenever I am cycling (on however many wheels) if my son
is watching because I want him to wear his helmet when he is cycling.
(He's 6).
I also wear a helmet anywhere near a road or when I'm doing something
out of my comfort range (eg uni'ing down a grassy slope - I wont say
MUni yet).
I always wear wrist guards when uni'ing outside.
I don't wear wrist guards or a helmet when I'm uni'ing in the gym
(although I did when I was beginning - wristguards and knee pads, not a
helmet).
I though I would put my bit in cos I haven't contributed to any of the
previous debates on the subject, I don't think.
Cathy

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The name of this thread should be "Helmets Everyone". You can crash
doing anything, wearing a helmet is just common sense.

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Mikefule said:

It is a judgement we all have to make. In a society that is becoming
more and more afraid of everything (except the insidious health
problems of poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking, drinking,
recreational drug use, and, of course, bad driving) it's easy to feel
pressured or bullied into wearing a helmet.

That cuts two ways though, in that there's at least as much peer
pressure to -not- wear a helmet. For example, look at how few
skateboarders wear a helmet- IMO, that's more to do with peer pressure
(pads/helmets being regarded as 'wussy'😉 than people actually making an
educated choice not to wear protection.

My view is that head impacts are rare, but, if you ride a lot, they
could well happen, and, personally, when they do, I'd prefer to have a
helmet between my head and the concrete.

The two common negatives on helmets-

1. they look stupid
2. they're uncomfortable

are relative to whether you've worn them for any length of time; as a
non-wearer, the first few times I used one I pretty much agreed with 1 &
2; within a few weeks of using one for every ride, the helmet was not
only comfortable, but I actually felt uncomfortable -without- it on- the
same kind of vulnerable feeling you get when you forget to do up your
car seat belt.

As for looks, again, after getting used to the helmet, when I see a
cyclist not wearing one, they actually look a bit stupid to me now, or
at least they look like someone who perhaps doesn't value themselves as
much as they could.

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There was a cool report (I can't find a link to it at the moment) which
determined that if all car drivers were made to wear helmets when
driving, it would save more lives and reduce injuries than if all
cyclists had to wear helmets.

Weigh up the risk yourself and take advice from people you respect, but
a helmet won't make you invincible.

jim

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Catboy said:

*You can crash doing anything, wearing a helmet is just common sense.
*

*sigh*

So you wear a helmet when out walking? Statistically it's more dangerous
than biking, so presumably unicycling too.

I wear a helmet when off-roading, because brushing past branches gets
tedious after a while, and the lights mount on it. Other than that I
can't see much use for putting some misshapen polystyrene cups on my
head.

Phil

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You only need a helmet if you're going to hit you're head. If you're
positive you won't hit your head on anything, then there's no point in
wearing a helmet.

Me? I'm never sure about anything.

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Jim said:

*There was a cool report (I can't find a link to it at the moment)
which determined that if all car drivers were made to wear helmets
when driving, it would save more lives and reduce injuries than if all
cyclists had to wear helmets.*

If all steering wheels had 6 inch metal spikes in the middle, facing
towards the driver's chest, and no cars had seat belts, there would be
almost no accidents at all.

If all young men under 30 were only allowed to drive pink cars with a
cute teddy bear on the bonnet, there would be fewer accidents too.

Road users look at the immediate risk to themselves, not to others. The
risk of being flattened by a lorry is immediate. the risk of litigation
after injuring a cyclist is less immediate. Thus, motorist swerves to
avoid lorry, hits cyclist.

Interesting point, and probably true: if all cyclists were attractive
naked women, male motorists would never fail to see them, and would
always give way to them.

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when I'm just riding around on my muni or trials, i don't wear one. For
xc muni and trials above 2 feet, I wear one. And for DH/ northshore
muni, I wear a fullface (most of the time) and light body armour

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Personally, i own a helmet, but don't use it, except if i'm trying
something new that involves a high impact (high drop, hard landing,
hight speed and sudden stop). Thus, i've used it about 3 times in the
last year, despite jumping 4 sets, grinding ledges, and doing 1-meter
drops regularly. On the other hand, i wear gloves and leg armour any
time that i plan to jump or take my feet off the pedals while riding,
because i bash my legs with the pinned pedals too often to count.

In addition to wearing leg and hand protection, one of my most important
safety measures is knowledge. The most important lesson that i learned
from skateboarding is to roll out of falls. Next time you have a hard
fall, try to roll as much as possible, exaggerate it, even. Throw a
couple extra rolls in just for fun. You'll notice that your body takes
way less damage. If you get good at it, you can absorb hard impacts
without even getting a scratch. It's amazing. Most of the time it'll
save you from head impacts too.

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Mikefule said:

Interesting point, and probably true: if all cyclists were attractive
naked women, male motorists would never fail to see them, and would
always give way to them.

They would also sit behind for quite a while before overtaking. Just to
make sure it's completely safe to pass, of course.

Riding naked scores 5 BIG points (I usually score 9 on my bike, if I
rode naked I'd increase that to 12):
<URL:http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/misc/big.html>

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Danny Colyer said:

*Mikefule wrote:
Riding naked scores 5 BIG points (I usually score 9 on my bike, if I
rode naked I'd increase that to 12
*

From nine to twelve huh, so ridding naked makes your penis 25% bigger?
Sounds like someone is an exhobitionist.

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I wear my helmet when riding for speed(averaging 10mph) or when
"attempting" to MUni. Always wear my knee, elbow, and wrist guards. But
my elbow pad does not have the hard plastic. After hearding your story,
I may start wearing elbow pads with the plastic.

As for the helmet, I don't wear it as much.
My body gets burning hot after riding hard for 30min. I luv my uni
cause I burn lots of calories when riding my Coker.
After riding for about 30min the heat from my head causes me to slow
down and tire. So I have been experimenting with no helment when casual
riding and freestyling. I do wear the helment when it gets dark cause of
my cool halogen headlight mounted on my helmet. 😄

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if you wanna be saft, get a motocross helmet.

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