Riders Without helmets

I keep seeing mtn bikers on downhill runs without helmets. Disaster waiting to happen.

e.g. http://patch.com/california/delmar-...rider-breaks-skull-crash-carmel-mountain-road

am i the only person seeing this? I always wear a helmet and so do my kids...

 

Organ donors.

 

I lived in a state that had no helmet law for motorcycles... Those were some interesting accidents.

 

This is a modern day evolutional event. It thins the herd, less riders on busy trails. I rarely see someone not wearing a helmet. I also will not ride with anyone not wearing a helmet. I could never burden one of my buddies with the responsibility of handling me in a head trauma accident because I was too pride filled to wear one...

 

To be honest, when I first started riding MTBs I didn't wear a helmet. The reason being, growing up riding in the hills around Glendora on my BMX bike, I never wore a helmet. Nor did anyone else for that matter. That was just the era I grew up in. So naturally when I first started riding MTBs I didn't feel the need to wear one. That was until I had a huge wreck at Snow Summit. I dislocated my collar bone and bashed up the helmet that SS made me wear. At that moment I realized what could of happened if I wasn't wearing a helmet. The speeds are much greater and you are more likely to go over the bars (especially with the dumb ass geometry of the 90s) on a MTB than on a BMX bike.

 

A couple weeks ago I saw two teens riding their Mtbs on the trail. One had a helmet on, the other had one on but the straps hanging loose.
I see this often on high school kids.
Why wear it at all if you don't want to take advantage of the protection? Darwinism at work?

I've cracked and dinged enough helmets over the years to know, it's affordable protection.

 

@Danimal - "Slouching" is the teenager's way of saying F-you adults! Sagging clothes, hats on sideways, ill-fitting helmets with dangling straps, drivers' seat leaned waaaaaay back, slouching in a chair, tattoos and radical piercings, cars decked out with stuff that make them drive and ride like crap - and sound horrible - it's all about breaking away from conventional social norms to show how badass, independent and non-conformist they are. Ironically it manifests itself in nearly uniform ways. Some never grow out of it, they just buy Harleys with really loud pipes, don their pirate costumes and continue to show how badass they are. Others buy DH bikes and Troy Lee clothes.

To return to the point of the thread, I can count on one hand the number of times over the past 15 years I've seen riders with no helmets on my local trails. And often it's either the same guy (on an old hardtail on STT headed towards Modjeska gate), or it's someone who took it off for the climb. I haven't see an increase in unprotected craniums on the trails.

 

And just as I posted the above, what did I see on my ride today? Yup - an older teenager riding a decent full-suspension bike on the trail without a helmet. (face palm)

 

I see that rider on STT all the time! He never slows down to say anything...

 

California was blessedly free of helmet laws until 1992. The rationale used to enact it was that helmets would "save lives" and "reduce injuries." As usual, the bleeding hearts got it wrong. If you crash WITH a helmet, you're much more likely to live, albeit as a defective dependent upon the state (read: taxpayer) for your maintenance. If you crash WITHOUT a helmet, you're pretty much dead. Which is way cheaper.

Yes, this sounds calloused, but it's actually not. I've crashed three times on the road on motorcycles; once at 45 mph (1978), once at 65 mph (1976); and once at 70 mph (1988) (this also explains my aversion to trail exposure on the mtb, but that's my problem and not yours). In all three crashes I was wearing a full face helmet, because I CHOSE TO even though it was not the law at the time..

I really don't care whether you wear a helmet or not, as long as I don't have to pay for your mistake.

I pray to (insert favored deity) that we never have a mandatory bicycle helmet law for adults, and that we can repeal the mandatory motorcycle helmet law soon.

 

I see him all the time too, and we almost always chat. Nice guy, lives in modjeska canyon IIRC.

 

I feel naked without a helmet. Even if I forget it, I won't ride.

 

Saw three people this last weekend.one up in the gabes two at aliso.one good crash and they will figure it out

 

They almost did not too long ago. I really don't feel like I should have to wear a helmet if I'm just cruising the bike path with my dog or the boardwalk at the beach.

 

Do I tie a rope on the minute I leave the car? Put on my crampons? Group beacon check, snow assessment? Ava-Lung? Self-inflating vest? Pads on the climb? A helmet? We use safety gear when we decide conditions warrant it.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not anti-helmet. Most riders in most situations might be best off with the benefits (real or perceived) that a helmet affords. But mountain bikers telling someone to be safe has an ironic and hypocritical ring to it. Legislating helmet use? Man, be careful what you wish for. You might end up getting cited for not wearing sun screen by this new namby pamby contingent that feels compelled to protect everyone from everything at all times.

 

Right on, Mikie. My short-list friends all ride with helmets, and I try to stay away from groups that tolerate that kind of nonsense. It's not about me imposing my principles on someone else, it's about me protecting me.

If there's an incident, which is far more likely with someone who doesn't wear a helmet, some from his group have to administer wilderness medical care. Someone has to ride/run/hike at maximum safe speed to get help, and then perhaps lead the medics back to the location. Then there is someone who has to carry out all the gear that doesn't get evaced. And then there is the one who gets to deliver the news to the family. While all those things are within my skill set, and I will gladly do them when called upon, I don't want to, and I don't want to inject myself into a situation where that's a good possibility.

I respect myself enough to shield myself from that kind of pain, and I expect my riding partners to give me equal respect.

 

Drivers of cars kill cyclists, not cyclists falling off their bikes.

Mandatory adult helmet laws reduce ridership dramatically. Australia is the big example. The number one way to increase cyclist safety is to have more people on bikes (a la Netherlands). More cyclists = safer. Unfortunately, requiring everyone wear a foam hat decreases the percent of people riding.
Less riders = less safety. There is also the problem of perceived risk. If the conversation constantly revolves around how dangerous bikes are and how you have to wear protective equipment or you will die a horrible, tragic death, then less people will want to ride. Which in turn makes riding more dangerous. Mandatory helmet laws for minors reinforces this belief.

Please continue to wear helmets. Just don't mandate that everyone has to.

 

I drove to trailhead today, then realized I forgot my helmet. Drove back and got the helmet. It was annoying but worth the extra 20 mins...

 

I actually like Mikie and Mike's posts on this - and they are not contradictory. Wear the safety equipment you feel you need. And if you choose not to ride with someone who is underprepared because it puts yourself and others at -risk - good on ya! I don't think we need/want a helmet law for bike riding for adults.

I set a HORRIBLE example for my daughter yesterday when I had the audacity to ride around my neighborhood with a baseball cap, while she wore a helmet. I am now out of the running for father of the year.

I also do not wear a helmet when I ride my beach cruiser to Trestles. Oh - the horror!

 

What always made me shake my head was when I worked in a shop, the guys that would come in and easily drop $5-6k on a brand new wunderbike....only to buy the cheapest helmet we carried....in the $30 price range.

Guess they didn't think their head was worth anymore than that.

 

Splitting hairs...
Wearing a bicycle helmet for me falls into the same freedom category as the following:

• Freedom to burn the American Flag but would never EVER do it!
• Freedom to own a Rocket Launcher but would never EVER use it!
• Freedom to say anything on your mind, but have the class and discretion not to.
• Freedom to not have to wear a Bicycle Helmet, but know it's the right thing to do.

Maybe this is just me, but every person I have ever met on the trail not wearing a helmet, where there was a discussion about wearing a helmet, I walked away thinking them as arrogant, self centered, and categorized as self-delusional of Machoism.

Now to be clear, I'm not talking about the paseo strolls with your kids, or beach cruisin with your wife (although there are plenty of cases where that has not ended well). I'm talking about road rides and mountain biking the rides that we do.

My personal perception is folks that would show up for the rides we do intentionally without a helmet has little concern for the group.

I have related this story before for sure on STR during a much less caliber argument (yes, I said argument) regarding the same subject. Names were hammered on keyboards, Helmet Nazi was emboldened type, blah blah blah...

Again! Thank you! For the maturity!

We are on a bike ride in the early early 90's up on Sawmill near Golden Eagle Trail. Allyn was leading and I was behind him with 3 others much further behind. We were flying down the fire road finishing our ride at Elizabeth Lake Road near Lake Hughes. For the type of bikes we were riding (hardtails with crappy front forks) we were going fast, my guess would be in the 30 mph range.

With Allyn approx. 75 yards ahead of me, I looked down, and then back up to see Allyn's bike flipping end over end down the road with Allyn doing the same in a backward summersault fashion. I looked down to see if I missed whatever Allyn missed then looked up again to see Allyn now doing forward summersaults and then coming to a sliding stop face down in the middle of the Decomposed Granite fire road.

As I rolled up I was laughing and stating, Man! Allyn, that was quite the crash!"
Allyn continued to lay there face down. I got off my bike and laid it down..... "Allyn", I said?

No movement...

I turned Allyn over to find him bleeding from the mouth and nose. The blood was pooling in his eye sockets. He was unconscience.

I didn't know what it was immediately, but it ended up being his tongue sticking out of his mouth purple and dark blue. he had bit completely threw his tongue in the middle and it was hanging on by meat on each side. I rolled him on his side so he did not drown in his own blood and started patting him somewhat hard on his back. He started breathing again...

By this time, our buddies rolled up and I told them to keep him on his side. I got on my bike and screamed the 5 miles remaining down to the vehicles. I was outside my head, in total panic mode. I remember nearly crashing in many of the corners of loose DG over hardback. As I approached my Toyota Pickup I remember throwing my bike in the general direction of the truck bed. Fumbled for my keys, got in, and headed east on Elizabeth Lake Road at a dangerous rate of speed to find the nearest house with a phone I could use to call 911. We did not own cell phones then...

I slid nearly sideways in the dirt driveway of a home on the right as folks sat on their front porch and I fell out of the truck yelling if I could use their phone. They obliged. I had my head together enough to tell the operator exactly where Allyn and the others were at. Thank God I knew the area well.

They were sending a chopper and I told them I would meet them there. I thanked the homeowner and sped off again to get back to Allyn.

As I rolled up to the crash location, the chopper was landing. Allyn was still unconscious. They loaded him up and they asked if I would go with them. I tossed my keys to Craig and said to meet me at the hospital in Lancaster.

I kept talking to Allyn as we flew, holding his hand and feeling him squeeze it once in a while.

Allyn spent the next 2 weeks in ICU. He looked like a burn victim from sliding on the DG fire road. Allyn had sustained significant head trauma from slamming his brain forward and then rearward repeatedly inside his skull during his crash.

When he finally recovered enough to go home a month later... Allyn was not the same.
He was an engineer at Northrop Grumman.

Allyn was wearing one of the crappy styrofoam helmets that were what we had at the time, I was wearing the same. I'm not saying that a better helmet would have done a better job, or that a helmet was better than NOT wearing a helmet.

MY personal core value has been molded by this experience, and the visuals emblazoned in my skull that I will never be able to remove, dictates to me that I want to armor myself with the best equipment I can to protect me from me... And to give my ride buddies the best chance of saving my sorry azz if something like what happened to Allyn ever happened to me.

 

I always ask customers what is your head worth? And most of them want the cheapest helmet in stock. I should carry only have $100 and up helmets.

When I first started riding seriously, my parents got me a skid lid. I always thought it was a worthless piece of leather strapped to my head. I at least try to buy a $100 and up helmet.

 

Ok that bleeding tongue story was super intense but I'm glad your friend was ultimately ok. I have a Giro Trinity (cheaper) helmet. What's the main differences b/n this and a high-end (safer) helmet? Sorry I never really researched helmets and picked this up back in April at Sport Chalet.

btw, pros don't always wear helmets:



p.s. check out the beast level standing/climbing by Lance...

 

Here is a review on various level Giro helmets, which doesn't seem to indicate too many safety differences b/n the models. The one with the magnetized visor seems pretty cool.

 

I will forgive you for defiling the forum with a video of the greatest fraud in the history on sport in order to prove a point. Oh, wait, everyone in that video was doping. Lance is still a p.o.s. For the lengths that he went (and the folks he tried to {and in some cases did} destroy) in order to cover his fraud. What were we talking about?

Helmets. I wear them while road riding, and riding my MTB.

During the 3 mph post-ride spin to Starbucks or to Whole Foods to pick up some necessary ingredient for wife, it is sometimes clipped on my bars. Not smart. Riding down the hill to surf on my cafe bike and riding back up to the house, no helmet. Not smart.

A p.o.s. Kucharick leather alllowed me to be conscious while nurses used wire brushes to scrape the asphalt from my large portions of my skin a few decades ago... So I know better.

I won't ride MTB with someone helmet less. Period.

Responsibility... Not legal compulsion.

 

The differences are more than you think, he explains it pretty clearly.

 

Yes, there were many features/differences but in terms of the actual safety differences, I'm not sure what other than integrated carbon fiber shell/rollcage in the case of the Aeon. Which is likely the key difference in terms of safety. And I still wouldn't believe it until I saw some test results anyways. And the price jumps dramatically from $40 to $250. What about the $100-150 model?

Af as far as our previously esteemed and ill-tempered colleague Lance is concerned, hey seems like people have been lying for ages, just watch the news on just about any politician. I admire his intensity and dedication, that's all that matters.

I will point out that it does seem excessively *******-ish to push a fellow cyclist during a competition like he did in that video. That looked horribly uncool.

 

So apparently the Giro Trinity falls into the road bike helmet category based on the design according to this interesting article/review on enduro helmets:

http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/Mountain-Bike-Helmet-Reviews

 

I thought he was patting him on the back as encouragement and also to give a little stiff arm to avoid contact and potentially a second spill.

 

You've alluded to this incident several times, but this is the first time I've read it in all of its horrible gory glory. I missed it on STR, but I can just imagine the jackassery that ensued...

I've known many, mostly kids, who were either left disabled or left "not quite right" after an accident or traumatic event. It changes everyone involved.

Keep on fighting the good fight!