Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics.
I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cyclist, but they break it 'more' by coming closer when I wear a helmet).
> Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics.
I'm not aware of any study that says this. The most I've ever read is speculation that wearing a helmet might lead to more accidents, but that's not the same thing, since accidents with head protection are less likely to result in catastrophic head trauma and death. Could you maybe drop a reference link or two for this claim?
Why? Because it's an meta analysis of a bunch of actually rigorous papers written for the general public.
My original source was a blogpost written by some guy with an opinion. I promise you I'm not lying that's what it said, but I wouldn't trust the statistics he had to not be caused by some quirk like "people in safer to countries to bike are less likely to wear helmets". I can't find it again, sorry - probably because google has gotten so much worse at surfacing blogposts in the last few years. You'll just have to take my word that I wasn't lying when I said I saw such statistics (or google more yourself, I didn't try that hard, but at some point googling for statistics that support your view is unfair cherry picking of evidence).
Helmets protect you somewhat if you crash but are correlated with a significance increase in number of crashes. That page only addresses the first number.
I’ve never heard anyone say it’s actually less safe to wear a helmet. What kind of helmet are you wearing? Most helmets are so light you’d hardly even notice. I’m just confused about this comment.
I am trying to find the study, but iirc it was that in the US cars drive more carefully when they see a cyclist w/o a helmet, resulting in fewer collisions.
Doubtless in case of a collision you’d be better off with the helmet, but at a high enough speed it won’t matter anyway.
I used to play basketball with a personal injury lawyer who flat-out stated that the % of situations he’s seen where a helmet actually helped was very small.
I don’t wear one for many reasons; and I don’t judge anyone else’s decision.
> Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics
I've heard that too. If it's true, could the causality be the other way? As in, people wear a helmet when the chance of accidents is bigger.
When I road bike on open roads it's both fast and higher chance of accidents, so I wear a helmet. Same with downhill cycling. But when using a city bike, I bike slow in the inner city, and don't have a helmet.
Are you wearing a motorcycle helmet? My bike helmet doesn't touch my ears and weighs around 300g, about 5% of the 5 kg weight of a human head -- I can't tell the difference between turning my head with and without a helmet, but it doesn't matter much on the road since I use a rear-view mirror on my glasses so I look behind me much more often than if I had to turn my head every time.
The key component is the flexible, stays-where-you-put-it arm. Safezone is repurposing an industrial product called "coolant hose" - a 1-ft length costs less than $5. Epoxy a small mirror to the end, and attach it to your helmet with zip ties or velcro straps.
I always wear a helmet biking, and skiing for that matter. Neither helmet is likely to save me from a serious injury or death. They provide a small extra margin of safety in low speed collisions.
Bike helmets are no impediment to vision or turning one's head.
What I'd like is a cam linked to the police that would auto-ticket anyone passing too close. I would gladly sign an affidavit confirming the infraction.
In my experience as a courier and in dirt jump, the helmet puts extra weight on the head and neck at the time of impact. This can make it harder to tuck and roll. Also the size of the helmet adds a few inches, making it harder to avoid the earth/pavement.
I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cyclist, but they break it 'more' by coming closer when I wear a helmet).