Helmets - the definitive thread.. ** Mod Note - Please read Opening Post **

AndrewJRenko

LeinsterDub wrote: »

He's done this before. He clearly doesn't care what people think

Really?

12 element

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is odd.

Bicycle shop owners lobby Co Mayo TD to call for mandatory helmets
Some of Co Mayo’s bicycle shop owners have lobbied a local TD to call for making bicycle helmets mandatory — an idea which is highly controversial and opposed by Irish and European cycling campaign groups.
https://irishcycle.com/2020/06/13/bicycle-shop-owners-lobby-co-mayo-td-to-call-for-mandatory-helmets/

it's based on a claim made by a TD but no bike shops actually named.

This is the bike shop: The Bike Clinic

magicbastarder

any source for that?

CramCycle

magicbastarder wrote: »

any source for that?

On their facebook page

tomasrojo

The Fredly Do-Right set

(bikesnobnyc term, not mine)

wheelo01

magicbastarder wrote: »

any source for that?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2912237048896090&id=1619331231520018

tomasrojo

https://twitter.com/cianginty/status/1272597769082023938

Going 90km/h downhill means you have about thirty-six times as much kinetic energy as someone cycling on the aforementioned greenways at 15km/h. He's definitely taking more of a risk than anyone on the greenways.

Chips Lovell

In today’s news: “Man who sells bicycle helmets says bicycle helmets should be mandatory”.

TheAnalyst_

This is actually putting me off cycling. I do a fair bit of city cycling and the country I'm in nobody wears a helmet. Fair enough.

Now I've gotten a decent road/gravel bike and I like to do a bit of touring and training every week or so. 40 mins to 2 hours largely on cycling specifc roads. I used to do the same stuff on my city bike. Now that I have a proper road bike Ive had people get really mad at me for not wearing a helmet. Its bizarre. It's like I've broken some rules of a club I never asked to join.
What is the logic behind it? I'm not forcing them to go helmetless. Why do people take it so personally about someone elses decision that has no impact on them?

I've also avoided clipless pedals and lycra shorts which has also pissed some off.

tomasrojo

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

This is actually putting me off cycling. I do a fair bit of city cycling and the country I'm in nobody wears a helmet. Fair enough.

Now I've gotten a decent road/gravel bike and I like to do a bit of touring and training every week or so. 40 mins to 2 hours largely on cycling specifc roads. I used to do the same stuff on my city bike. Now that I have a proper road bike Ive had people get really mad at me for not wearing a helmet. Its bizarre. It's like I've broken some rules of a club I never asked to join.
What is the logic behind it? I'm not forcing them to go helmetless. Why do people take it so personally about someone elses decision that has no impact on them?

I've also avoided clipless pedals and lycra shorts which has also pissed some off.

I refer you to the bikesnobnyc post I alluded to above:

Of course you could always just skip the helmet altogether, but then you wouldn't be able to participate in sanctioned bicycle races, Gran Fondos, or massive charity rides--plus you'll find yourself on the receiving end of all sorts of scorn from the Fredly Do-Right set.

In other words, there's pretty much no downside.

https://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2017/09/sorry-im-late-i-forgot-i-wasnt-on.html

magicbastarder

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

Ive had people get really mad at me for not wearing a helmet.

they can get in the sea.

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

I've also avoided clipless pedals and lycra shorts which has also pissed some off.

they can also get in the sea.

rubadub

Chips Lovell wrote: »

In today’s news: “Man who sells bicycle helmets says bicycle helmets should be mandatory”.

I wonder if he has considered the drop in bike sales if he gets his wish.

They should be calling for VAT to be zero on adult helmets. Irish shops must lose a lot of business to the UK where it is zero.

Bike shops should also be calling for better policing and higher sentences for bike theft, that would be hugely in their interest to see an increase in sales. Zero vat on bike locks would be a good idea too. Possibly bikes themselves too.

dinneenp

Hi,
Any recommendations for a bike helmet for road cycling?
Budget, not sure, if I can get an inexpensive one that's good why not? Was browsing and saw this one-
Planet X CARNAC PODIUM SL ROAD HELMET

Thanks,
Pa.

cletus

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,
Any recommendations for a bike helmet for road cycling?
Budget, not sure, if I can get an inexpensive one that's good why not? Was browsing and saw this one-
Planet X CARNAC PODIUM SL ROAD HELMET

Thanks,
Pa.

I have that helmet in green. I've a big noggin, and it doesn't look completely out of place on it. Nice and light too, and plenty of vents for the air to get through, so not uncomfortable on a warm day

RobertFoster

magicbastarder wrote: »

does anyone know if there's such a thing as buying a sheet of the lined foam used for helmet padding, from which you could cut your own pads? rather than paying €10 upwards for a set of replacement pads.

Your post reminded me to sort out my padding. Some of mine went missing in the wash so I'm after repurposing a chamois from an old pair of Aldi winter tights.

I used the remaining padding to scale a picture of the £15 replacement set, marked and cut out the shape on the chamois. To tidy the edge and stop the foam from being "sprung" all the time, I used a blanket stitch. The reverse of the chamois I used clings to the helmet without needing added Velcro.

It's slightly thicker than the legit padding and it doesn't match, but it should do the job.

Would 3M have something you could cut to shape using the old pads perhaps?

Eamonnator

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,
Any recommendations for a bike helmet for road cycling?
Budget, not sure, if I can get an inexpensive one that's good why not? Was browsing and saw this one-
Planet X CARNAC PODIUM SL ROAD HELMET

Thanks,
Pa.

I have one of these in the correct colour, red.
Very comfortable and light.
If I remember correctly, I bought it for less than the current price, but nonetheless still very good value.
be careful with delivery cost. I used Parcel Motel.

cletus

Eamonnator wrote: »

I have one of these in the correct colour, red.
Very comfortable and light.
If I remember correctly, I bought it for less than the current price, but nonetheless still very good value.
be careful with delivery cost. I used Parcel Motel.

Hmm, I bought mine on cycle adverts from (I think) briando. He had two for sale, red and green. Is it possible you're the one who bought the red one before I got to it?

CramCycle

I had the Planet X helmet as well, light, well ventilated. Probably not the most comfy in the world but so long as you have some hair your grand.

MojoMaker

A far nicer helmet on your head is the Notus and particularly the Notus Evo (a Specialised Evade copy) - and I see them for less than the Podium at the moment, normally it's the other way around.

The Notus Evo is a very nice helmet indeed

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/HECANOTEVO/carnac-notus-evo-road-helmet

Eamonnator

cletus wrote: »

Hmm, I bought mine on cycle adverts from (I think) briando. He had two for sale, red and green. Is it possible you're the one who bought the red one before I got to it?

Not guilty.
Bought mine from Planet X.

Thinkingaboutit

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

You can just imagine the 'sure this is a no-brainer, who could possibly object to this' thinking behind the proposal, and then suddenly he starts reading the twitter replies....

He's the 'no-brainer.'

tomasrojo

Chris Boardman has spotted Dillon:
https://twitter.com/Chris_Boardman/status/1273187214269329413

conkennedy

Nothing gets past Boardman

Eamonnator

conkennedy wrote: »

Nothing gets past Boardman

He has quite a lot of skin in the game, professionally and personally.

magicbastarder

and probably skin left on velodromes as well.

anyway, what's the deal with the timing of that FF politician announcing this in the week where the PfG was being finalised? was it deliberately bad timing on his part?

Chips Lovell

Dillon is a Fine Gaeler. I'd say there was as much thought put into the timing of the announcement as there was into the proposal itself, i.e. very little.

As for Boardman's intervention, I reckon he neither knows nor cares who Chris Boardman is. If he did actually care about this issue, he wouldn't have made the proposal in the first place.

Hurrache

He's an ex Mayo county player and captain, all star winner too, I'd certainly like to think that he'd at least have a passing knowledge of Boardman given his sporting interests.

I also think he's been lobbied by those who know of his sporting royalty in his home county, also home of the RSA, or using his history himself, as a way to try add some weight behind his backward proposals.

On this topic, someone called Sam Waide was appointed the new CEO of the RSA this week.

kirving

How about they remove VAT from cycling helmets if they want to encourage usage? Maybe even give a tax credit toward them? Better that that claiming the 20% back on my health expenses for the year. I buy my helmets in the UK for this reason.

How about using the carrot instead of the stick approach?

CramCycle wrote: »

s that while lots of people have anecdotal evidence of their benefit, and one poster with a negative, studies overall don't find any benefit or negative at a population level for the atypical cyclist. There are many possible reasons but the bare bones of it is, whether you wear one or not, it's statistically fine to say your choice makes no difference.

I'm very happy to agree that in large scale studies, the overall benefit of mandatory helmets is negated by the reduction in cyclists. ie: preventing safety in numbers, other health benefits, etc.

Personally though, I've been knocked out cold while wearing a helmet and hitting the edge of a rock at at least 30kph. I'd have no trouble saying the helmet minimised my injuries as far as possible and the doctors agreed. Some will say I have no hard evidence to say that the helmet helped, and I might not, but they can try out the same accident helmetless and gather some evidence if they'd like to argue that assertion. I certainly won't be repeating it.

In another crash, the rear axle bolt hit my helmet in the temple area, and left me really dazed. Again, I'm very confident in saying that the helmet prevented a skull fracture. Take a look. Statistically extremely unlikely, but I cycle enough that it adds up over time, and I only need to be on the wrong side of that statistic once to ruin my life.



Should they be mandatory though? Absolutely not.

Should they be worn as must as practically possible? Yes, IMO. And by that I mean daily commuting on the road at a decent speed, MTBing, cold weather. Going to the local shops or over to the park on a summers day, no.

People deriding trauma doctors who regularly see cycling injuries and saying "they're not experts" is disingenuous to be fair. They might not be looking at population level statistical analysis, but I'd still trust their opinion on injuries they've seen with and without helmets.

The other argument of "your skull is harder than foam" argument is anti-vaxxer levels of misinformation and should be called out as such.

tomasrojo

I'm not sure why you're invoking anti-vax in this context. You can actually see a benefit very clearly at the population level with vaccines.

The argument isn't just that the benefit of helmets is negated at the large-scale by the reduction in cyclists. It actually appears to be too modest to capture in large-scale studies, which are exactly the type of studies you need to detect small effects.