In reply to Paul Phillips - UKC and UKH:
In the first part they argue that other activities are just as, if not statistically more, dangerous than riding a bike with regard to head injuries.
That's a crap reason not to wear a helmet on a bike.
In the second part he says that wearing a helmet can encourage drivers to be more careless. A driver driving 3 1/2 inches (how the hell did they measure that?) closer when you're wearing a helmet doesn't mean that you're going to have an accident, of course. I also don't think most drivers look for, or see, helmets, as it seems that most accidents probably happen when drivers don't see the cyclist at all, let alone whether or not they are wearing a helmet.
He also says that wearing a helmet can increase neck injuries, and that "There's some evidence that having an enlarged piece of plastic and foam on your head increases the probability of hitting an object that you'd be able to avoid in the first place, or that otherwise glancing contact with a surface becomes a full-on blow when the head is helmeted."
A glancing contact? With your head? With the road? From a bike travelling anywhere up to 25mph? Glancing? Sounds great, don't know why I ever wanted to put a lump of polystyrene on my head when my skull will just harmlessly bounce off the tarmac. OF course!
Perhaps he's right on the neck injuries, but I feel like if you're barrelling into the earth with enough force to snap your neck when your helmet hits the ground, you probably wouldn't want all that force to be met on your soft noggin by hard concrete, either. Crashes like that seem to me to likely be a lose lose situation with regards to wearing helmets.
And, the false sense of security helmets create. Funnily enough, when I'm lycrad up and clipped into my road bike, that light blob of polystyrene on my head doesn't exactly make me feel secure, since a fall on the road is far more likely to end in road rash and broken wrists/collar bones than a serious head injury, and I don't exactly feel protected from those - I'm still bricking it nearly all the time because I don't trust anyone on the roads.
Cobblers article in my view.
Re: helmets climbing, If people are thick enough to partake in an activity where one of the main attractions is being completely responsible for your own actions, and controlling and mitigating danger through your skill and judgement, not wearing a helmet because some pro chose not to when gurning to the top of that absurdly hard route in the picture on your guide book is their responsibility and choice alone.
Post edited at 10:42