Warning – this post contains a graphic photo of my legs.  There is also a fresh flesh wound.

I wear a helmet when I ride.  It’s one of those things that happened not out of planning but happenstance.  With three kids on the go, all of whom at least appear to enjoy playing on their bikes – and all of whom fall down – it made sense for them to wear helmets, not to mention they brand you a bad parent and take your money if you don’t.  No amount of coaching a 2 year old on a bicycle is going to instil a sense of caution that isn’t either innate already or life-long debilitating so you eliminate the hazards you can (traffic, hills) and try to protect those you can’t.  I started wearing one when I started cycling to set an example for the kids, besides it would have been odd to wear one before I was riding.  It’s now as routine for them as putting on their shoes – if they’re heading for their bike, they have their helmet on.

When Enthusiasm Overcomes Ability. A Confidence Apogee

I know some folks would shudder to expose their children to harm of any sort, but that’s not us.  Scrapes, bumps, bruises – those are lessons.  Who hasn’t had a scrapped knee or bloody palms as a kid?  Or an adult…

Your head though – that’s a different thing.   Sure, any number of maladies can result from improperly addressed wounds but by and large you grow some new skin, suffer the sheets sticking to your oozing flesh for a couple of nights and then business as usual.  Knock on the head?  That’s too risky for this cowboy rider.

I am on the side of personal choice with these sorts of things.  I think as an adult, I should be the individual who decides that I wear a helmet on my bicycle or my motorcycle or skiing, snowboarding, caving, climbing or any other activity where you might want to wear one.  In anything involving falling objects or movement at speed on unforgiving surfaces however I think you’re nuts if you don’t.  Borders on idiotic.  Why?  Pretty straight forward really.

Your head contains your brain – I realize this comes as a shock to any woman who knows young men but it’s true – and your brain is rather important, however nature saw fit to give you just one.  It’s like nature looked at humans and decreed “if you’re going to be so fool as to mess your brain up, perhaps it’s best you do”.  Big deal – so your brain is in your head.  What ev.  It’s only the thing that controls everything about your very existence after all.  Your personality, your memories, your decision making processes.  Then there’s the more significant stuff it controls like your heart, your lungs, all of your senses, motor control.  Why wouldn’t you want to protect that thing?  It’s the essence of you after all.  Why do you lock your bike up to protect it but not wear a helmet?

The following argument: the safer you make a given activity, the more careless become the participants thanks to the reduced risk.  Full agreement.  Thing is, brain injury takes remarkably little impact, speed or spectacle.

True story time.  When I was in my early 20s, I had a motorcycle accident that totalled my landlord’s custom Harley and put me in the hospital.  An old man with his nurse in the car (not kidding), turned left across the intersection I was riding through and clobbered me.  I still remember the moment after impact and thinking “Holy sh*t!  I’m flying through the air”!  Things got a bit fuzzy after landing however despite the damage to my wrist, my leg and my foot and the complete loss of the motorcycle now trapped firmly underneath the offending car, my helmet never hit the ground.  There wasn’t a scratch on it.  Had I not been wearing the helmet, I would have walked away without so much as a bump on my noggin.   Okay, I wouldn’t have walked as the helmet’s presence had nothing to do with the gaping flesh wounds and exposed bone but you get the idea – the helmet served no function in a rather spectacular crash (that even blew my shoes off – wear boots).

Fast forward a few years.  An employee of Harley-Davidson Canada whom I knew went to work as an instructor teaching other coneheads like myself how the ways and means of Miliwaukee’s offerings.  While fooling around one afternoon, he took one of the program’s motorcycles into the small parking lot behind the classroom, wheelied it at a rather benign speed, lost control and went over backwards - I’ve recently been correct – the front end washed out when the front wheel came back down and he went over the bars hitting his head.  No speed, no drama.  He was pronounced brain dead a few hours later.  Had he been wearing a helmet, he would – literally – have walked away.

Yes….those are motorcycle accidents but they’re true and I’m using them to illustrate that one does not require a “typical” accident to end up dead due to brain injury.

I’ve heard this argument too: “if I’m in an accident with a car, I’m a dead man anyway”.  Okay – yes, in an altercation with a car a cyclist (motor or pedal) is always on the losing end of the deal but death isn’t the inevitable outcome of those accidents (see above).  That’d be like saying I don’t need to wear my seatbelt because if I have an accident with a gravel truck, it’s going to squash me and my car anyway.  What about all the other things that might put you in a situation that involves your head contacting something not moving in the same plane and direction?  An errant dog, unexpected ice, dive-bombing hawks, me throwing my water bottle through your spokes so I can finally pass you…the possibilities are endless.

Here’s what really boggles my mind though – there’s no down-side to wearing a bicycle helmet.  It doesn’t impede your vision like a motorcycle full-face helmet, doesn’t look any different than 99% of the other cyclists (so it’s not like you’re sticking out amongst other riders), you’re already wearing Lycra pants with a diaper stuffed in them – who cares what the non-cycling populace thinks, they’re not hot, they’re not heavy (I’m sure I have toques that are heavier than my cheapo $80 helmet)… The question isn’t why should I wear a helmet, it’s why wouldn’t I.  Why wouldn’t you?