One of the most absurd things I've gotten heavily downvoted for on reddit is for saying people should wear helmets no matter how good the cycling infrastructure is. Not that it should be mandated by law, but that it's simply the wise thing to do. Then people are like 'wELL I gUeSs YoU ShOUld THeN wEaR a HElmEt whiLE walKinG tOo'

Fine, then don't wear a helmet. It's not my head.

I didn't use to wear one when I was a kid either but nowdays it feels like driving without a seatbelt. Hell, I might even just take my bike for a test drive around the block after having done some adjustments on it and I still go grab my helmet first.

I don't get their logic either. You can clip a rock and fall of your bicycle pretty easily at speed. TBI is no joke.

oh no never ask the dutch why they are not wearing helmets, the cyclists will send every excuse your way

I had only fallen once with my bike as an adult. I live in Sweden and our cycling infrastructure in my town is g r e a t. The problem was that it was spring, so all the gravel/sand which had been spread during the winter was now on bare asphalt. I turned left and while the wheel turned, the bike did not.

There ain't much good infrastructure can do about gravel on asphalt.

Thankfully I didn't hit my head as it would've surely been a pretty bad accident. Instead I just hit every single boney part on my left side.

safe cycling infrastructure does nothing to prevent you from having a sudden equipment failure and finding yourself going over the bars face-first, or from just being an uncoordinated idiot who wipes out for no reason and gets a closed head injury. I had a crank fail on my bike once, snapped in half in full sprint and I wiped badly. helmet did its job and I was thankful to have it, because there's no predicting stuff like that

• If your helmet doesn't have a chin bar (full or modular), you don't care about your chin, teeth, or nose.
• wrt ATGATT, most of that gear will reduce or avoid injury. A helmet will prevent your death.
• If you don't wear earplugs - even with a helmet on - enjoy your tinnitus and/or hearing loss. This is from wind noise, not engine noise.

Just remember that ATGATT means helmet, jacket, pants, gloves, and boots, and all of them have to be intended and rated for riding.

Most "riding" jeans are trash, not worth the money you pay; they'll have a little bit of Kevlar lining, and maybe a hint of padding at the knees, but that's not going to help you significantly. Do yourself a solid and get some real riding pants that zip to your jacket, like RevIt!, or Dianese.

Leather costs more up front, and less in the long run. Textile apparel is usually destroyed in a crash, but leather is usually good for multiple drops. I've had four crashes (none hugely significant; partial tear to a rotator cuff on the last one); my jacket and pants look rough, but they're still perfectly fine for protection.

Pants and jacket should fit fairly closely; you don't want them moving around when you crash. Loose is not your friend in a crash. They should have CE1 or CE2 inserts at the knees, hips, coccyx, back, shoulders, and elbows. You may need to buy the inserts separately.

You can get pants and jackets used safely, as long as they're in good condition.

Get gloves with palm sliders. Replace gloves about annually if you put more than 5000 miles on your bike each year; the palms will wear thin, and protect less as they get used. Gauntlets will protect your wrists; I suggest them over shorties. How much are your hands worth to you? Spend that much on gloves. I've burned through multiple pairs of Alpinestars Supertech and Knox Handroid gloves, and I'm currently using Five RFX1; these are daily ride gloves for me. (Supertech gloves are nice, except the palm slider is aramid fabric instead of TPU. Is $500 a lot for gloves? Sure. It's about $15,000 less than reconstructive hand surgery though.)

Boots should protect your ankles; they should have some kind of armored cup there if they're leather.

Do not accept anything less than a full-face helmet. Just, don't. Never, ever, ever buy a used helmet. Never, ever, ever buy a helmet that isn't from a recognized brand, and from a reputable source. (Amazon is not a reputable source.) If a helmet seems too cheap to be true, do not buy it. Helmets are one-crash only; if your head touches the ground, replace the helmet.

Please don't forgot to wear a helmet when riding on 4 wheelers or ATVs.

Also, just because it claims to be an all terrain vehicle doesn't make it true. I would avoid riding these in any wooded areas or on sloped or rough terrain while riding solo.

I work in a trauma ward that has an ATV season. I feel like the stigma of wearing helmets has reduced over the years, as I'm having to put less people in orthopedic helmets every year. However, there are just as many people getting crushed by their vehicles.

4 wheelers have a nasty habit of rolling and pinning their riders. If this happens and you're alone it can easily cripple or kill you. One of the more common severe injuries is having your leg pinned against the motor or exhaust and having your leg or arm slowly cooked to the point where they need to be amputated.

When my kid was a kid he was riding around on one of those little 50cc quads. They don't go very fast, and he was just on flat, level, ground, so we didn't bother putting a helmet on him. My friend and I were standing there watching him, and chit chatting. My son started getting more daring, and gassing it through figure 8's and almost tipped the quad a couple times leaning the wrong way, so we decided that he should put a helmet on "just in case". A couple minutes later he flipped the quad and broke the face guard of the helmet in half. That would have been his jaw, had he not been wearing the helmet. So yes, even when you're going slow, and just diddling around on a quad, you should always wear your helmet.

Found the marine.

You kidding me? Not weird to have PTSD at all. Your conscious brain might have shrugged it off but your body remembers the whole "I could have died" feeling.

Yeah, that's a common experience after bad motorcycle crashes. Glad you're still with us!

Former Motorcyclist here.

The guy I used to ride with died! Collided with a car. He flew off his bike and face first into a pole.

I was never friendly with him. He called me a pussy for wearing a full-faced helmet when we rode, while he was wearing a half-helmet that was like a WW2 replica on his harley. I was the youngest on the ride and he was lecturing me trying to teach me "his ways".

Well, he's a meat crayon now.

The people who are telling you to wear protection are still alive.

My friend had a minor head injury and his doctor advised him to wear a full face helmet whilst riding his bicycle. The cops pulled him over and he had to show them the note the doctor had written about it. I guess the concern is that if your face is obscured they can't track you down if you commit a crime? Still seems pretty dumb to me.

There are people who try to bypass those also, or cheat em. Usually for some personal comfort. One of my sisters was like this. She wasn't that tall, and complained the seat belt shoulder part was uncomfortable, so she'd either not wear it or put that part behind her.

Then someone swung into her lane causing her to rear end em (she was in a moving normal speed lane and they were backed up in an exit lane). Without the seat belt there, what instead slowed her movement forward was the steering wheel shattering her jaw. She's fine now, but a painful lesson that included reconstructive surgery.

Or a faceless dork.

If you're riding a european pedelec (pedal assist) up to 25km/h, bike helmet should be fine, if you're riding electric motorcycle (25km/h+, accelerator) then maybe motorcycle helmet is more appropriate.

This one is not mine, but I have been saved by a helmet before. Glad I'm still here too, thanks!

Mine wasn't nearly as bad looking but I was going maybe 40, just some minor scratches. However, when I took off the chin bar I realized the anchor was close to torn out and there were spots in the EVA foam that cracked. Wearing a helmet saved me from a pretty nasty head injury or worse.