I bought a new helmet for my downhill biking. It's almost lighter than some road bike helmets and has great air flow. Wear a helmet, people. Your noggin is precious and cars and trucks are aiming for us.

I can't understand why people refuse to wear helmets when riding.

I had a professor in university who got in an accident while not wearing a helmet. He went over the handlebars and landed on his head. It happened years before I met him, but he would regularly get crippling migraines as a consequence, and he would plead with his students to never ride without wearing a helmet.

I fell on my bike onto the pavement going 12mph. That's it. Not very fast whatsoever compared to some cyclists.

I ended up busting 4 ribs in half and fractured my scapula (shoulder blade). I was wearing my helmet w/front visor thank God because it's amazing how quickly your head smacks that concrete. I went face first too and the visor + helmet completely spared me any head trauma.

Never felt pain like that in my life. The agony of getting loaded onto a gurney with that many busted bones isn't something I wish to repeat.

During that same period, the number of recorded e-bike riders seeking medical attention for head trauma increased nearly 50-fold to just shy of 8,000 visits in 2022.

So.... Number of ebike riders rose by 50x since 2017. Makes sense, but doesn't mean it's more dangerous or anything to do with helmets

It would be interesting to know whether the increase in head trauma stems from single accidents being inherently more dangerous on e-bikes and that being the increase, or if e-bikes make biking more accessible bringing out less experienced bikers on the road where they are subsequently struck by cars.

It's not possible to see the study without a subscription, so it's hard to tell.

I'd not be surprised to see the latter being the case though, cars are the biggest predator when it comes to bicyclists.

Yeah everyone wearing a helmet looks fucking dumb. You know what's more dumb, brain damage. Literally.

Wear helmets people, they're super cool. What's not cool? Hitting your head on concrete, lights out, no waking up.

"Head trauma cases are through the roof" is a weird way to put it. It didn't get that much more dangerous to use an E-bike but usage is through the roof.

Overall increased bike usage makes bikes safer for the average user so it wouldn't surprise me if the "head injury per non-professional rider" would be going down.

If you think your head and its contents are important, wear a properly adjusted helmet. Every time.

I recently got an e-bikes. It goes up to 20mph and honestly scares the shit out of me sometimes. I have a normal bike helmet but am looking into something a bit beefier, between a bike and motorcycle helmet

I don't think people understand: At 20mph that's athlete sprinting speed. Imagine going all out "impending asthma attack and you don't even have asthma" full sprint down a hill then tripping on a curb

Wonder how many of those injuries are on rentals? Veo rental e-bikes are very prevalent around these parts. Have never seen anyone riding them with a helmet. If you own an e-bike and don't wear one, that's on you. But rental ones don't even have a way to provide you with one.

OTOH, most rental e-scooters have a helmet carrier box on the back. It unlocks when you go to pick one up with the app.

Paramedics treat pedal bicycle accidents the same as a car crash. An electric bike can go much faster and cause more damage.

Helmets and gloves.

Yeah because there's all these rental e-scooters and bikes in densely populated urban areas, but they don't come with a helmet.

Even the people I see on these e-bikes look like alcoholics that lost their license. And they drive opposing traffic. I talked to one guy, who was drunk at 2pm, and told him he should ride WITH traffic, and he said no, because then he can't see the cars coming.

I mean...

Perhaps I'm just ignorant but what's the difference between an electric bike and a motorcycle? Is it just the speed or is it still a different class of vehicle?