Bicycle Helmets on the Slopes!!!

Thats probably what that childs family thought Colin L when they skimped on proper protection,Their son paid the ultimate price HIS LIFE.


Question: If you would wear a bicycle helmet to ski would you wear a swimming cap to ride a bicycle ? Unless you were a complete numpty NO you blumming would`nt.

AJ Adele

iLoveSkiing wrote:Even if it prevents bruising it's offering protection.

I was being serious when I compared it to a thick wool hat, they'll prevent bruising as well.

We wear helmets to reduce the risk of serious head injuries, in fact they're actually pretty rare but the consequences are potentially serious. A cycle helmet will not protect you in the impacts likely to cause those type of injuries.

It's an extraordinarily bad idea to wear a cycle helmet for skiing and hugely bad advice to give anyone. Anyone following your advice would be extremely foolish.

iLoveSkiing wrote:Are you reading exactly what I wrote? I said it will offer some protection. I didn't say or imply it would offer the same protection as an actual ski or snowboard snowboard helmet.

Yes, I'm reading it with some horror. Now, read what I'm writing, a cycle helmet will not protect you at all from serious head injury for the impacts likely to occur to a skier.

If people think anyone was saying a bicycle helmet is a 100% like for like substitute for a ski helmet or that every skiier should save money by wearing a bicycle helmet instead of a ski helmet then they need to re-read what's been written.

iLoveSkiing wrote:If people think anyone was saying a bicycle helmet is a 100% like for like substitute for a ski helmet or that every skiier should save money by wearing a bicycle helmet instead of a ski helmet then they need to re-read what's been written.

No, you need to re-read what's been written. We wear helmets to reduce the risk of serious injury, injuries including brain damage or death. A cycle helmet will not protect you in these circumstances and that's why they are not approved for use.

ise wrote:
We wear helmets to reduce the risk of serious head injuries, in fact they're actually pretty rare but the consequences are potentially serious. A cycle helmet will not protect you in the impacts likely to cause those type of injuries.

It's an extraordinarily bad idea to wear a cycle helmet for skiing and hugely bad advice to give anyone. Anyone following your advice would be extremely foolish.

Yes, I'm reading it with some horror. Now, read what I'm writing, a cycle helmet will not protect you at all from serious head injury for the impacts likely to occur to a skier.

Well you are know updating your view by saying it applies to serious injuries. I never said a bicycle helmet will protect a skiier against higher speed collisions.

What I said before to you was correct until you added the bit about serious injury. If the OP was talking about high speed collisions I wouldn't have wrote what I did.

High speed collisions are a different matter entirely. If you manage to find any reports on the internet about the effectiveness of ski helmet in high speed head on collisions with fixed hard solid objects like trees you may find ski helmets may not be that much use.

I can see ILoveSkiings point, a trip forward and skid head first into a rock can be helped with a bike helmet. Also other things like newbs spread eagle on the floor fallen tryin to get on a t-bar getting bonked on the head every 5 seconds (ive see it happen, she was laughing so much she nearly wet herself), careless skiers carrying skis incorrectly spinning round and catching other on the head. Theres many more obscure things that could happen.

Hes basically saying wearing one (skiing or not) is safer than not. And only if it lured someone into a false sense of security could it make things worse (debatable).

iLoveSkiing wrote:

ise wrote:
We wear helmets to reduce the risk of serious head injuries, in fact they're actually pretty rare but the consequences are potentially serious. A cycle helmet will not protect you in the impacts likely to cause those type of injuries.

It's an extraordinarily bad idea to wear a cycle helmet for skiing and hugely bad advice to give anyone. Anyone following your advice would be extremely foolish.

Yes, I'm reading it with some horror. Now, read what I'm writing, a cycle helmet will not protect you at all from serious head injury for the impacts likely to occur to a skier.

Well you are know updating your view by saying it applies to serious injuries. I never said a bicycle helmet will protect a skiier against higher speed collisions.

What I said before to you was correct until you added the bit about serious injury. If the OP was talking about high speed collisions I wouldn't have wrote what I did.

High speed collisions are a different matter entirely. If you manage to find any reports on the internet about the effectiveness of ski helmet in high speed head on collisions with fixed hard solid objects like trees you may find ski helmets may not be that much use.

Bizarre. So, you're now saying that you're prepared to wear a helmet to prevent trivial injury in the full knowledge it won't protect you from serious injury?

I've not updated my view in any way at all, it just turns out that you don't understand why people wear helmets and the purpose of campaigns being run in Switzerland for example or the new laws in Italy. But, yet again, I'm telling you the purpose is to prevent serious injury, no one is interested in trivial cuts, grazes and bruises.

82ross wrote:I can see ILoveSkiings point, a trip forward and skid head first into a rock can be helped with a bike helmet. Also other things like newbs spread eagle on the floor fallen tryin to get on a t-bar getting bonked on the head every 5 seconds (ive see it happen, she was laughing so much she nearly wet herself), careless skiers carrying skis incorrectly spinning round and catching other on the head. Theres many more obscure things that could happen.

Hes basically saying wearing one (skiing or not) is safer than not. And only if it lured someone into a false sense of security could it make things worse (debatable).

That's why I think he should go back and remove all these posts, if you think there's an ounce of sense of them then that's extremely dangerous. This is actually life or death stuff after all.

You make two points that really go to the heart of this. First, "a trip forward and skid head first into a rock can be helped with a bike helmet", well, that's not true, a cycle helmet is designed to compress and come apart in an impact, it's designed for impact with a flat surface, i.e. the road. The principle is that the helmet absorbs and spreads the impact and force. What happens when impact occurs to tight radius or angular surfaces, i.e. you hit a rock, is that part of the impact is absorbed, the helmet splits and the surface penetrates. That means that in that circumstance a cycle helmet provides no protection at all.

Second, "And only if it lured someone into a false sense of security could it make things worse (debatable)." Actually, that's not debatable at all, it's an established medical fact that people do engage in more risk intensive behaviour if they've access to safety equipment like helmets. I realise a great number of people refuse to accept that but they need to argue that point with bodies like the BMA if they've got a good counter argument and some research.

Accidents on bikes are different, you're expecting something like going over the handlebars, there'll be a single impact and the helmet needs to absorb it. Skiing it's entirely different from that, you're expecting to hit irregular objects like rocks or your own equipment, or take a sliding type fall taking multiple impacts.

The point, as simple as anyone could possibly make it, is that we would choose to wear a helmet to prevent serious injuries. Who would choose to wear one that offers no protection from a serious injury but prevents a couple of bruises?