# Catholic kids riding bikes

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-kids-riding-bikes/206203>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 8, 2003, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-kids-riding-bikes/206203 "2003-10-08T02:27:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-kids-riding-bikes/206203/41 "2003-10-14T16:39:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by justwannano \*  
> Its amazing how many people think they would have been horribly injures if they didn’t :  
> wear their bike helmet  
> Wear their knee pads  
> wear all that safety equipment  
> wear their seatbelts

Dude. You can argue all you want about the validity of helmet laws, but don’t tell me that helmets don’t reduce horrible injuries. I have a 3 inch scar on my head where they had to put 6 staples in me to keep my scalp closed after I went off my bike the one day I couldn’t find my helmet. I think the padding’s kinda silly, but your brain can get seriously messed up from unlucky knocks that would only bruise elsewhere. Why take the chance?

(and most of those anti-helmet sites are just B.S. The usual argument is "well, they don’t provide much help when you get clocked with a car going 30 mph. Well duh; that doesn’t mean they don’t help when you slide into a ditch going around the corner.)

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**Author:** ![Myrr21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Myrr21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrr21)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-kids-riding-bikes/206203/42 "2003-10-14T16:58:06Z")

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things worth mentioning:

1. I’m pretty much against the helmet laws, though pro-helmet (I’d like to be able to ride along the bike path–where there’s nothing to hit me–at a leisurely 5 mph without a helmet).
2. There are a million studies on both sides of the issue (not all debunked or bad science either) about whether helmets help statistically or not. Given that those are a draw, go with common sense. There’s a reason people wear helmets in almost every activity with a reasonable chance of bonking your head. Who here would rather go without a helmet while I bonk you on the head with a piece of asphalt?
3. Let the school know, but this really is the parents’ responsibility. That said, the school probably has a better chance of getting through to the parents than you do.

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