age: 16
year started: 2004
helmet: 661
helmet started: 2004
I like my helmet, it is like a hat to me. People laugh at me because sometimes I forget to take it off and I just walk around wearing it.
When my hair was really long I needed to wear a helmet or else i couldnt see anything.
I only wear a helmet when riding hard Muni or trials. I don’t wear a helment when riding cross country or on the street. I am 35 and started riding a unicycle one year ago. I only bought my REMI helmet four months ago, after I experienced how dangerous single tracks are.
I have worn a helmet a for Ken Looi’s unicycle weekend and for two offroad bike events where helmets were compulsory- Moonride and Day/Night Thriller. I got away with not wearing my helmet in the last couple of long distance road bike races cos I left my cobweb filled helmet by the side of the road while hitch-hiking to Taupo, and I couldn’t be bothered replacing it. Apart from that I almost never wear helmets- I wore one to practise wheel walking when I was new at it. Maybe I’ll get another helmet when I get a Coker. I’ve fallen off plenty of times over the years and never yet needed one.
age: 44
year started: 1967 on bikes, 1979 on unicycles
helmet use: MUni, road riding (Coker) and racing, not for most other riding
helmet started: I bought my first helmet in 1989, but that was for my bike. I think I started using helmets for unicycling mostly when I got into MUni, in the mid 1990s.
I’m one of the proponents of helmet use for MUni and high-speed racing for two major reasons. First to protect all riders in the unlikely event of a massive head/brain injury, and secondly to promote a safety-conscious image for our sport. Whether the “need” for helmets is as major as we think, images of our riders wearing them shows that we unicyclists are thinking about what we’re doing. Some countries have less problem with liability/insurance than others, so the importance of wearing one can be different from country to country.