How many of have been hit by a car on a bike...

Ride a normal bicycle for a couple of years. Not a mountain bike, but a proper bike with smooth fast rolling 700c or 27" tyres, that keeps you in a nice upright position so you can see traffic around you properly which will give you confidence. Something like a dutch bike or Raleigh. Ride on the road, not the pavement, about in line with whichever wheels of the car in front of you are closest to the curb. Make sure your saddle is high enough.

Bike helmet not important, but gloves, lights and a loud bell are. Learn the rules of the road and build your confidence and judgement. It's better to do this on a bike where you've only got your 200 watt of leg power to make mistakes with, than 2 horsepower. Falling off at 11 to 17 mph is a lot nicer than falling off at 25.

Fear of getting hit from behind is a fear some people have but it's not that likely with a good taillight. What's more serious is parked cars suddenly opening doors. So look out for that.
 
Ride a normal bicycle for a couple of years. Not a mountain bike, but a proper bike with smooth fast rolling 700c or 27" tyres, that keeps you in a nice upright position so you can see traffic around you properly which will give you confidence. Something like a dutch bike or Raleigh. Ride on the road, not the pavement, about in line with whichever wheels of the car in front of you are closest to the curb. Make sure your saddle is high enough.

Bike helmet not important, but gloves, lights and a loud bell are. Learn the rules of the road and build your confidence and judgement. It's better to do this on a bike where you've only got your 200 watt of leg power to make mistakes with, than 2 horsepower. Falling off at 11 to 17 mph is a lot nicer than falling off at 25.

Fear of getting hit from behind is a fear some people have but it's not that likely with a good taillight. What's more serious is parked cars suddenly opening doors. So look out for that.
my family members say I'm nuts for saying gloves are the most important piece of safety gear. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so
 
Well that's the thing, I've fell off a few times, from rookie mistakes like putting the wrong foot down when I stopped, or just being so exhausted I fell over. Once I was even clotheslined by the world's dumbest 14 year old girl (she put out both arms, stepped into traffic and started singing a song). I've always managed to land on my hands and knees. And without gloves my hands get too cold to use the brakes properly in winter.
 
Bike helmet not important..
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Even Dogbert is smart enough to wear a helmet ;-}
 
You can wear the Styrofoam hat if you want, I won't stop you. But I think it's more important to prevent headbutting the ground than it is to prepare for doing it.
 
You can wear the Styrofoam hat if you want, I won't stop you. But I think it's more important to prevent headbutting the ground than it is to prepare for doing it.
You don't wear gear because you expect to fall, you wear it to save you from what you don't expect because no matter how godlike you are at biking or saving yourself; it won't help you when you get reemed by a guy from the side who accidently hit the gas at the wrong time or is drunk and swerves into you.

You definitely want to prevent everything you can and be as defensive as possible, but you're not perfect and you're not all seeing. You're going to make a mistake, someone else will make a mistake you can't react to, or your bike might fail beneath you and WHEN it does (not if) you'll be glad you chose to wear good gear.
 
Then I should also wear an armored jacket and pants because the helmet won't save those. And I should wear a full face motorcycle helmet, because otherwise my face will fall off. And I should even wear it while I walk because the drunk guy could accidentally mount the kerb. And then when I go home I should put rubber gloves on in case the light switch is faulty.
 
Then I should also wear an armored jacket and pants because the helmet won't save those. And I should wear a full face motorcycle helmet, because otherwise my face will fall off. And I should even wear it while I walk because the drunk guy could accidentally mount the kerb. And then when I go home I should put rubber gloves on in case the light switch is faulty.
I actually WOULD recommend those if you're a hard biker and barrel down the road at 30mph or do downhill mtbing, but if your point you need to either never leave a padded room or you should do nothing to help yourself in case of an accident; well to be honest that's flawed logic at best.

Similar to the vain of "well I already break a few laws are dumb so I don't follow them, why follow any of them?"

At the end of the day it's your life and how much you value it is up to you and nobody can force you to wear a helmet, but saying that wearing a helmet is dumb is bad advice, especially when your reasoning is "Well then I might as well wear a ton of other things so what's the point in just one thing?".
 
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