Here is some state by state info on when bike helmet legislation came
into effect.From this it would seem that helmets were not a
requirement in the early 80s.
http://www.smf.org/laws.html
    Rose   @}>->--
    Being educated means that rather than fearing the unknown, one seeks to understand it. RB

    Please remove "Ima" to reply.

I lived in California then having just moved there and was surprised to see
kids and parents too wearing them. I had moved from Cincinnati to So Ca and
only diehard bike riders were wearing them in competition  in Cincy. Not a
big thing but starting to be.

patient friends,

deadline is tuesday!!!! ack!
does anyone know if kids regularly wore bicycle helmets as early as
1981?

thank you!

diane
www.dianechamberlain.com

No way, not in central new york. In fact, I don't remember bicycle
helmets as late as 1989. I don't recall seeing ANY kids wearing them,
nor did I wear them. However, in 1991 in Virginia I started wearing one
as the roads were much more dangerous there (no shoulders) and I wanted
the whole cyclist look, as that's what I was training for.

HTH,

Ari

Probably not. I have friends who have a 17-year old son, so he would
have been born in the late 80's. When he was first riding a bike with
training wheels, probably around 1993 or so, he was the only kid in his
suburban Salt Lake City neighborhood who wore a helmet. At one point,
another kid in the neighborhood suffered a head injury while riding a
bike, and, suddenly, all the other kids had helmets.

Not in New York. I lived on Long Island during the early 80's and they
weren't required back then.

Carole

Nope
I didn't start seeing them regularly here until the
last 10 years and mass is pretty advanced on that kind
of thing
Duckie

Found this and the stats from this are 1999:
http://web.ask.com/redir?u=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cdc.gov%2fncipc%2ffact_book%2f11_Bic
ycle_Related_Injuries.htm
or
http://tinyurl.com/867wj

 Each year in the United States, more than 500,000
people are nonfatally  injured while riding bicycles.
        In  1999, 750 bicyclists died in crashes. More than
one-quarter were  children ages 5 to 15.

        More  than 95% of bicyclists killed were not wearing
helmets.

        An  estimated 140,000 children are treated each year
in emergency  departments for head injuries sustained
while bicycling.

not regularly!  Very few wore helmets then.  My dad wore one early one, but
it was a very different looking thing, more helmet-ty looking than today's
bike helmets.  Don't recall seeing anyone else wearing one for some time
after he started though.  (He wasn't a fashion leader - he was an
absent-minded professor/scientist who was more focussed on keeping his brain
functioning!  LOL)