I remember Irv Weisman from my days with the New York Cycle Club. When I knew him (early 90s) he was not known for his helmet, but more for his obsession with gearing that would not destroy his knees. As a relatively young speedster at that time, I looked at his charts with amusement. What with today's compacts, subcompacts, micro mini nano compacts, etc. he was obviously a man ahead of his time!
No doubt people on bikes fall down and hurt themselves. Even on an innocent low speed jaunt to the supermarket or a ride around the block. And no matter how good a rider you are, you can't eliminate the unforeseen such as an oil spill or a squirrely squirrel. Having a helmet on your head during one of these incidents might be helpful. I've experienced a couple of high speed crashes while racing. One was particularly bad, in that I cannot remember the entire day--I recall my friend picking me up, then I was suddenly pulling back up to my block that night. Apparently I was involved in a crash on a slight downhill sprint to the finish at 40 plus mph, and got my head rattled pretty good. Again, though, I never stated that cars were the reason helmets were invented. I simply said it is riding in traffic, not running into a squirrel, that hinders more people from getting on a bicycle. Advocacy groups have done surveys that support this conclusion. Anyway, as has been stated, mandatory helmet use equals less riders equals less driver awareness/concern. There are a number of places in the world where people generally forego helmets, and the bike accident/injury rate is lower than in the U.S. Though nobody would deny that people in those places sometimes fall off their bikes, and sometimes get injured or killed, and perhaps some of those injuries or deaths could have been prevented by a helmet. As I said earlier, humans apply logic, use denial, are sometimes rational, sometimes not. I see the bicycle as, in Ivan Illich's words, a "convivial tool." It is a beautiful, near perfect machine. One reason I find myself feeling more and more out of sorts when I go out for the (now rare) fully kitted "recreational" ride, is that it loses some of that conviviality for me with all that "cycling specific" gear. My number one tool for safety is visibility items--I commute with lights and a pretty nerdy looking safety vest, day or night. That's so car drivers might catch me out of the corner of their eye while they are looking up fantasy football results on their "smart phone." Unlike vocal helmet proponents, who can get mighty upset, dismissive, and occasionally downright rude about it, I don't know of many people who don't wear helmets, or sometimes choose to wear helmets (Grant is on record as being helmetless during daylight hours and donning one after dark) who get that hostile toward people who choose to wear helmets religiously. I certainly respect riders equally, regardless of whether they wear a helmet or not. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
