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helmets
so who wears one and who doesnt? I dont wear one very often, and I have reasons for this. If i'm at a skate park or somethin then I wear a helmet always. I think I might have some of the worst luck ever when it comes to wearin helmets so I dont wear one when just every day ridin around town.
as for me I've been really thinkin about strappin that old nasty thing on, but like I said I have the worst luck ever when it comes to helmets. For some reason when I wear a helmet I wreck and its usually bad. the last time I wore a helmet for every day ridin I had a pretty bad face slam, I got a rock through my eye lid and folks eyelids bleed like a mofo. thank fully though my helmt came out unscathed from that wreck seeing how the helmet never touched the ground just my face. the helmet wreck before the eye thing was pretty good to, another face shot. endo to el rollo to getting my top tube slammed into my mouth. that one loosened up all my pearly whites for a good while, but I got lucky and was able to keep all my teeth.
the accident during the full moon cruise deffinately wouldnt have been nearly as bad if he had been wearing a helmet.
Helmets aside if his bike would have had brakes, or not been a fixed gear, the wreck wouldnt have happened at all. Gotta pay the price to be trendy.
three weeks ago, a friend hit a patch of gravel, fell, and broke his collar bone.
two weeks ago, a friend was hit by a car and had her foot and hand run over.
one week ago, a very close friend was hit by a car and died.
my point: cycling is dangerous.
pretty much every day there's a close call or a near miss or an "oh shit i could have just died" moment. no matter how careful you are, you cannot control anyone else on the road. a momentary lapse in judgment, by you or anybody else, could end your life. a helmet increases your likelihood of surviving a collision. so why not wear one? it should be like wearing a seatbelt in a car - you just do it.
at chris's funeral, i couldn't stop imagining that it was me. i watched his mom crying and couldn't help picturing my mom crying at my funeral. that was enough to convince me to wear my helmet every single time i ride my bike.
the accident during the full moon cruise deffinately wouldnt have been nearly as bad if he had been wearing a helmet.
Helmets aside if his bike would have had brakes, or not been a fixed gear, the wreck wouldnt have happened at all.
This is a very broad statement to make. I ride fixed gear and I wear a helmet. I was also on the ride, and I knew that hill had bad news all over it. I walked my bike down, because I knew I wouldn't make the turn without busting ass. I think that the common sense gene came out and told me to not take the hill. I agree with ben in the fact that he could have been at home and it wouldn't have happened.
Gotta pay the price to be trendy.
Just so you know fixed was the first bicycle...guess Thomas Edison was a hipster too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu2MrSxuPz8
~oneLescar
people always talk about my drinking, but never my thirst
Helmets aside if his bike would have had brakes, or not been a fixed gear, the wreck wouldnt have happened at all. Gotta pay the price to be trendy.
While I was not there when the accident happened, this seems like an awfully broad statement that just makes you sound like a real a-hole. I mean helmets, brakes, and fixed gears aside, if he had been home and sleeping in his bed, the wreck wouldn't have happened at all. Right? And I guess this would have been true of all the wrecks you had, too? What were you paying the price to be when you cut your eyelid?
I wear a helmet and use a brake but I ride a fixed gear because I enjoy it which I assume is the reason you ride whatever type of bike you choose. I am not arguing against the point you are trying to make on being safe, just the manner in which you choose to attempt to make the point. No matter how many precautions you take, though, riding a bicycle has its risks. Just like life...
... to be trendy (I'm about as un-trendy as it gets), but it seems to me that if you're going down a steep hill, brakes are a nice thing to have.
I love my brakes. They have likely saved my ass (and head, and legs, and bike, etc.) far more times than my helmet ever has. I've had one good crash -- and while I was wearing a helmet, it never touched the ground.
I love my gears too, though that's more about my knees. If my knees aren't happy, nobody's happy, and if I pick too high of a gear, my knees get unhappy VERY quickly. But that's a comfort thing, not a safety thing. My knees were tougher when I was younger ...
Seems to me that a brakeless fixie might be OK on campus where the hills are minimal (I assume you can make the back wheel skid pretty easily just by locking your legs, right?) but if you're going to on one of the moonlight rides or some other ride where you don't know where you're going, throwing a brake on the front wheel might be good idea. It might be a good idea just running around town too -- you'll probably be able to stop in 1/3rd the space that you could using only your legs.
Even with legs like oak trees and the ability to skip stop your rear wheel like a pro, your rear brake/wheel only provides about 10-20% of a bicycle's total stopping power. The rest is all on the front brake, and if you remove your front break you're throwing away 80% of your ability to stop in a timely fashion.
I was on that ride and the hill we descended (Mount Bonnell Rd.) was dark, steep, slippery (light drizzle) and scary. Add a 90 degree left at the bottom of the hill and it gets even scarier. Even with both brakes (on a fixed gear) my asshole puckered at the descent due to the combination of other conditions and the number of cyclists around me.
Brakes just make sense. Of course, I'll never be accused of being sensible, so I ride without brakes rather frequently. I just know the limitations of my vehicle and the risk I'm taking in doing so.
Doug, a sensible bicycle is ALWAYS trendy.
First off: Hi, I'm new here. But not new to riding. Never been a professional racer because I don't need some brand name in spandex plastered across my ass, but I grew up cycling & have gone over the high side & gotten road rash enough times.
I wasn't on the ride being discussed, but the comments in this thread reinforced my belief that if you're gonna ride around town--any sizable one--then you need brakes. Brakes do make sense. So far I haven't seen any cars without them; if there were, we'd have far more auto accidents than we currently do. And that's on four wheels, which at least has the advantage of built-in balance.
Incidentally, I did an "involuntary dismount" a few days ago & my helmet never touched the ground, either. But my knees & elbows sure did. While I agree that helmets should be worn, maybe elbow pads are more important? Just a thought...
al-Ma'ari
Ride to live, live to ride, ride to drink...