Adults on bicycles

[frank theriault]

On 11/1/06, graywolf <gray_wolf at charter.net> wrote:
> I have only rode bicycles for a short while, less than sixty years, but
> I have never fallen off and landed on my head. Most of my contemporaries
> managed to get through at least childhood without wearing a helmet too.
> I imagine those laws sure do make a lot of money for the helmet sellers,
> however.
>
> I have my own opinion about who is a stupid git in this issue, people
> who fall on their heads all the time!

I'm always amused when I hear the money issue brought up WRT helmets.
Just last night, on my way home in the dark, I passed another cyclist
who had no lights, thus breaking the law.  I wondered why one would
spend from several hundred to several thousand dollars on a bike
wouldn't spend another $15 on a headlight - at that price theyr'e
almost disposable.

The same goes for helmets.  One can be gotten for as cheap as $30US or
less.  I doubt that many helmet makers are making a whole hell of a
lot on their cheapest helmets.

All that being said, perhaps I'm a stupid git.  I've had at least
three occasions in the past few years where I fell from my bike and
struck my head.  I believe that on at least two of those occasions my
helmet saved me from a concussion, or worse.  Seems to me that being a
stupid git, I have to jealously guard the few brain cells I have left,
so a helmet's a pretty good idea for the likes of me.

Then there's always the possibility that a cyclist may be completely
in the right, and that a car might be in the wrong and hit a cyclist.
Since cars have a mass of some 20 times that of a bicycle and rider,
physics tend to be on the side of the car in collisions.  I'll take
whatever protection I can, especially if it's unobtrusive and
inexpensive.

OTOH, it is a personal decision, and I wouldn't think less of someone
who has perhaps decided that they don't want or need a helmet...

cheers,
frank

-- 
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept."  -Henri Cartier-Bresson