Helmet story

"Tom Beattie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi group,

.

Quoted message said:

Keep it tire side down, TomB

Good to hear you're OK. Now you'll have to hear how you
caused the accident by wearing a hellment, because people
who don't wear them never crash...

cheg said:

"Tom Beattie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi group,

.

Quoted message said:

Keep it tire side down, TomB

Good to hear you're OK. Now you'll have to hear how you
caused the accident by wearing a hellment, because people
who don't wear them never crash...

The guy in the truck must not have seen mine...

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of
the $695 ti frame

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Tom Beattie
Hi group, I have to share my helmet story and offer it
up to be skewered. I wiped out on May 29th, going about
25 mph, slight downhill. Landed on my right side,
cheekbone and helmet. Lotsa road rash on knees and arm.
Divot outta my cheek.

Road rash through the plastic cover on the helmet. Broke
same helmet into 3 pcs.

Started riding again Wednesday, 2 1/2 weeks after impact.
Fancy new Giro helmet.

Not getting any urges to duplicate the impact without the
helmet, just to see if there's a measurable difference.

Keep it tire side down, TomB

Glad to hear you didn't suffer any serious injuries.

*settles back to watch the latest installment of this particular Holy War.*

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 20:05:45 -0400, Tom Beattie <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Road rash through the plastic cover on the helmet. Broke
same helmet into 3 pcs.

It failed? Shame. That's the problem with helmets, they keep
breaking and people think that's Saved Their Life [tm]. When
my knitted acrylic balaclava Saved My Life [tm] it emerged
completely unscathed and is still wearable. Nobody advised
me to throw it away because it had been in a crash.

Helmets are supposed to squash, not crack. Polystyrene foam
absorbs very little energy in brittle failure. But the
helmet manufacturers don't seem to make that point very
clearly on their websites - I wonder why?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Tom Beattie wrote in part:

<< ...I wiped out on May 29th, going about 25 mph, slight
downhill. Landed on my right side, cheekbone and helmet.
Lotsa road rash on knees and arm. Divot outta my cheek... >>

Tom, gotta ask out of pure curiosity: what caused the
wreck? I would guess that you were turning sharply on sand
or wet concrete, but you don't mention turning. Was it one
of those riding no hands then reaching back and missing the
hadlebars deals?

Robert

you know? said:

It failed? Shame. That's the problem with helmets,
they keep breaking and people think that's Saved Their
Life [tm].

I don't think the OP claimed any saving of life. I believe
he was talking about road rash avoidance.
--
Rick Onanian

Tom Beattie <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi group, I have to share my helmet story and offer it up
to be skewered.
-----------------

well... I'M not going to skewer you....

I've crashed *badly* maybe 2 time on the road (not counting
MTB crashes) in the last 20 years, and once I wished I had
been wearing a helmet in retrospect, and once I was. First
time was in the 80's before helmets were cool, head-on with
a truck at 30+mph in an intersection. caved in the front of
a truck, but cost me several daze of confusion, concussion,
and other assorted damage. Second time was hitting a 2x4 at
25+mph and landing basically on my head first, then
collecting lots of road rash.... no concussion, but a
fractured helmet.

short story is.... a helmet is pretty cheap compared to a
concussion, and it keeps the sun off your head.

d

(R15757) said:

Tom Beattie wrote in part:

<< ...I wiped out on May 29th, going about 25 mph,
slight downhill. Landed on my right side, cheekbone and
helmet. Lotsa road rash on knees and arm. Divot outta my
cheek... >>

Tom, gotta ask out of pure curiosity: what caused the
wreck? I would guess that you were turning sharply on sand
or wet concrete, but you don't mention turning. Was it one
of those riding no hands then reaching back and missing the
hadlebars deals?

Robert

Almost. I mis-judged a speed bump, on a familiar ride that I
make during day and night rides. Normally i can take this
one at speed, Not this time though. I lost my hand grip on
impact and flew out front.

For Zis Guy, I'm glad your situation worked out for you.
Hell, I am happy for anyone who goes down and is able to
tell about it, helmet, balaclava, shaved head, etc..
Wouldn't have wanted my event any other way. Cause I hit the
pavement hard!!!

Observation, the road rash was limited to areas not covered
with my polypro Jersey and bike pants. These are bothe
relatively un-scathed and useable again. Hmmm.

IMO needing to buy a new helmet is a tiny price to pay,
given my reluctance to go without. Hell, it WAS my fault the
helmet broke, hitting head first and all.

Best to all bikers, regardless of choice. TomB

On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 17:49:00 -0400, Rick Onanian <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Quoted message said:

It failed? Shame. That's the problem with helmets,
they keep breaking and people think that's Saved Their
Life [tm].

Quoted message said:

I don't think the OP claimed any saving of life. I believe
he was talking about road rash avoidance.

Road rash avoidance is good; I find any decent hat does
that, with the additional benefit of not amplifying
rotational forces in a crash...

But then, I have spent the last couple of months fighting a
law which would have made it a crime to allow a child to
ride a tricycle in the park without a helmet.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after
posting. chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at
Washington University

I have a helmet story that is more comical than serious
since the only real damage was the helmet.

I was riding on a sidewalk in Springfield, MO a few years
ago.(I was on the sidewalk because it was rush-hour traffic
and I was not wanting to slow up traffic). On the street
where I was riding there are numerous storm water drop-
inlets which have concrete structures that go about half-
way across the sidewalk. Unfortunatly, these drop-inlets
have moved in weird ways as compared to the sidewalk. I was
concentrating on a 3" rise in an inlet about 50 feet away
from me, and my front wheel dropped dropped down into a
deep crack that narrowed as I went foward. The result was
that the front wheel stopped abruptly and I did a 180
around the front axel to drive my helmet laden head into
the concrete pavement.

The bike damage was minimal, but the helmet was totaled.
Unfortunatly, even though I lay stunned on the ground for a
minute or so, not one person that drove by bothered to stop
to see if I was seriously injured or not.

I guess since I am a biker I would be more concerned than
the average car only guy.

Allen

Goat Roper said:

I have a helmet story that is more comical than serious
since the only real damage was the helmet....

That wasn't a helmet story, so much as a sidewalk
cycling story.

If you're going to cycle on a pedestrian facility, you
should be moving as slow as a pedestrian. And, possibly,
wearing full body armor.

Sidewalks are very dangerous for bikes.

--
--------------------+ Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove
rodent and vegetable dot com, replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Tom Beattie said:

For Zis Guy, I'm glad your situation worked out for you.
Hell, I am happy for anyone who goes down and is able to
tell about it, helmet, balaclava, shaved head, etc..

Even this is a bit overblown.

When did we develop the attitude that simply falling off a
bike is a near-death experience?

People - mostly kids - fall off bikes every day, probably
thousands and thousands of times. It usually results in a
slight abrasion, if that. There's little point in worrying
about not being able to tell about it!

Please, folks. Cycling is NOT very dangerous. It does us no
good to pretend it is.

--
--------------------+ Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove
rodent and vegetable dot com, replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Frank Krygowski said:

Tom Beattie said:

For Zis Guy, I'm glad your situation worked out for you.
Hell, I am happy for anyone who goes down and is able to
tell about it, helmet, balaclava, shaved head, etc..

Even this is a bit overblown.

When did we develop the attitude that simply falling off a
bike is a near-death experience?

People - mostly kids - fall off bikes every day, probably
thousands and thousands of times. It usually results in a
slight abrasion, if that. There's little point in worrying
about not being able to tell about it!

Please, folks. Cycling is NOT very dangerous. It does us no
good to pretend it is.

Not trying to overblow anything, nor imply that cycling is
dangerous. I respect the various POV's, and agree with your
statements.

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 06:42:55 -0400, Tom Beattie <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

For Zis Guy, I'm glad your situation worked out for you.
Hell, I am happy for anyone who goes down and is able to
tell about it, helmet, balaclava, shaved head, etc..
Wouldn't have wanted my event any other way. Cause I hit
the pavement hard!!!

So did I. I was out for 15 minutes. But I was released the
next day with nothing worse than a headache. I have gone
over the bars once, too, and didn't even suffer
unconsciousness. I think I might have had one of those old
bunch of bananas racing hats on at the time, but they would
fail every helmet test ever invented. The fact is, the human
skull is pretty tough. People used to come a cropper on high-
wheelers and live to tell the tale, and back then the roads
were often cobbled (very unfriendly to heads!).

Frankly, I dispute the idea that cycling is extraordinarily
dangerous. I analysed hospital admissions data for children
in England, and found that the proportion of head injuries
in cyclists was not significantly different from that of
pedestrians (49% against 46% with 15% helmet wearing rates).
Head injury rates also went down at a time when helmet use
also went down. I think that in terms of serious injuries
helmets are largely irrelevant, but that they can prevent
many superficial injuries. Whether you wear one or not is
largely a matter of your tolerance for superficial injury.
In my view.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after
posting. chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at
Washington University

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 12:52:42 -0400, Frank Krygowski <[email hidden]>

from Youngstown State University said:

Please, folks. Cycling is NOT very dangerous. It does us no
good to pretend it is.

Amen.

--
Kevan Smith
[email hidden]

Just zis Guy said:

helmet use also went down. I think that in terms of
serious injuries helmets are largely irrelevant, but that
they can prevent many superficial injuries. Whether you
wear one or not is largely a matter of your tolerance for
superficial injury. In my view.

I'll agree with this.

Feel free to wear knee, elbow and shoulder pads when you
ride your bike if you wish. If you take a tumble, they
probably will lessen the pain of the event for you.

Sure, head injury can cause serious consequences, where
knee, elbow or shoulder injuries likely don't. But there
is *some* existing likelihood of dying from these
injuries as well.

In reality, the odds of a life threatening injury while
not wearing a helmet, or wearing one, while biking to be
quite small.

Really no validity to the "I wouldn't be alive today without
my helmet" nor the "I'd never get on a bike without my
helmet" attitudes in *most* cases.

SMH

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:52:15 -0400, Stephen Harding <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Just zis Guy said:

helmet use also went down. I think that in terms of
serious injuries helmets are largely irrelevant, but that
they can prevent many superficial injuries. Whether you
wear one or not is largely a matter of your tolerance for
superficial injury. In my view.

I'll agree with this.

Feel free to wear knee, elbow and shoulder pads when you
ride your bike if you wish. If you take a tumble, they
probably will lessen the pain of the event for you.

Hell, I wish I'd been wearing a flak jacket on Wednesday!
I took a fall and managed somehow to land on the bar ends
of my straight bar hybrid - directly on the right upper
ribs, below the pec. It's one of those falls where you
have no idea how you could have landed that way or got
injuries on the right side from laying it down (in the
rain) to the -left-.

Holy [censored], that was, uh, shall we say 'stunning'. Got
the whole bodyweight behind the blow, too. ;-)
Fortunately the bike was unscathed (had to have the front
wheel re-trued), and running well enough (with a squeak)
to ride the mile home.

Just starting to be able to turn over in bed without
excessive groaning and spasming of the upper abs (?) last
night. Luckily, not split liver or internal bleeding, at
least I don't think so.

-Badger

Quoted message said:

Sure, head injury can cause serious consequences, where
knee, elbow or shoulder injuries likely don't. But there
is *some* existing likelihood of dying from these
injuries as well.

In reality, the odds of a life threatening injury while
not wearing a helmet, or wearing one, while biking to be
quite small.

Really no validity to the "I wouldn't be alive today
without my helmet" nor the "I'd never get on a bike without
my helmet" attitudes in *most* cases.

SMH

Frank Krygowski said:

Tom Beattie said:

For Zis Guy, I'm glad your situation worked out for you.
Hell, I am happy for anyone who goes down and is able to
tell about it, helmet, balaclava, shaved head, etc..

Even this is a bit overblown.

When did we develop the attitude that simply falling off a
bike is a near-death experience?

Lots of folks want their cycling to constitute a dangerous,
and therefore courageous, act. It's like all the folks who
use 4WD truckmobiles to do their daily commute to work
because it makes them *feel* sporty and outdoorsy.

I have chucked my motorbike off the road at 40, 60, and
80mph respectively. I did not hit my head hard enough to
suffer head injury, but in at least two of those cases my
helmet saved me some facial scabs. I'm glad of this, but I
am also quite certain that my jeans, chaps, and leather
jacket saved me a lot more injury that my helmet did. And
these were crashes far more serious than anything a cyclist
is likely to experience in his or her life!

Yet I have never once seen a bike safety zealot suggest
that one should wear sturdy pants and a leather jacket
when cycling.

Any one of those crashes, in which I did not hit my head
significantly, would have been more than violent enough to
tear a typical foam bike beanie to bits. When such damage
happens, it's not a measure of the harm from which your head
has been saved; it is in fact a measure of the laughable
flimsiness of bicycle-specific helmets.

If bicycle helmets were actually designed to prevent serious
head injuries, rather than just to separate fools and their
dollars, they'd be made more or less like motorcycle
helmets, perhaps with some extra air vents. Hard shells,
skull base coverage, and chinbars are all there for a
reason. But to wear a truly protective helmet for cycling
would be as ridiculous as to do so when changing a light
bulb or taking a shower-- activities that produce more head
injuries than cycling, yet are not considered dangerous
enough to warrant protective wear.

For the Walter Mittys among us, it's better to wear a
symbolic helmet, one that can self-destruct flamboyantly
when whacked, affirming both its wearer's derring-do and his
safety-conscious good judgment.

Chalo Colina