H*lmet quandary

"Zog The Undeniable" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:40b231a0.0@entanet...

Quoted message said:

I've signed up for an all day MTB ride at the weekend, and just
remembered that the other participants are known helmet zealots (to the
extent that they have made them MANDATORY on their C2C rides).

Do I turn up bareheaded as usual (I haven't worn a helmet outside
for...er...9 years) and be prepared to argue/be ostracised, or do I go
with the flow and wear the hot choking torture device that is buried
somewhere under the stairs?

Can you 'forget' it?

(how do they enforce 'mandatory'?)

cheers,
clive

Zog The Undeniable said:

I've signed up for an all day MTB ride at the weekend, and just
remembered that the other participants are known helmet zealots (to the
extent that they have made them MANDATORY on their C2C rides).

Do I turn up bareheaded as usual (I haven't worn a helmet outside
for...er...9 years) and be prepared to argue/be ostracised, or do I go
with the flow and wear the hot choking torture device that is buried
somewhere under the stairs?

Despite my conversion to helmetless road riding I am still persuade of the
merits off-road. The sorts of accidents there are much more within the
parameters of helmet design, falling off is far more frequent and there are no
cars around, just trees, scratchy bushes and rocks.

Tony

Quoted message said:

I've signed up for an all day MTB ride at the weekend, and just
remembered that the other participants are known helmet zealots (to the
extent that they have made them MANDATORY on their C2C rides).

Do I turn up bareheaded as usual (I haven't worn a helmet outside
for...er...9 years) and be prepared to argue/be ostracised, or do I go
with the flow and wear the hot choking torture device that is buried
somewhere under the stairs?

If the weather is as glorious as todays was then no! :-)

Just be aware that if you make an issue out of it then hit your head
they'll all laugh at you.

Zog The Undeniable said:

Do I turn up bareheaded as usual (I haven't worn a helmet outside
for...er...9 years) and be prepared to argue/be ostracised, or do I go
with the flow and wear the hot choking torture device that is buried
somewhere under the stairs?

I would ride as you would normally ride. If you would normally ride
helmetless offroad, then do so. I was content to wear my plastic hat
in Goring (heat notwithstanding) because based on past experience
there was a fair chance of me and the bike ending up in different
places coming down the Ridgeway ;-)

If it had been a leisure ride I would have worn a cotton hat which
would have been substantially cooler and probably prevented the
sunburned neck. As to being "got at" by Liddites, well, I've just had
to get used to it. And remember how many poeple hereabouts have been
converted by a sane presentation of the facts and an expose of the
gross distortions used to build up a "problem" big enough to fit the
scale of the preconceived "solution."

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

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

Tony Raven said:

Despite my conversion to helmetless road riding I am still persuade of the
merits off-road. The sorts of accidents there are much more within the
parameters of helmet design, falling off is far more frequent and there are no
cars around, just trees, scratchy bushes and rocks.

I feel the same way, but then again I go into MTBing with the attitude
that if I don't fall off a few times I'm not trying. The last few
offroad segments I've done have been on the Brom or the Streetmachine
and I was just cruising along where I'd be pushing limits on the MTB.
There's off-road and there's Off-Road, I don't see much point for a hat
for the former, but always wear one for the latter.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/