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
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame

Tom Beattie said:

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.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

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.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

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

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]

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]

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.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

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]

Quoted message said:

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

LOL...no one *said* that cycling is dangerous. But folks here are making some
good points with pointing out that hitting fast-moving objects with one's
cranium tends to lead to unfortunate consequences...helmet or no.

James S. Prine
http://hometown.aol.com/jsprine/

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

James S. Prine said:

Quoted message said:

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

LOL...no one *said* that cycling is dangerous. But folks here are making some
good points with pointing out that hitting fast-moving objects with one's
cranium tends to lead to unfortunate consequences...helmet or no.

It's been pointed out that a knock in the head generally does
*not* lead to unfortunate consequences, helmet or no.

Thus the statement that bicycling is *not* so dangerous as to
consider foregoing the activity if a helmet is not available.

It's more an implication of helmet zealotry than actual statement.

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