I'm one of those terrible criminal cyclists that doesn't wear a helmet. Simple physics tells me that I've got plenty of time to put my hands out before I my head drops about a metre and a half onto the road in a crash. If I don't react, I'm already badly injured. I prefer to take the risk rather than have the pain of sweat running into my eyes a lot of the time.
So I've moved out of the city, where I had the occasional discussion with a policeman and no harm done.
Here in the country, they like to do a good job, so a few weeks ago I got my first ticket from a cop who forced me off the road and almost into a ditch so he could give me a lecture about road safety.
Then this afternoon, I rode through a random breath testing stop, and a cop stepped in front of me and pushed me towards the oncoming traffic, just because I didn't instantly stop for him (seriously, who is pissed and riding at 40kmh on a main road?). He had his back to it, but I could see a light truck coming the other direction. Could have been a manslaughter charge there.
Both times, for ID I've given them my Blood Donor card. Why? Well, the ad says 1/3 of you will need blood during your lifetime, but only 1/30 donate. It irks me when the case they highlight to humanise the recipient is a policeman with cancer, as I saw in the Good Weekend magazine (part of the Sydney Morning Herald). How ungrateful is he, I ask you. I've saved your life, cut me some slack!
Against that, there are about 40 cyclist deaths a year, many of whom had head injuries as well as the massive organ injuries and blood loss that killed them, and 400 head injuries needing hospitalisation. I dunno about you lot, but I think that hospitalisation is the default position for a headache these days. I got knocked out playing both soccer and rugby at school in the 70s, and there wasn't so much as the magic water bottle thrown in my direction.
So that's a high probability event, you needing a few units of blood (type O+, in my case, good for 90% of you) compared to a low probability one, that I get catastrophically injured while riding.
I'll take great pleasure asking the cops and magistrate if they think that me wearing a helmet is more important than some poor little 7 year old with leukemia getting the blood they need.
In the meantime, another cop told me that a doctor's letter will let me pass. Apart from the ones I meet at the beach, I haven't consulted one in years. So can one of you help me out?
It's the law...you (and many others) might not like it...but regardless...it's the law.
I always wear a helmet, mainly as an example to my kids.
carry no id, give the a fake name and address, cops are busy and lazy, be convincing and they'll buy your no id story and give the made up you a ticket...
or research strawman and seperate yourself from your legal fiction
I think the main IRONY here is:
(1) you claim all the cyclists injuries that cause death etc are internal organs.
Maybe because helmets became mandatory 15 or 20yrs ago?
Care to post stats of injury rates before and after the laws came in? I dunno what they are but I reckon you'd be surprised. Go on, do it.
(2) you also claim you were going to fail to stop for a cop flagging you down at an RBT and it could have killed you.
Well, he gave u a lawful requirement to stop.
Whether or not YOU think people ride p!ssed at 9am is up to u, but guess what, some do.
Now for IRONY fkn central - what are you wearing in your avatar pic.....?
The question remains, why do you think it more probable you'll hit your head while windsurfing than riding your bike where the possibility of a random incident resulting in a brain injury is arguably far greater?
Personally I choose to wear a helmet because you know what, you might put your hands out in a crash...but then again you might not and anything that results in a reduction in the chance of a brain injury, however small, is worth the minor inconvenience of a bit of sweat and bad hair.
You gotta be s...ing me Milk, you are sounding like a RR jet engine with all that grouchy grumbling.
I couldn't care less if you caved in your skull because you don't/wont wear a helmet.
However I do care about:
Bugger the impact it has on direct family members should you be in a vegetated state from a head trauma. Bugger the medicos who will try to patch you up and save your selfish life. Bugger the emergency workers who have to clean up your selfish mess after an accident. Bugger the tax payer who has to shell out for selfish people like you to be looked after for the rest of your miserable life should you be incapacitated.
Bugger the fellow citizen who hits the hospital in an emergency, who's life is then impacted due to a selfish person who didn't wear a bloody bike helmet, who is taking up precious resources.
I could just about bet you wouldn't pull that stunt on a building/mine/worksite when told to wear your safety gear, they would fire your coit in a second.
Harden up sunshine, wear your inexpensive helmet and be safe for a bloody change and stop whinging.
PS I have my nephew still alive happy and well, because his bike Helmut took the impact of his skull hitting the kerb, and not his raw head when a driver miscalculated an overtake on a corner.
Alanna thinks irony is like rain on your wedding day, but that's just dumb f#@king luck.....
PS - thinking that 'giving blood gives you the right not to wear a helmet' would be the definition of illogical.
Select to expand quote[
So I guess you are a blood donor yourself, every 3 months
Yep, and bloody proud of it. But thats got SFA to do with you being selfish and not wearing your helmet when out on a bike. Be bloody safe for a change, it wont hurt that much
I'm not being selfish, the way I look at it. I've told the various people who might be asked that I don't want to be propped up in a hospital bed, putting up with the professional solicitations of the sickness industry.
Tell the fat people that you know that they should man up and feel hungry for a few hours a day, it doesn't hurt that much. I mean 40 deaths a year on bikes, 40 000 or so from strokes, heart attacks etc
I have not read the whole thread, but just the opening post...
I too am a keen recreational cyclist, and I have had a number of cycling accidents that have seen me in hospital. Some my fault, some the fault of others, including car drivers...
About 12 months ago I had slipped into a bad habit of not wearing a helmet when I was going for a short ride (for example, returning a DVD), or a leisurely cruise along the coast bike/footpath...
One morning I went for an early ride before work, and through a set of circumstances that distracted me, clipped a pole doing about 30km an hour. I can tell you that you do NOT have time to put your hands out when you are flying over the handle-bars.
My first impact was my my hand with the pole - broke my hand in three places, essentially leaving my little finger kind of hanging... second impact was my ribs with the ground - broke two. The third impact was with my head whipping backwards into the ground - broke my near new helmet in 5 places - even broke my sunnies across my nose. Helmet was Fkd... my head however was OK.
I now always where a helmet.
Sh!t happens - through your own fault, or those of others.
PS - I also know someone who died from falling off a short 6ft ladder. Again, you do NOT have time to put your hands out when you fall from a meter or so.
No lecture here - just my own experience(s).
All the best.
I don't give blood, I don't vote...
I believe in freedom and self determination, if I don't wanna wear a helmet...
how the hell does that effect anyone else...?
I also don't give a crap about your how would your family feel sycophantic crap..
and don't crap on about taxes or hospital staff, if you talk taxes you don't knoe what you're talking about and nurses, god love em are paid to change bed pans and insert cathetas..
and nurses god love em, are paid to take care of people with head injuries...
even if they are not paid enough
Oh man, where do you even start with such a stupid post, but hey I've just got home from work and have time to kill.
I agree it's kinda silly wearing a bike helmet if you're riding on a foot/bikepath to the shops.
It's also very silly if you're not wearing one while riding on the road. Actually I think riding in traffic is silly helmet or not.
Select to expand quoteChris6791 said...
Oh man, where do you even start with such a stupid post, but hey I've just got home from work and have time to kill.Mr Milk said...
I'm one of those terrible criminal cyclists that doesn't wear a helmet. Simple physics tells me that I've got plenty of time to put my hands out before I my head drops about a metre and a half onto the road in a crash. If I don't react, I'm already badly injured. I prefer to take the risk rather than have the pain of sweat running into my eyes a lot of the time.
simple maths suggests your simple physics theory is wrong. At a readily achievable speed of 30km/hr you are travelling at 8.3 metres per second, at that speed your head drop onto the road of a metre and a half takes around 1/5th of a second. Even if you were generous and allowed a full second of time to interpret and react to the unfolding drama your brain has already been splattered all over the pavement for 4/5th's of a second... and that doesn't include the accelerating affect of gravity, the whip effect of a lower down collision, or being hit by a car and thrown into the windscreen or bonnet with your unprotected head
Average speed 30 kph in a horizontal plane. Average speed 0 kph in the vertical. The formula used at my school was s=ut + 1/2 a*t*t. u=0, s=1.5, a=9.8 solve for t .
1.5= 5t*t
t=0.54 seconds
Climbing hard 15m/min. Dropping as fast as I dare might be 70 or so m/minute at 60-70kph. If I land on my head, I break my neck, as we see in the TDF or the Giro every few years
And let's not forget about the people use the helmet to protect their handlebars.
