I crash into religion

"Sorni" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Paul Cassel wrote:

(snip)
Yes, I'm still opposed to mandatory helmet laws, but I doubt you'll
be seeing me ride without one from now on.



..

Sadly, some on here will flame you (or would like to) for that
well-reasoned
decision.



That's not reason, that's (unreasonable) fear.

Just because an event whose likelyhood is vanishingly small happend to him
and frightened him, he somehow believes that wearing a magic talisman will
protect him an the equally unlikely second ocurrence.

In article a,
"jtaylor" wrote:

Paul Cassel wrote:

(snip)
Yes, I'm still opposed to mandatory helmet laws, but I doubt you'll
be seeing me ride without one from now on.

That's not reason, that's (unreasonable) fear.

Just because an event whose likelyhood is vanishingly small happend to him
and frightened him, he somehow believes that wearing a magic talisman will
protect him an the equally unlikely second ocurrence.

vanishingly small is not zero. having "used" my helmet twice,
maybe "vanishingly small" isn't even accurate. for me. so if
i (or paul, or ANYbody) decides to lessen our chances of injury,
please don't consider it a condemnation of your choice to let
your locks fly free. you want to cycle NAKED, for god's sake,
i don't give a damn. you know, unless i have to actually SEE
you. i'm not as confident as you that, in an accident, i'll be
able to accurately judge my rotation speed and direction and
apply exactly the right counterforce to keep my head level,
my toes aesthetically pointed and my clif bars from sliding
out of my jersey.

p.s.: i don't cross against the light, drink milk past the
expiration date, play "tag" with rottweilers or argue with
my girlfriend when she says we NEED a new chair.

"H. Guy" wrote in message
...


p.s.: i don't cross against the light, drink milk past the
expiration date, play "tag" with rottweilers or argue with
my girlfriend when she says we NEED a new chair.

Do you wear a helmet when driving (or being driven in) a motorcar?

Per jtaylor:
Do you wear a helmet when driving (or being driven in) a motorcar?

No, but OTOH I don't normally fall out of my car headfirst on to ground with
baby head rocks and/or sharp corners of buried boulders sticking out of it
here-and-there.
--
PeteCresswell

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message
...

Per jtaylor:
Do you wear a helmet when driving (or being driven in) a motorcar?

No, but OTOH I don't normally fall out of my car headfirst on to ground
with
baby head rocks and/or sharp corners of buried boulders sticking out of it
here-and-there.
--


But people don't normally do that when riding a bicycle - such events are
more likely when driving (or being driven in) a motorcar. Why do you wear a
helmet in the less dangerous situation but not the more?

Per jtaylor:
But people don't normally do that when riding a bicycle

Depends on the terrain and how aggressive and/or inept the rider is.

My personal attitude adjustment came one day when I'd just hopped some railroad
tracks and was going up through a clay ravine. Front wheel washed out in the
wet clay, melon went "splat" sideways on the ground. When I came to, I noted a
pointed pyramid-shaped outcropping several inches high just a few inches from
where my temple impacted.

About a year later I forgot that I didn't have knobbies on, jumped a curb onto
an inclined bank. Front wheel washed out again, side face plant into the bank.
No rocks this time - but I was still glad to be wearing a helmet.

Hot day? Bike path? Baseball cap. No sense being obsessive about this.
But helmets definitely have their time and place.
--
PeteCresswell

jtaylor wrote:


But people don't normally do that when riding a bicycle - such events are
more likely when driving (or being driven in) a motorcar. Why do you wear a
helmet in the less dangerous situation but not the more?


I don't see wearing a hat as relying on a talisman as you write earlier.
I am not relying on anything. My reason for using a helmet from now on
is that I have learned by experience how forceful a bicycle crash can
be. Before, I figured a bicycle crash was a mild occurrence. I now don't
think that.

What I don't understand is where you think I'm disadvantaged by choosing
now to wear a hat as compared to before when I didn't? What is the
downside of helmet use? Let's say you are right in that I'd be better
off also wearing a hat when I drive my truck. I'll grant you that. Let's
say I spend 50% of my time in my truck and 50% on my bike. I wear the
hat only on the bike. Am I not better off at least somewhat by that than
never wearing the hat?

Again, what is the downside here?

Paul Cassel wrote:
wrote:
wrote:
(snip)
I lost
five weeks work and five days off the road. Got a stationary
trainer after the first week to maintain some semblance of
condition. Once I was able to get back on the road I have never
ridden without a helmet again and never will. An ounce of
prevention. Good day to all,

Jimmy

FWIW, I should have said I lost five weeks off the road and five days
off the bike. Incidentally, I found that using the stationary trainer
an hour a day left me in better condition five weeks later when I was
able to get back on the road then I had been in before the accident.
It also helped my morale a great deal as during my early recovery I
was not a happy camper.

Jimmy

Glad to hear that you are ok after all. It seems that I can ride again
right off as I did so today, but in a lot of pain when I hit a bump.
Looking backward, I have no idea why I didn't wear a helmet in the
past. Perhaps I just didn't think the likelihood of a crash high
enough to merit one. Or more likely, I dismissed the impact potential of a
bicycle crash.

You're injured, so hopefully no one will attck you for that eg.

I had two things to wonder about when I woke up there on the trail.
The first was that awful noise which you had too. Is that really the
noise we make or is it some artifact of our heads becoming an echo chamber
for our hearing sensors? It was sickening.

The second thing was my wonder at how hard I hit. I've been down
dozens of times on the dirt on a bicycle w/o a problem, but this one was
like
getting hit by a truck.

I bid too low for that one helmet, but I'll keep at it until I get
one. If I get desperate, I may just hit my LBS and BUY one like a human
does g.

Dude, are these NEW helmets you're bidding on? Sure hope so. (Otherwise,
fergawdsake go to an LBS and buy a nice new non-stanky one.)

Bill "and take my preposition...please!" S.

On Sun, 07 May 2006 13:51:00 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

I bid too low for that one helmet, but I'll keep at it until I get one.
If I get desperate, I may just hit my LBS and BUY one like a human does g.

FWIW, the cheapest helmet prices I've seen have been at two of my
LBSs. (Not counting the Wally-World trash.) I think it's because
most LBSs need to sell what they stock, and don't have the clientele
of the mail-order houses to get the volume up to an profitable level.

Pat

Email address works as is.

jtaylor wrote:
"Sorni" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Paul Cassel wrote:

(snip)
Yes, I'm still opposed to mandatory helmet laws, but I doubt you'll
be seeing me ride without one from now on.



.

Sadly, some on here will flame you (or would like to) for that
well-reasoned decision.



That's not reason, that's (unreasonable) fear.

Just because an event whose likelyhood is vanishingly small happend
to him and frightened him, he somehow believes that wearing a magic
talisman will protect him an the equally unlikely second ocurrence.

NONE OF YOUR BIDNESS.

HTH, BS