Philip A. Contos will not be down for breakfast (Another SGT)

[Goofyernmost]

I have put a helmet to the test. Hit a wet spot in a corner. The results were a broken clavicle, all ribs broken on one side, punctured lung, bruised heart, and a gawd awful looking bruise that ran from my shoulder to the top of my leg. Head damage - none but the helmet gave its life to save mine.

Wear Your Helmet!!!

I don't ride bikes anymore but I did a lot when a kid. No such thing as helmets back then. I had a serious, or what could have been serious, accident while racing a friend. (something I was forbidden to do by my parents) Anyway, I hit a big rock and it snapped the front wheel a full 90 degrees, immediately stopped the bike, but not the passenger. I went over the top and landed on my head. I remember hitting three times and everything went black. I woke up about 20 feet from the bike. My arms were skinned, my knees and legs were skinned, my side hurt and I had this huge lump in my abdomen. Now comes the dilemma...I couldn't tell my parents because I wasn't supposed to be racing. So I covered everything up and said nothing until I found the weird half dollar sized purple bunch in my abdomen. I finally told them and it turned out that the lump was a blood clot and could have been very dangerous.

Anyway, one would assume that I would be an advocate of helmets and I did make sure that my kids had them, but I always had trouble getting behind it fully. It took me years to figure out why. It was the design of the thing. Every time I looked at someone wearing one all I could do is laugh. The tear drop design just looked stupid to me. The theory is to cut down on wind friction I'm told. What wind friction...unless you are in a race (and I'm not even sure about then) I cannot see that it would amount to anything except make the wearer look silly.

I maintained then as now that if I had to wear one of those I would never ride a bike again...and I haven't.

My apologies to anyone that takes this as a slam at them personally. It isn't intended to be one, just one persons observation. There are a lot of things about current bike riders that puzzle me. For example, why do you not have a rear view mirror. Why would you not want to know that something is coming towards you until it actually hits. If everyone is going to be safety conscience then be safety conscience and protect your self from everything. Getting hit by a speeding car will likely render the helmet useless.

[hobie16]

Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do. I like the current designs with the air vents vs. the solid models. They keep my head cooler and do offer an aerodynamic advantage.

Drag will kick in at very low speeds. If you're riding around the block it's no big deal. If you're off for a fifty miler then every little bit of drag adds up. It's amazing what body position will do to improve drag coefficient.

Then there's the issue of weight which leads into materials which could take hours to cover.

[BRWombat]

I don't ride bikes anymore but I did a lot when a kid. No such thing as helmets back then. ....

This is further evidence of a theory I've formulated that we love our kids a lot more than our parents loved us. I first started realizing this sad fact when I took my then-small boys to Discovery Zone, which was a marvelous indoor playground with zip lines, climbing nets, slides, etc. -- and every inch of it covered with about six inches of padding.

And what did we have? Monkey bars over concrete. :D:

[hobie16]

Remember X-acto knives, wood burning kits and real fireworks that exploded? Only one has survived and you never see them advertised.

And how about cap guns? I had a burp gun that ran through a whole roll of caps in about ten seconds.

[Big Wallaby]

Bicycles are considered vehicles, and thus share the road. Use bike lanes when available, otherwise stay as far to the right (or left, depending on what country you're in) as is safe.

That's it. Next time I pick up a shift at MK on a weekend morning, I am going to get a ream of paper and cover one road on my way back there with a copy of this. You have the bicyclists who go back there, take up the whole road, so that cars are now relegated to 12 miles per hour the whole way. And those guys don't get over. I have had a couple times where I was taking curves at legal and normally safe speeds, and then a bike appeared closer to the double yellow lines than the white.

And having grown up riding 50-110 mile trips once a week, I think I have room to talk. I never made cars slow down because I was in the middle of the lane.

I recall an old Bell helmet ad that said "If you have a $10 head, wear a $10 helmet." I really liked that logic, and I've always thought that it spoke volumes about people who would wear no helmet.

Very nice. I'm stealing it.

And what did we have? Monkey bars over concrete. :D:

Then, you look at my age group and below (the ones that had Discovery Zone, etc.) versus you and compare the number of absolute wimps. Look at the number of guys my age who are not real men, but absolute wimps. Now there's a rant I could go off on for a while.

Must... hold... back...

My apologies to anyone that takes this as a slam at them personally.

If anyone read that and took it as a slam, I think they should take it personally. Let them deal with it.

[shilohmm]

We had monkey bars over concrete in my childhood (although it was when they replaced the big holes in the dirt under the swings with concrete slabs that I nearly got creamed), and there were plenty of male wimps back then. The percentage of wimpy guys goes down with age, in my experience. My brother was a total wimp until he was well into his twenties. He's still a total wimp, but since he's six two and broad shouldered, few people realize it.

OTOH, my husband started out a wimp, but isn't anymore.

Remember X-acto knives, wood burning kits and real fireworks that exploded? Only one has survived and you never see them advertised.

We've got all those pretty easily available (well, I dunno if the X-acto knives are the same brand), and it's fireworks that are advertised.

And how about cap guns? I had a burp gun that ran through a whole roll of caps in about ten seconds.

Caps I have not seen in forever.

[hobie16]

Caps I have not seen in forever.

[delsdad]

Those were SO much fun to ignite with a sharp rock dragged down the strip of caps !

[hobie16]

Those were SO much fun to ignite with a sharp rock dragged down the strip of caps !

Or with a hammer setting off the whole roll in one big bang. :kaboom:

[darph nader]

Or with a hammer setting off the whole roll in one big bang. :kaboom:

Yeah Baby,,,,,deaf for 2 days and lovin it.