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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekcrl!tekchips!eirik
From: eirik@tekchips.UUCP (Eirik Fuller)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: USCF HELMET RULE
Message-ID: <60@tekchips.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Feb-86 18:40:45 EST
Article-I.D.: tekchips.60
Posted: Tue Feb 11 18:40:45 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Feb-86 19:46:52 EST
References: <173@oasys.UUCP> <446@tekred.UUCP>
Reply-To: eirik@tekchips.UUCP (Eirik Fuller)
Distribution: net
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 44

In article <446@tekred.UUCP> joels@tekred.UUCP (Joel Swank) writes:
> ...
>
>It never ceases to amaze me how bicycle racers are vehemently against safety
>equipment. This doesn't seem to be true in any other sport. 

I have a vague memory of controversy in college hockey a few years
ago about the new (at the time) helmet rule.  Of course, we know that
hockey is such a wimpy sport, no one could possibly want protection :-).  

>... Bicycle racers, though, insist
>on their right to bleed and die. Maybe you just have to be stupid to get
>into bicycle racing in the first place.

I'm not sure how seriously to take this. A :-) or two might have
helped me decide. Oh well, here goes.

As a 'stupid' bicyclist (not racer, though), I find it quite easy to
relate to an attitude which favors comfort over the protection
offered by a helmet. I'm not too fond of insurance companies either.

I don't think there is a correlation between this attitude and
intelligence. This attitude might be truly 'stupid' if it lacked an
awareness of the risks, but I haven't fooled myself into believing
that I will never crack my skull open. By the same token, I don't
believe that I will never break my spine getting run over either.
It's not something I expect to happen frequently.

I have had two head injuries while bicycling in recent years.
Neither of them had lingering effects beyond imperceptible scars.
I'm not convinced one way or another what effect a helmet would have
had in either case; both incidents involved facial injuries. In the
first case I was blind sided by a pedestrian in a large crowd; I
wouldn't have been any safer on foot. Do you wear your helmet
walking in large crowds? In the other case, I have no clue what
happened, and may never know; I woke up in the hospital a few hours
later. Neither incident affected my attitude about helmets.

One more comment.  I can foresee changing my mind (if I live that
long :-).  Not because my attitude is wrong, but because my attitudes
are changing all the time as I get older.  I would prefer to wear a
helmet because I want to, not because someone insists on it.  I doubt
some 'preacher' will 'convert' me; I'll make the decision on my own.
As I already have.