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From: eirik@tekchips.UUCP (Eirik Fuller)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: USCF HELMET RULE
Message-ID: <69@tekchips.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Feb-86 16:09:56 EST
Article-I.D.: tekchips.69
Posted: Mon Feb 17 16:09:56 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Feb-86 20:14:40 EST
References: <173@oasys.UUCP> <446@tekred.UUCP> <60@tekchips.UUCP> <6184@cca.UUCP>
Reply-To: eirik@tekchips.UUCP (Eirik Fuller)
Distribution: net
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 48

In article <6184@cca.UUCP> diego@cca.UUCP (Diego Gonzalez) writes:
> ...
>But I'll tell you the main reason why I finally accepted helmet use as a
>matter of course.  My wife.  She feels much more reassured of my safety
>regardless of my riding prowess.  In a sense, I feel that I am doing
>what I can to ensure a successful ride.  I suppose those who feel that
>there's nothing worth living for take a different attitude.  I consider
>them in the same class with cigarette smokers and drivers who refuse to
                             ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
>wear seat belts.  It's not that someone **wants** to tell others what to
>do.  It's that common sense does not always prevail and so costs society
>in medical research, hospitalization, and rehabilitation...

Ahem. I have no problem being compared to a seat belt nonwearer.
After all, I am one :-). However, this bit about cigarette smokers
is simply ludicrous. The RISK in cigarette smoking is not the only
issue; there is immediate damage. Also, with smoking there is the
question of who else is damaged; I don't harm others (physically,
anyway) by spraying my brains on the road. 

Am I to understand that everybody who doesn't wear a helmet feels
that there's nothing worth living for? If not, maybe you are not
comparing me to a smoker. Either way, the analogy is flawed.

By the way, my girlfriend doesn't wear a helmet either, when she
rides. This is not something one of us talked the other into; we
simply happen to agree.

>
>Local race and tour sponsors have for several years required
>participants to wear helmets for their own safety and to ensure a
>tragedy-free experience for all.  That makes sense....

I am mostly indifferent about the USCF rule itself.  If I ever get
into racing, I'll take the same attitude that I took toward head gear
and knee pads when I was a wrestler.  If I had more of a desire to
race, I would be less indifferent, since it might affect my decision.
I guess my point is that I get weary of the preaching.  My worst fear
about this is that I will be the same way when I finally give in and
wear a helmet.  After all, I think all of the following people are
unquestionably insane:  people who ride at night without lights;
people who ride double on non-tandems; people who ride facing
traffic; and, most of all, people who ride without rear view mirrors.

Don't take this last too seriously; it is a tad exaggerated.
However, I mean it about mirrors. Do any of you helmet fanatics ride
without a mirror? Somebody explain to me why anyone would ride
without a mirror; as a convert, I am blind :-).