Cycling can be so dangerous!

[RoadRider400]

There's nothing dangerous about cycling.
A person could just as easily slip and break a bone/other injury through walking running, running etc etc. Indeed, sitting on one's arse watching eastenders/or some other crap whilst stuffing one's face with a 12" pepperoni pizza (like I did last night) is far more dangerous to one's health.

Read the title again. Cycling can be so dangerous. It doesnt say cycling is so dangerous.

I think its rather cold to totally dismiss OPs well intended post off hand, especially as somebody they know has had an accident and is in a bad way. I certainly appreciate OPs reminder that we should all be careful out there this time of year. As they say; Cycling (like all methods of transportation) can be dangerous in various seasonal conditions. I myself only the other week slid turning on to a sodden wooden cycle/pedestrian at very low speed, was very close to falling heavily but managed to grab the rail and stay up.

OP, hope they make a full recovery.

 

[Drago]

A change in surface, a change in grip...

 

[RoadRider400]

... A white carrot, that be a parsnip...

 

[Vantage]

Read the title again. Cycling can be so dangerous. It doesnt say cycling is so dangerous.

Read my post again. I didn't say it wasn't dangerous. edit (oops... Yes I did ) I said it was no more dangerous than other activities.
Pointing out cycling can be dangerous on its own can make it look like it Is dangerous and is one of the reasons that some people want helmet use made mandatory.
Cycling needs to be seen as a safe activity, not the other way round.

To put this in perspective, if when walking you took your eyes off the path for a seconds or two and walked into a lamp post, would you then start a thread entitled "Walking Can Be So Dangerous!"
If not, why not?

 

[hoopdriver]

Read my post again. I didn't say it wasn't dangerous. edit (oops... Yes I did ) I said it was no more dangerous than other activities.
Pointing out cycling can be dangerous on its own can make it look like it Is dangerous and is one of the reasons that some people want helmet use made mandatory.
Cycling needs to be seen as a safe activity, not the other way round.

To put this in perspective, if when walking you took your eyes off the path for a seconds or two and walked into a lamp post, would you then start a thread entitled "Walking Can Be So Dangerous!"
If not, why not?

Because few people walk at 30mph - which is a speed not at all hard to attain downhill on a bicycle. Even pedalling at a fairly leisurely pace on the flat you’ll still be doing nearly a four minute mile and not many people walk at that pace either. At these higher speeds the consequences of a slip up are considerably more troubling than inadvertently bumping into a lamppost as you amble along a footpath at 3mph or less

 

[Drago]

Leaving aside other road users trying to slaughter us - after all, that's nothing to do with cycling per se - cycling is as safe or as dangerous as the rider wishes to make it.

Cycling 'accidents' don't just happen, they're a result of poor judgement, poor skills, or wilfully negligent riding behaviour. None of those behavioural attributes are anything to do with cycling, and everything to do with human nature.

 

[Vantage]

The severity of the accident isn't what I'm arguing against. Sure, the injuries can be worse than those sustained from walking, but a slip on a bike is no more likely than a slip on your feet.
Cycling isn't in itself a dangerous activity.

 

[hoopdriver]

Consequence is as important a factor as likelihood in assessing the dangerousness of an activity. Consider this - if I were to ask you to walk for two hundred yards along a three foot wide strip of timber lying on the ground you would do so without a seconds thought To risk or danger. If I were to raise it ten feet, you (and I) would be aware of risk, but would still walk along it. If I were to raise that to 3000 feet we would go along it on all fours, if we dared do it at all, and would see it as extremely dangerous. It is the consequences that are different. The likelihood of us falling off a three foot wide strip is still negligible.

 

[Vantage]

 

[Racing roadkill]

Something only becomes dangerous if the associated risks have been assessed, and those assessments aren’t acted upon.

 

[Dave7]

The brother of a friend of my stepdaughter had a cycling accident yesterday. He slipped on some leaves and went head first into a wall. His helmet was completely smashed and he was rushed , by air ambulance to a hospital in Stoke on Trent. Bear in mind his accident happened in North Wales. He is now in intensive care with wires coming out of his head to check his brain activity.
Be careful people at this time of the year and the next few months, as cycling can indeed be very dangerous .

That is something that I am aware of every autumn. I choose my routes. There are 2 regular summer routes I wont touch over autumn.
I do hope he is better soon.

 

[akawsar5885]

Cycling is dangerous if you don't know how to ride safely. My first accident happened when i was 17 years old. Its was an U turn where I can't control my bicycle speed and fall in the road. It take 3 months to recover but still there are some scratch in my body after 5 years maybe it will stay for ever. This scratches always remind me my mistake and not to do the same thing again.

 

[rustybolts]

but the sun sets every day, and people die every minute, and we mustn't be scared by the common lot. If we failed to hold our own, because that equal foot at all men's doors was heard knocking somewhere, every object in this world would slip from us. No! Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on ( Dickens ) and that was in the days of the penny farthing !

 

[Heltor Chasca]

This thread has convinced me to give up cycling...

...and walking...

...and showering...

I know my 8 year old self from the past would be pleased...

 

[mjr]

Zwift, Sufferfest & more Zwift. It’s dangerous enough in the height of Summer. Sounds like the lid saved his life.

Or encouraged excessive risk-taking. Or both. Or neither. Hope he recovers but I wish the OP hadn't left that bait there for the zealots to take.

Life's too short to ride nowhere while watching TV. Good tyres and riding within your abilities in winter will keep you upright.