Ride organisers (and that includes me) make rules. Some are sensible, some are not. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who look at the FNRttC rules (nothing on helmets, mind you) and think 'this isn't for me'. That's fine. If you don't like them, don't enter. There are plenty of events around. Just pick the ones that suit you.
Having to wear a helmet to do a sportive
- Thread starter jayonabike
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Exactly the point....
The question here is as a "Society" at what level do you impose your assessment of risk on someone else.
The unequivocal fact is that as a population we could do more to alleviate head injuries by wearing pedestrian and driver helmets as well as cycle helmets. Yet we choose not to do so.... on the grounds that the "risk" is less.
What we are saying here is that someone has a right to weigh up their risks and choose not to wear a helmet when walking or driving, but that same right is invalid and the same person becomes unable to make the same decisions for themselves when it comes to cycle helmets!
Total rank hypocrisy.... which really sums it up.
Smokin Joe
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- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Because those of us who have crashed without wearing track mitts know from experience that your hands will be painfully cut up.
If you fall you instinctivly put your hands out to protect yourself, I have yet to fall and decided to use my head first as a form of protection.
I wear track mits with gel inserts for comfort on the bars rather than their obvious life saving properties.
I reckon this debate is like religionists v. atheists.
Helmet wearers (and especially compulsionists) being the equivalent of religionists, naturally, and trying to convert everyone else to their superstitions, whereas the atheists/non-helmet wearers (or mainly non-helmet wearers) don't actually care whether people wear helmets or not but do object to being lectured to by the former. Especially when the former claim greater insight/knowledge/morality etc. on the basis of their superstitions....
Now I will run away and hide for a few days
No need to run Fiona, very well put
Probably, 99% of the time, 1% of the time you have no time to react, Jens Voight crash 2009 TDF and another one which I can't find on Youtube which pretty much mimics my crash where a guy just slid suddenly on a bend, he didn't react at all and his head hit first. All of his teams negotiated the bend, more or less on the same line but for some reason his bike just went from under him. Wish I could find that now.
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
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- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Riders have been falling like that for years and escaping with a few cuts and bruises, it was nothing unusual and not particularly hard. Who's to say his head would have even made contact without a helmet on?
ferret fur
Well-Known Member
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- Roseburn
Isaac Newton
Over The Hill
Guru
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Of course they could. If you are a sikh and feel that you cannot comply then you do not enter. Same as a woman who chooses to wear a burkah will not enter Miss World.
Neither have a right to do whatever it is so therefore have to decide to not do it if it breaks there individual life choices.
Next you will be saying alton towers is discriminating against short people for not allowing them on some rides.
It is your own choice now just live with it. You will be marginalised but that is up to you.
Totally untrue.....
Sikhs are exempt from helmet laws and you would in fact be commiting an offence to exclude them on these grounds!
They do have a right to enter and it is a religious choice not a lifestyle one.
The crash nearly put him out the sport his face hit with such force. I don't think the helmet played much of a part in his crash but my point was that his head hit first, with little time to react and no chance of getting his hands out. OK he was racing but for the same thing to happen to any of us you just need an unforeseen event. I hit a giant nut off a lorry once, in the dark, doing about 20mph. Over the bars I went and sliding along on my back, bike on top of me. Another time a cat shot between my wheels, in neither instance did I have time to react. There have been plenty of other times where I've had minor accidents where I have had time to react but the time you're most likely to hit your head is when you go base over apex and on a bike your centre of gravity is much more against you when this happens and your speed makes reaction much more unlikely.
That said, I fully take your point, the chances of you actually getting a serious head injury from that are fairly small but the consequences are so much greater if you do. Cunobelin is often keen to point out how bad pedestrian head injuries can be, well as cyclists we're generally doing two, three, four times the speed, with a higher centre of gravity, hence the greater consequence if we do bash the noggin. I don't see wearing a helmet as too much of a burden for what is a small risk, given my history (I'm not accident prone honest), nor am I expecting it to save my life, just prevent a more serious injury.
Does support the British Dental Association's suggestions for redesign of helmets full face helmets as standard.
