On 8/3/2015 9:47 AM, Andrew Chaplin wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote in news:mpldnc$kp7$1@dont-
email.me:

FWIW, I find eyeglass-mounted mirrors to be much superior to helmet
mounted ones. Positional stability is better, ease of attachment is
greater, and of course it works with any (or no) hat. And as a little
detail, I can even use it flat-water kayaking, to make sure my wife
doesn't get too far behind in her boat.

I haven't yet found a satisfactory mirror, period. I face optical
challenges similar to those John B. mentions.

And isn't it interesting that helmets are still number one the minds of
Americans in the "bike safety" category? Have you ever been
complimented for obeying the rules of the road?

Yes.

For bicycling only when sober?

No, but it hasn't come up.

For properly choosing your lane position? Probably not.

Actually, yes.

But surely you'll agree that helmets are the number one thing commented
on. It's slacking off just a bit in recent years, but "Always wear a
helmet" is still very commonly the first item in lists of bike safety
advice. Sometimes it's the only item.


But a funny hat intended to prevent the 0.6% of the brain injury
fatalities in America that occur while cycling? Oh, gosh, that's very
important.

Over the past 10 years I have been struck twice by vehicles, come unstuck
three times, and been thrown when a gap between two gratings grabbed my
front wheel.

Wow. Over the past 40+ years, I've had only two on-road falls, both at
very slow speed. I've never been hit by a car.

On the one occasion that necessitated a visit to an emergency
room, I was asked if I had been wearing a helmet--I had; they collect that
data for epidemiology and offer no judgement. On the two occasions when my
head did impact the ground, my helmet prevented injury.

I feel ill-equipped when I am astride a bicycle and helmetless. YMMV.

It does vary, and it's interesting. The sentiment you describe is
common in America (and I suppose, in Australia and parts of Canada).
Those are the places where the helmet marketing and propaganda have been
heaviest. Those are also the places where riding a bike is considered a
fringe activity, which allows portraying it as very hazardous.

OTOH, in most of Europe, helmets are mostly confined to the "go fast"
riders, and only since the UCI was persuaded (or incentivized?) to
mandate them for races. On all other continents, they're vanishingly
rare, and almost nobody feels "ill equipped" without one.

Marketing works, I guess.

No
one has yet complimented me for wearing a helmet, only for wearing a
blinking light on it so I am more visible. But then, I am nearly 59 and
not looking for compliments.

Oh, you're just a little kid! ;-)

Actually, one of the incidents that triggered my re-examining of helmet
culture was a compliment, sort of. I'd ridden my bike to the bank, just
as I do to most other "utility" destinations. Having finished my
business there, I was putting the funny hat back on, when a woman
exiting the bank looked at me with scorn and said "Well, at _least_
you're wearing a helmet."

The intended message was that riding a bike was crazy and dangerous.
That was one of the incidents that got me wondering where this "Danger!
Danger!" nonsense comes from. That triggered years of examination of
data. I learned a lot.

Full disclosu I spent over 25 years in the
army and got paid to wear a steel helmet, so I find this styrofoam
headgear they flog to us cyclists is not much of an imposition.

I tend to judge based on data. I wonder why it's promoted for an
activity with such small risk, and ignored for other common activities
with higher risks and/or higher potential societal benefit.


--
- Frank Krygowski