I did a club ride yesterday up here. It went out of the Pedaling Coffee cafe at Lake Leelenau. About 50 riders of all levels and kinds. It was a great, fun ride with chatting afterward.
It was a hot, humid, sunny evening. I wore my helmet since it looked like every one else was. I did notice that it looked like one guy wasn’t.
I’ve been riding occasionally up north here and it’s been hot often. I haven’t worn a helmet and have had nice results.
Man, wearing one last night for the first time was PURE MISERY. It even made me feel a bit light-headed and tingly, like it was baking my brain a bit. Who needs the extra heat on an already hot ride? It’s a modern helmet but I suppose the newer ones are even better. It was a $150 in its day, a nice quiet orange Limar. It has good ventilation. Even so, it wasn’t nearly enough for tolerability. It was the only downside to the ride.
Biking is safe.
If people want to improve safety stats on a grand social scale they should wear helmets in their cars and while walking or jogging. Certainly while doing things in the house or while working at a carpenter-type job-site. Perhaps millions of head-injuries occur yearly in such situations. Likely not very many experienced, nimble cyclists have problems while biking.
I’ve told our kids that if they can show me they can do a rear-wheel skid-out and ride a wheely and ride from pavement into rough offroad terrain and do a running somersault then they don’t have to wear a helmet.
(We did some tumbling drills a month ago with this in mind. They kinda got the picture. Amazingly enough, Dad was able to still do a running dive roll and come up unscathed! It’s actually pretty fun stuff. I didn’t try a cartwheel, though.)
