P
Paul - xxx
Guest
Been whiling away a few hours this week and last, with a neck injury,
slipped disc, not caused by cycling, just an old injury that's 'come back'
after sleeping in a strange position .. but it got me thinking.
I've fallen off many times while motorcycling and bicycling, I've fallen off
on roads, tracks, in woods, down mountains, on three continents and in many
different countries, and I just thought I've never really analysed what
happened and why bits of me got hurt and why other bits didn't.. Generally I
wear approved 'safety' equipment, helmets, gloves, correct attire etc etc
when in competitive sports, but when I fall off when I'm not wearing all the
gubbins, I don't actually seem to get hurt quite as badly. Sure road rash
is road rash, but injuries ? Very few really.
Maybe this is a symptom of 'risk compensation', that I don't try as hard
when I don't wear a helmet. If I put a helmet on, does my mind think "Hey,
I can't be hurt" and thus I do actually ride and try much harder ?
I dunno.
One of my first posts to this group was an anecdote about falling off on a
canal towpath and my helmet getting 'dented' and chunks of gravel being
found buried about a half inch deep into the polystyrene and another part of
the helmet shell being broke .. I reasoned that without my helmet I'd have
had worse head injuries.
Should I have reasoned that without my helmet I wouldn't have come off in
the first place ? Or without a helmet, having come off, would my brain
cause my body to convulse or twist, say, so that the brain protected itself
?
Again, I dunno, and I doubt anyone knows with certainty.
Following this reasoning (rambling maybe) I can honestly say that I now
can't see why wearing a cycle helmet is 'a good thing' other than for, say,
unexpected hedgerow collisions whilst riding off-road. My experience has
shown me that when I wear a helmet I _do_ crash more. Whether that's the
helmet helping me overcome fear, or just the 'red mist' of competition I
can't say. When I've had a bad crash, with significant road rash and mucho
pain it _has_ always been when I've been wearing a helmet ... I have _never_
had a bad crash whilst not wearing a helmet.
But .. what about traffic and road conditions I hear you say ... Well,
simply, I dunno. I don't think a polystyrene shell will do much if
something knocks me off onto the road, especially if I haven't already seen
the collision coming, and I land on my head. This has only happened to me
twice (I'm 44) once wearing and once not wearing a helmet. The once I was
wearing a helmet it suffered damage, though my head didn't. When I wasn't
wearing it, I had a small graze over my cheek and ear .. damned painful and
uncomfortable but in no way significant or life-threatening. Both times
I've not been injured significantly ... and I wonder if when I wasn't
wearing a helmet, then did natural reflexes have come into play and attempt
to protect the head/brain by making me twist etc out of the way ?
I wish I had a conclusion to this, but at present it's what I'm thinking
about, whilst the painkillers do their thing ..
--
Paul ...
(8(|) Homer Rules !!!
"A ****** is a ******, no matter what mode of transport they're using."
slipped disc, not caused by cycling, just an old injury that's 'come back'
after sleeping in a strange position .. but it got me thinking.
I've fallen off many times while motorcycling and bicycling, I've fallen off
on roads, tracks, in woods, down mountains, on three continents and in many
different countries, and I just thought I've never really analysed what
happened and why bits of me got hurt and why other bits didn't.. Generally I
wear approved 'safety' equipment, helmets, gloves, correct attire etc etc
when in competitive sports, but when I fall off when I'm not wearing all the
gubbins, I don't actually seem to get hurt quite as badly. Sure road rash
is road rash, but injuries ? Very few really.
Maybe this is a symptom of 'risk compensation', that I don't try as hard
when I don't wear a helmet. If I put a helmet on, does my mind think "Hey,
I can't be hurt" and thus I do actually ride and try much harder ?
I dunno.
One of my first posts to this group was an anecdote about falling off on a
canal towpath and my helmet getting 'dented' and chunks of gravel being
found buried about a half inch deep into the polystyrene and another part of
the helmet shell being broke .. I reasoned that without my helmet I'd have
had worse head injuries.
Should I have reasoned that without my helmet I wouldn't have come off in
the first place ? Or without a helmet, having come off, would my brain
cause my body to convulse or twist, say, so that the brain protected itself
?
Again, I dunno, and I doubt anyone knows with certainty.
Following this reasoning (rambling maybe) I can honestly say that I now
can't see why wearing a cycle helmet is 'a good thing' other than for, say,
unexpected hedgerow collisions whilst riding off-road. My experience has
shown me that when I wear a helmet I _do_ crash more. Whether that's the
helmet helping me overcome fear, or just the 'red mist' of competition I
can't say. When I've had a bad crash, with significant road rash and mucho
pain it _has_ always been when I've been wearing a helmet ... I have _never_
had a bad crash whilst not wearing a helmet.
But .. what about traffic and road conditions I hear you say ... Well,
simply, I dunno. I don't think a polystyrene shell will do much if
something knocks me off onto the road, especially if I haven't already seen
the collision coming, and I land on my head. This has only happened to me
twice (I'm 44) once wearing and once not wearing a helmet. The once I was
wearing a helmet it suffered damage, though my head didn't. When I wasn't
wearing it, I had a small graze over my cheek and ear .. damned painful and
uncomfortable but in no way significant or life-threatening. Both times
I've not been injured significantly ... and I wonder if when I wasn't
wearing a helmet, then did natural reflexes have come into play and attempt
to protect the head/brain by making me twist etc out of the way ?
I wish I had a conclusion to this, but at present it's what I'm thinking
about, whilst the painkillers do their thing ..
--
Paul ...
(8(|) Homer Rules !!!
"A ****** is a ******, no matter what mode of transport they're using."