[Closed] No helmet. The urge was strong.

So why is it okay to hurl oneself at 30-40mph down a hillside on a bike with only a helmet for protection? I would imagine that the risk of injury is significantly higher for that, that riding along a Sustrans route without a helmet.

Well I am not good enough to reach world class speed when I ride bike. However I wear gloves and helmet on 100% of my rides, knee pads on 98.
When it's going to be shuttle only had in the mix body armor and ff helmet.
TJ you fail to comprehend that you just CAN NOT predict when you're going to fall. Too many variables. Just to give you an example I fell sunday in front of my house door, just because I forget to unclip. Tis is a stupid accident I concur, but an accident nevertheless. What happen if such accident happen in town, where the multitude of object can interact with the trajectory of your head.

Hilldodger, your "tartan jesus" comment was as usual form you, lame, xenophobic and pathetic. I am very much against TJ's view regarding the helmet, but I would not use insults to make my point. I think you may have to apologies (which I doubt you will prior to your attitude with anti-french comments)

When it's going to be shuttle only had in the mix body armor and ff helmet.
TJ you fail to comprehend that you just CAN NOT predict when you're going to fall. Too many variables. Just to give you an example I fell sunday in front of my house door, just because I forget to unclip. Tis is a stupid accident I concur, but an accident nevertheless. What happen if such accident happen in town, where the multitude of object can interact with the trajectory of your head.

I think we've done this. You don't always know when you're going to fall off, so you make choices based on comfort and risk. Juan, you don't always wear a full face helmet. why not? you never know when something bad will happen. Too many variables. Shouldn't you wear the ff all the time?

Shouldn't you wear the ff all the time?

Yes I should and back in the day of the switchblade I used too.
Now you only get proper helmet, and as much as they offer more protection than the average XC helmet, they are just not comfortable enough to be worn on uphill/hill sides and flat.
Give me a switchblade, and I'll wear a FF helmet all the time 😉

So you'll wear a helmet with the maximum protection up to the point where it's not worth the discomfort for the kind of riding you're doing?

LOL at ned.

I think that's it, actually. Can we stop now?

Take your own advice brother. 😉

well i am not sure I want to risk getting too hot, suffocate and lost conscience due to over-heating

Berm Bandit - Member

LOL at ned.

[i]I think that's it, actually. Can we stop now?[/i]

Take your own advice brother.

Hah. I know, it’s ridiculous. I’ve felt the same about TJ in the past. It looks futile from the outside, but from here, I feel like that cartoon of the guy who won’t go to bed because someone on the internet is wrong. I want to stop reading the thread, but I keep looking back.

I CAN stop!

ned.. I know... go for a ride without a helmet, you'll soon crash and not have to worry about it any more...

;o)

you just CAN NOT predict when you're going to fall. Too many variables. Just to give you an example I fell sunday in front of my house door, just because I forget to unclip. Tis is a stupid accident I concur, but an accident nevertheless.

By that 'logic' you might as well wear a helmet whenever you get out of your chair. You could fall in the house; in the garden; in the street; wherever... Why do you not wear a full-face helmet when you walk to the shops?

I fell sunday in front of my house door, just because I forget to unclip.

It is becoming increasingly clear that some people do simply pose a greater risk to their own safety than others. 🙂

Your description of how you ride sound makes you sound like a right mincer TBH.

I'm old enough not to have to compare myself to anyone else. I ride for the enjoyment, and my number one priority is smoothness, not speed. I'll take any speed that comes as a consequence of riding well. If I were trying so hard that I frequently, or even infrequently, fell off I'd be embarrassed to be honest - I'd rather succeed in my aim of going for a good ride than fail, which is what falling off represents.

May I ask how old that is?

I grew out of being embarassed by falling off a bike while I was still a kid.
As Evel Kneivel once said "you can fall many times in life but you are never a failure as long as you try to get up"

RIP

It is becoming increasingly clear that some people do simply pose a greater risk to their own safety than others.

Yeah yeah yeah... Be a smart ass as much as you can 😉
Have you decided about your hols yet or not??

GW. Evel Kneivel was effectively paid to fall off his bike and smash himself up - we remember the carnage a lot more than the successes. I'm paid to stay on, and to teach other people to stay on.

It's a free world and we have chosen a free-spirited way to enjoy it, so I do get that some people have different styles. From my experience of meeting and spending time with thousands of riders though, by far the more common way of enjoying oneself is minimising harm and maximising flow and enjoyment. Falling off is not part of the intention, or even inevitable. Having said that, I do wear a helmet mountain biking, and a lot of the time on the road. If I lived in an urban place I'd be minded to wear a helmet all the time on the road.

I'm two-score and five tomorrow, btw.

he was stumbled into getting paid to entertain us and got carried away.

read this:
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/fabien-barel-update-2.html

I'm well aware this train of thought is in the minority and you're right it would be a dull dull world if we were all the same 😉

Happy Birthday.

Ps. being over 40 myself I often compare my DH times to that of the Vets (often won by the 45+ Vets World champ)

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

About those DH times: are they better if you stay on, or fall off? 😉

Edit - just read the Fabien Barrel thing. For racers, for sure, falling is part of the game, as he says. But even he learned absolutely zero from that fall - he can't remember a thing! It happens, but it is rarely constructive.

they are better if I fall off (or at least, overcook and don't make a section clean) in practice and stay on in the race run 😉

crashing is constructive, otherwise how can you even know how close you are to the limit?

My point is that a lot of people aren't really interested primarily in the absolute limit. I prefer to know roughly where the limit is and ride all of the time in the pocket a little way below that. So that means I can spare capacity for looking around me and enjoying all of the rest of my ride, and still be going just as fast as I find fun.

The racetrack is the place for the limit - everywhere else life goes on and needs to be respected and enjoyed. If everyone rode pushing at the boundaries all the time the trails would be right ripped up, and close encounters with other nice people would be much too frequent. I want spare capacity to slow down if need be.

Yeah, I got your point a while ago. 😉

as for only pushing your riding at the race track, don't be silly. one person's race track can be another's sunday stroll/mince. sharing the trail and using common sense there's no reason why we can't all enjoy the same countryside.
oh.. and IME compitent DH racers would come pretty low down on the list of people responsible for ripping up trails.

Well I think you ruddy lot jinxed me! Smashed into a low branch today hard - ruined my helmet 🙁 Dunno If I would have hit the branch without a hat - maybe / maybe not - the hit was right on the top of the helmet.

Would have been a sore one

Helmet off on the DH bike climbing back up the closed tarmac road - lid back on once got to the main road and subsequent DH.
I think the only way I could bang my noggin doing that would be if I feinted from the effort of the climb...