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[onlysmallwings]

Hello! I just purchased my first bike as an adult this Saturday, and I'm really jazzed about riding again. As a kid, I rode all over the place, even to places I was technically forbidden from riding. Then I got a car, and my friends got cars, and my bike vanished. Which was fine, I was very happy with my indoor lifestyle.

Then, last year or so, my friends got into biking and other outdoors activities. And started going to Critical Mass here in Houston. And, since they have three bikes for the two of them, they let me borrow a bike to ride as well. And I remembered how much I enjoy biking.

I did a little research, and took my friend shopping with me, and decided on my GT Aerostream. It's a three speed sport cruiser, and it's a really smooth ride. I fell in love at the shop and it's only gotten deeper as I've ridden it. It's the kind of bike I can ride without needing to change into 'biking gear.' Hell, it came with panniers and a rack. It's like I'm meant to run errands on this thing!

I still need a helmet before I venture out of the neighborhood, and lights, of course, but I'm just so excited to have a bike that I love that is mine all mine! I don't care so much about speed, or, like my friends, ruggedness (that's a real word?), so this really seems like it's going to be a wonderful fit.

Comments

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[damerell]

And if you think a foam hat will make a blind bit of difference, you are utterly mistaken.

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[sara]

...as we've previously established in this forum, the statistics on bicycle helmets are clear: bicycle helmets save lives. I don't see much point in arguing about this. If you don't believe me, you're welcome to read back through the "safety" tag, which is where I think it is.

Of course, the statistics also taught us that more people are killed by their mattresses than their bicycles each year in the U.S., which was pretty funny.

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[damerell]

Let me guess; that would be TRT '89's "85%" (of course TRT '89, or "why case-control studies don't always work", also "showed" that helmets prevent 75% of knee injuries), a bunch of papers which start from the assumption that TRT '89 got it right, and some meta-analyses of papers that assume TRT '89 got it right.

The statistics show no such thing. In particular, we're in the unfortunate position where several countries have passed helmet compulsion laws. Not one of them has shown any drop in head injuries per cyclist kilometre. The statistics show, utterly unequivocally, that helmets don't work.

Furthermore even if that was the case, cycling is still no more dangerous than walking or driving (depending if you count per hour or per kilometre), so why aren't you equally insistent on plastic hats for those?

Checked: yes. It's our old friends at the BHSI. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/wiki/Bicycle_Helmet_Safety_Institute may be informative; the BHSI are still using the 85% figure even though Thompson, Rivara and Thompson themselves admit it's wrong. So why would you get statistics from a body which is intentionally lying to you because it thinks you'll be confused by hearing the truth?

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[sara]

What's your goal in arguing with me about this?

I don't think you're correct. I am unlikely to change my opinion on this subject just because you're trying to argue with me about it, particularly when the compelling evidence you cite is...a conspicuously-partisan wiki. And I suspect you know this, so...you've decided it's great fun to come into a comm and pick a fight with the mod? Over bike helmets, of all things?

That's just wanky. Knock it off.

And frankly, given that I'm still experiencing fairly severe episodes of post-concussion syndrome after a low-speed automobile accident last September, I am not at all convinced that people wouldn't be better off wearing helmets while driving.

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[damerell]

Well, you might actually be interested in the facts. Who knows?

Your "compelling" evidence is from an organisation which is intentionally lying to you. Doesn't that bother you? I haven't even produced any statistics yet; all I've produced is the observation that the BHSI isn't interested in telling you the truth.

And it's absurd to describe Guy Chapman as "partisan" when he rides with a helmet himself; he's just interested in finding out what the research actually justifies. That way lies describing any Website that takes a position on the issue as partisan, in which case the BHSI are in the frame again.

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[sara]

Your interest is clearly not in sharing facts, it's in picking fights. If you want to campaign against bike helmets, go do it in your own space. I'm freezing this thread, and consider this your warning: if you try to start an argument with anybody else in the comm, I will ban you.