(no subject)

[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

(frozen comment)

[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.

(frozen comment)

[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.