The people with influence have the power to tell you what to think, and you have the freedom to think how they tell you to.
Fanatic
The people with influence have the power to tell you what to think, and you have the freedom to think how they tell you to.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
Novice
I always, always wear a helmet on my pushbike. I've barely ever come off on my own (and only on my side, never hit my head), but the way car drivers treat you sometimes, cutting you up, pulling out on you etc, one day your luck could run out, and you might get hit by a dozy fool, or be dozy yourself, or even have a bike issue that chucks you off (broken wheel/sudden puncture/broken suspension, unlikely but possible)
Rookie
you will never stop kids from having accidentOriginally Posted by crisis
im sure i had more than my fair share. i crapped off weekly & spent a lot of my under 13 year old years earning money for bike parts/new bikes
still have scars in various places from my pushbike riding days
i couldnt guess how many pushbike crashes i have had (from sheer looney daredevils)- hundreds eaisly
i never once hit my head
just last week a kid fell from his push bike in NZ on the very first jump at the bmx track , straight after getting out of the car - snapped his neck. died the next day
my experience doesnt negate his - nor does his negate mine
i agree little kids should be stuck with them (not that i would have ever obeyed it) - but to force adults to wear them is just silly to me
Rookie
looked for the link last week but failed to find it
a recent study done by a cyclist here in NZ showed that cars drove by closer if he was wearing a helmet compared to not wearing one
& they kept the biggest average gap to him if he was wearing a long wig (faking being a female)
ive always said the safest place to ride is the footpath
Space Modulator
Or anyone, hence my preference for protection
I don’t advocate wearing them for the times you don’t hit your head. Only for the times you do.
Then I guess you hold the same sentiments for being forced to wear seatbelts, forced to adhere to speed limits and being forced to drive on the right hand side of the road? To be honest I am ambivalent towards the idea of making helmet wearing compulsory. I just don’t believe in taking unnecessary risks when a safer option exists. I am pretty much a Darwinist anyway. Survival of the fittest and most intelligent/sensible. ;-)
"A string is approximately nine long."
Egg Nogg 02-04-2005, 05:07 AM
Novice
Oh, and I personally know a guy who came off a bike whilst doing stunts, smashed his head open on a stone and it messed him up - not stuck in hospital, but his entire mentality changed, he became far more aggressive, far more short tempered, but also far more unpredictable.
Rookie
you dont need to be fit to survive in our modern era, so it makes you wonder what we're breeding
seatbelts is another pet hate of mine now you mention it. i say to everyone whose car i get into "why you belting up, if your planning on crashing i aint riding with you"
pushbikes to me are not a form of transport that needs a safety device. we dont wear neck braces when we go out walking despite walking being one of the leading causes of neck injurys/paralysis
motorcycles sure - thats a no-brainer (intended). but personally i draw the line with pushbikes
Fanatic
It's not me I'm worried about crashing, it's the idiot that runs the stop light in front of me. Not wearing a seatbelt is as moronic as not wearing a motorcycle helmet, for the same reasons - you can't control other peoples' actions. No matter how defensively you drive/ride, there are some accidents that just can't be avoided. When I wrote off my bike I wasn't riding dangerously or at excessive speeds, but there was no way I could stop before I hit the van. It physically wasn't possible due to the late point in time that the van driver turned across my path. Due to my non-excessive speed I could brake in time to ensure I wasn't injured at all, but my head still struck the side of the van and I still wrote the helmet off as a precaution. It's just not worth the alternative.
If you ain't belting up, you ain't riding with me. And I ain't riding with you.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
Rookie
well i never belt up
no apologies for it will ever be given. accidents almost never happen - crashes tho happen for good reasons. i drive & ride to not crash
getting caught out & surprised by people on the road around you just isnt acceptable - it should never happen. your attention should be on the activity 100% - to have an "accident" is to fail at the very purpose of road motoring
Fanatic
It's not a matter of getting caught out or surprised though on that point I agree with you - when driving, people in general don't concentrate enough on the task at hand. Due to this, it is possible to have an unavoidable collision with one of these dopey/drunken idiots runs a red light at a blind intersection. Not to mention the extremely remote (if maintained properly..) chance of freak mechanical failure. To me a seltbelt is a very small inconvenience that can make a huge difference, so I'm going to keep advocating its use. Clearly our opinions differ.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
Enthusiast
I respect your choice, I have a good friend who is the same way but I agree to disagree. I don't worry about myself, I think I'm a pretty attentive driver, but I worry about the other hooligans in the world, it would be easy for one of them to run a light or hit me while I'm stopped at a light.
I especially respect your choice if you have no one to live for. My friend is single, but if he were married I would hope he would have respect for his spouse and/or kids to buckle up. If you have people who care about you or depend on you, to me, you owe it to them to try to stay alive regardless of your feelings about it.
Fanatic
I can't say that I agree with you at all, Badsight. Putting on a seatbelt is not a tacit admission that you are going to crash, it is merely acknowledging that on the road we are surrounded by free variables in the form of road conditions, weather, other drivers etc... Even if I was to drive on a road completely devoid of other cars, surface imperfections, and weather, I would still wear a seatbelt. Even if I am driving with 100% of my focus (which I cannot do) there are still many things that can go wrong; I can miscalculate the correct speed for a situation or the radius of a corner, a mechanical failure may occur etc...
Wearing a seatbelt has never been optional in my lifetime, so I have never really known driving or being a passenger without one. Maybe because of that I don't consider wearing one a nuisance, because it is just what is done. To that end, I don't even think about wearing one, I just do. Because of that, I don't think it affect my psychological driving state, I don't think "Ahh, I've got my seatbelt on so I can drive dangerously in safety", it's just another insurance policy in case something does go wrong.
Enthusiast
Solid reasoning / famous last words.
Never own more cars than you can keep charged batteries in...
Space Modulator
I like a person with self belief. But to believe you will never crash is optimistic. No matter how highly you rate your driving skills and concentration you only need to stuff up for a brief second.
It basically comes down to this for me.
How much of an inconvenience is a seat belt or a helmet? = none.
What do I gain from not wearing a seatbelt or helmet? = nothing.
How much do I enjoy living? = varies but for now it beats the alternative.
How much would I enjoy varying levels of incapacitation and/or brain injury? = none.
I’m not great at maths but there is a pattern that develops.
Personal choice is fine but it seems pretty stupid not to try to protect yourself given the cost analysis. And to end up dead or a vegetable is a high price to pay for stubbornness.
"A string is approximately nine long."
Egg Nogg 02-04-2005, 05:07 AM
Furniture
But you look so cool without a helmet, and feel so free without a seatbelt!
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