I’ve seen studies like the one you mentioned, which is obviously a problem too. I was leaning more towards the public perception when someone is killed/injured while cycling with traffic though - news reports always seem to imply that if the guy had been wearing a helmet, then all would’ve been OK, and he’d have survived his crash, and that is that. I find this pretty disgusting - surely the whole situation would’ve been better off if he hadn’t been ran over in the first place? But nope, we can’t ever point blame at the guy who left-hooked a cyclist, because road tax and stuff.
Obviously sometimes cyclists are to blame for their death (let’s not generalise here!) helmet or not (bloody cyclists! whizzing between lanes, running red lights, not wearing hi-viz!!) but I can’t help but think many car-on-cyclist ‘accidents’ (that’s another piece of language that annoys me too) could’ve been prevented easily by the driver concentrating a bit better and not doing stupid things.
I mentioned hi-viz too. That’s another one that gets put out in the news a lot, as though if you’re ran over when NOT wearing hi-viz, it’s instantly your fault. How else is a driver supposed to see you? It’s not like he has eyes. Not to mention the fairly recent cyclist death that was apparently caused by him wearing hi-viz during the day, and so the driver couldn’t see him against the sunlight. I mean, really?
Most of my rantings come from the direction of road *cycling, as that’s primarily what I do. When it comes to the road, I believe the onus is upon drivers to look where they’re going (as long as the cyclist is riding safely/within the law etc). They’re the ones controlling the dangerous implement, and so it’s up to do so without killing people - people who are ‘for’ guns are usually very adamant about gun owners doing so with extreme safety, it’s not often you see them campaigning for next-door-neighbours of gun owners to start wearing bullet-proof vests and PC shields, why should they? the onus is on the gun owner to not shoot anyone, not the people around them to avoid being shot. To me it’s the same concept!
But yes! For MUni it’s totally different. you’re riding potentially dangerous terrain, and you’re 100% in control (Or not ) of the outcome of that.
My challenge is outfitting my kids (girl 11, boy 10) so a little scrape does not spell the end of our ride. We all wear helmets. She rides an Oracle 26er and wears KH Percussion knee/shin armor (medium), and Hillbilly fingerless gloves. He rides a KH19 (short neck) wears my old POC elbow pads on his knees (don’t tell him they are not knee pads) and fingerless KH Pulse gloves. Tip: Fingerless gloves are MUCH easier for kids to put on themselves.
Dad’s safety gear has been a 10 year work in progress.
Asphalt (rails to trails paths, we never ride on the “road” with cars) is always ridden on my KH36G mostly in high gear so I wear pretty much everything. Helmet, 5.10 hightop, Dakine shorts with added coccyx (wish I didn’t know how to spell that) protection, POC VPD DH long knee (can’t emphasize enough how comfortable and effective this particular bit of kit is), POC VPD DH elbow guards (except in the heat of the summer), and DocMeter Flexmeter (snowboard) wrist guards though now that I have my Apple Watch only on my right (disc golf) hand. I’m a huge fan of POC gear. If we had a POC dealer in my area where I could try it on for size, I’d own the full jacket complete with shoulder, back, built-in elbow, and add-on coccyx protector. Couldn’t wear it in the summer but I do most of my Asphalt riding in the winter when the local mountain bike trails are closed.
MUni (KH29) I wear my old POC knee pads but rarely bother with the non-attached shin guards in the heat of the summer. Then I wear fingerless KH Pulse wrist guards and a helmet. Guess you could count my CamelBak as back protection.
Trials (KH19) I should wear all of the above. That thing is trying to kill me. Get hurt more on it than all other unicycles put together. Then again, most all of that is very near the house or at the skate park (when I’m really close to the car).
Pad up! Live to ride another day! Or more accurately to finish riding today.
I think there was a thread about that survey here before. What I highly doubt is that the survey found a correlation between the helmeted cyclists and the drivers’ actually noticing that there was a helmet present or not. Usually when (legally/safely riding) cyclists are killed by motor vehicles it’s because the driver didn’t see them. Even if it is the fact that the helmets are being noticed, and subsequently being used in a pass-the-cyclist calculation, I’m going to wear one anyway in case they still give me a kiss with their mirror.
Absolutely. But they still outweigh us by A LOT so I’m much more comfortable adding that layer of protection even if they might kill me anyway.
I think on American roads, at least, statistics are roughly evenly balanced in cyclist deaths by motor vehicle, that about half are bad cyclists and half are bad drivers. The majority of cyclists that ride with traffic have no training/clue about the rules of the road (for cyclists) and often ride the wrong way, invisibly at night, cross in front of traffic, are drunk, etc. Kind of like all those no-so-responsible gun owners – that’s where the vast majority of the mishaps are taking place…
Am I the only one who lands hard on my back doing downhill?
I wear a helmet, shin/knee and gloves/wrists. But as I’ve been doing more and more muni recently I find my self with scrapes and road rash on my elbows/arms. I’m looking into getting something to cover that area. Also, in the last few months I have fallen hard on my back several times. It leaves me sore for much longer than I’d like. Does anyone ride with any kind back protection?
To add to what’s been said about helmets: My dad got hit by a truck while commenting to work on a road bike. He landed in the hospital with a broken shoulder, 2 broken ribs and his pelvis broken in 7 places. It was absolutely the truck drivers fault, but his helmet saved his life, no doubt about it. Now, if he had not been wearing a helmet his death would have been the drives fault as well, but I’m sure glade he was wearing that helmet.
My buddy was also in a recent bike accident. He went over the handlebars. Major roadrash on his face and stitches on his knee. Thankfully for his helmet because the impact was strong enough to crack his helmet in half.
Hi Geomu, for me anyway. I figure I have to maintain a certain angle while going inclines and definitely for declines, for balance, torque and effeciency.
For this one steep downhill, there was this one time that I lost that angle maybe due to exhaustion, fear and a combination of hesitancy. I ended up leaning to far back, didnt commit myself enough to the slope and fell hard on my butt. I was really exhausted too. The combination of legs giving out, lung exhaustion from the recent steep climb, and pain nearly had me passing out on top of the hill. I grabbed composure, took deep breaths and was ok.
That experience humbled me a little bit.
Apparently not. George Peck even talks about it in his 1991 video, Rough Terrain Unicycling. The technology of his day was something hand-made from a litter box tray, or something like that. Today there are multiple choices of purpose-made products on the market, but since I don’t have any I’ll request others reading here to make product suggestions.
My point exactly. Truck driver in the wrong? Doesn’t matter unless you’re alive to go to court. Okay, it probably matters to your next-of-kin but you get the point. As I used to tell my students when I worked for the driving school, “The truck always wins.” Doesn’t matter who’s right, the rules of physics always trump the laws of man. If there’s not a train involved, generally the truck will prevail in any situation.
Risk is the number assigned to the probability of something happening. The actual risk of a certain activity might only be one in a million. The fear comes from understanding that the “one” might be you and the time might be now.
No matter how good we are we all manage the fear by mitigating the risk either by increasing protection or reducing our riding ambitions. Most riders end up not getting seriously hurt because they judge their limits and circumstances.
I can’t see how knowing they were wearing less protection than they could would not make a sensible rider a least a little more cautious.
We trade the risk of pain off against the fun of learning something inherently more risky. Protection gives us more room to bargain and hence more potential for fun.
I know a few people who wear full-face helmets and I think it makes sense for them. Like the guy who won the Extreme Muni Downhill in Italy. That trail was insane. To ride it at all would be a good achievement. To ride it fast would require some very special balls. But at those speeds and on that steep terrain, the full-face didn’t seem at all out of place.
Also if you know you’re a rider who likes to try really hard stuff all the time, why not? Yeah they weigh more and restrict some of your vision, but it’s probably something you get used to if you wear it a lot.
I ride like a big chicken, so I don’t need one (knock knock).
For years I never would wear a seat belt. No way was I going to be told what to do. Then I had kids and started wearing it to set an example. Now I feel very uncomfortable without it.
When I rode as a kid in the 70’s and early 80’s I did not wear anything in the line of personal protective devices (PPD’s). When I got back into riding in my 50’s my feeling of invincibility had left me. Now I wear compression shorts, padded bike shorts, a helmet, wrist guards and KH leg armor all the time. I bought a pair of padded hillbilly shorts since I am trying my hand at muni.
Just like seatbelts I feel very uncomfortable without my gear. I really have been lucky and not really put it to use much but the few times I needed it I was glad I had it.
For me it is a real confidence booster when I wear my PPD’s. I am much more willing to try new things or rougher terrain with it on. I guess at 55 (56 next week) and being a unicyclist, I really don’t give a flying fat rats hind end what others think.
I am the one who has to go to work the next day and the old bones just don’t heal like they did 30 or 40 years ago.
You really, seriously should try pants. After a while you’ll be totally used to wearing them and you’ll get slightly less stares. You’ll still be on a unicycle, of course.
I always wear hill Billy gloves and generally a helmet but thought the helmet was probably not necessary. Until yesterday. Fell flat on my back off my 36er and smacked the back of my head on the pavement so hard that Im sure I’d still be there if I hadnt had the helmet on. I am now amoung the converted
I recently made a cheapskate’s camelback by buying a water bladder and sewing a pocket into a gym bag to slip it in. Had a scare with it the other day - Beautifully sunny day, had my sunglasses on. Rode through a tree-covered trail, was practically blind thanks to the trees and the sunglasses. Hit a root I didn’t see, fell forward and rolled onto my back. Heard a huge BOOM from my bag. Oh crap, I’ve only had that water bladder 2 days and I’ve already busted it!!
Felt my back to see if I was slowly getting soaked. Nope, all dry.
Whipped the bag off and stuck my hand in. Turns out that bag of crisps I’d brought with me had taken the impact.
So I had to empty my gym bag of broken crisps, and I didn’t get to eat the full packet. Lame.
I always ride with gloves, helmet, shin guards, and thick knee pads made for roller skating. I have had trouble with the KH knee shin guards. They always seem to slide off my knee on impact. After losing most of the skin on my knee I changed pads. I feel much safer with the Scab pads.
At my age not getting hurt is very important. I also teach ballet so I need to show the steps without limping around.
In addition to the normal gear I enumerated earlier, I’ve acquired and wear a hi-viz (bright green with retroreflective strips) vest to be better seen by motorists in traffic, which is where I do most of my riding. It may or may not do any actual good, but it does silence those who used to complain that I wasn’t visible enough.
) of the outcome of that.
