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From: Wolfgang Strobl <news51@mystrobl.de>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Helmet efficacy test
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:56:50 +0100
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Am Tue, 25 Mar 2025 16:43:09 +0100 schrieb Rolf Mantel
<news@hartig-mantel.de>:

>Am 25.03.2025 um 15:29 schrieb Frank Krygowski:
>> On 3/24/2025 9:36 PM, cyclintom wrote:
>>> On Mon Mar 24 17:13:48 2025 Frank Krygowski  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm stating my opinion in a discussion group. You should be able to
>>>> tolerate that, especially since over the years I've backed up my opinion
>>>> with mountains of data.
>>>>
>>>> Please note that your statements above, about the nasty "leftover
>>>> affects" and "you can fall over bad just barely moving" apply exactly as
>>>> well to running. Yet I'll bet you'd hate hearing that all runners should
>>>> always wear a helmet when running.
>>>>
>>>> The only real difference is you haven't yet expressed your hatred for
>>>> running helmets.
>>>
>>> Frank, you deo not run, do you? 
>> 
>> On occasion I do, usually with some reluctance.
>> 
>>> The entire human skeletal structure is designed by God specifically 
>>> for running. 
>> 
>> If God had meant for us to be running, he would not have given us 
>> bicycles.  ;-)
>> 
>>> While you CAN fall completely out of control it is not the case with 
>>> any experienced runners or even speed walkers. 
>> 
>> It's also not the case for me on a bicycle. Only three moving on-road 
>> falls in over 50 years of riding. Zero head injuries. Most avid cyclists 
>> never ever hit their head, and certainly never hard enough to induce 
>> brain injury.
>
>Attention: the reflexes keeping our heads away from the ground are 
>strongly reduced by old age and by inebriation. I sincerely plan to 
>start wearing a bicycle helmet from age 80 onwards and not to ride an 
>upright bicycle when drunk (on the recumbent, the distance to ground is 
>halved) ;-)

A former work colleague crashed his recumbent bike in winter on his
commute due to slippery snow. He suffered a serious spinal injury. His
helmet didn't help. 

For some time now, an accident has forced me to do something that I
actually wanted to avoid, namely exercise, especially strength training,
muscle-building training and the like.  This also includes some
gymnastics and balance exercises, which aim to train secondary muscles
but also train reflexes. Reflexes and strength decline with age, that's
for sure. But not necessarily at the same rate for everyone. Use it or
lose it.

All my bicycles are of the conventional upright type. I don't have to
plan not riding any of these when drunk, because I don't ride or drive
with alcohol in my blood.  I did it once, shortly before the birth of
our first son, when phoned by the hospital at midnight. I hadn't
expected tze call that day anymore and had just consumed a half-liter
bottle of beer. I drove very carefully across the completely empty
highway to the neighboring town twenty kilometers away. I sweated blood
the whole time. With an expected BAC of 0.3 ‰ I would still be below the
current limit today, but I found it unpleasant enough not to want to
repeat it and so never did. Originally I wasn't so strict about short
distance bike rides after a party in my youth, but a mostly harmless
accident had changed my mind much earlier. It is not so much the
reflexes whose delay is a problem while riding, it is the judgment,
which suffers from even small amounts of alcohol. Don't assume that
there isn't a knee-high wall just because you can't see one in the dark
and don't remember a wall there. :-) My ribs hurt for a few weeks, my
pride was wounded and I had learned something. That's all that happened.

TL;RD If you think that you are risking your head when cycling because
of your age, you should start wearing a helmet while walking first.
Especially if you climb stairs. Even more so when doing it hands-free.

PS: Only half kidding.

-- 
Bicycle helmets are the Bach flower remedies of traffic