apparently my city literally literally banned public rail funding, and people online love jerking off about how good biking is, so i figured might as well try. I have come up with:
pros:
- good for mental health / exercise / endorphins
- arguably quaint
- feel like an old timey guy taking his wares to market
- feel european
- can annoy others
- less of a police state around them vs cars
- more flexible parking, routes
- capacity to be peaceful
- nice in summer
cons:
- look like an annoying dork (esp w neon - which also hurts the quaint factor)
- have to wear a helmet (^)
- getting sweaty, potentially “unpresentable” for work
- still have to find safe parking
- still takes a while
- have to find new routes to places
- can’t listen to music or might die
- little meaningful protection against severe injury
- can only carry so many groceries/etc
- sucks in winter
It feels very much religion like, but also an online phenomenon only. IRL the helmet discussion goes like this for me: “You don’t wear a helmet?” “No.”
The topic coming up is super rare too, while on every picture of a cyclist without a helmet on the internet you got all these comments from helmet fundamentalists going nuts over it.
Personally, I have cracked open a helmet once. On a quiet country lane, with no traffic. Pot holes can catch you any time.
I don’t remember the crash, just the slide.
That is what makes me tell people to wear helmets.
And your friends don’t get annoyed?
I hope you also posted one of those wonderful “today the helmet saved my life” topics on reddit so the community could get together for their daily service.
My cycling club mandates helmets, so not a problem. Only really come up with the hire bikes in cities etc.
Nope, I was to busy being miserable about having a broken collar bone.
Broken collar bone, the classic.
Sorry if i came off rude, i am just so over people claiming that every kind of cycling is dangerous and all that can save you is a helmet.
I mentioned in another comment that there is a dutch study that finds the helmeted rider to be more than 25 times more likely to end up in a hospital. 25 times more likely. Obviously roadies and MTBers. I am absolutely not saying people should stop road or mountain biking, even that is not all that dangerous and practitioners don’t all end up dead or crippled sooner or later.
But if a person is just casually cycling without a helmet, they are doing much more for their safety than those sporty riders with helmets. Somehow this then always gets countered with “i know someone who fell on his head while stationary and is now being spoonfed by his loved ones. No, he didn’t have clips / clipless pedals”. Made up bullshit in 99.9% of cases, i have seen this in almost every helmet topic i have read.
It’s all about risk tolerance. It was thought that improved brakes on cars would hugely improve safety. However it had a much smaller affect as people just braked later… There is a level of acceptable risk that everyone has, increasing safety measures just means they take more risks up to that level.
Helmets make people feel safer so they do more risky things and therefore hurt themselves more in other ways.
Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear one though!