Tip for beginners

kryptonick

I've only been out riding properly twice now (Glentress and Blairadam) and as a beginner I just want to say 1 thing.

I was up at Blairadam and hit a jump a little too fast, fell off and landed on my head. It was actually really funny, my friend and I had a great laugh about it, but looking back I realise that the helmet saved me from a nasty cut/bump/concussion.


Wear a helmet.

JAKBLADE

Totally agree with you there. The first thing the Paramedics said to me when picking me up off the floor after a Taxi had run me down in the "sorry mate I didn't see you" scenario was "Where's your helmet???" Had a nasty bump on head to go along with fractured cocxyx. Doc's at hospital said I was very lucky..........Have worn a helmet ever since.....

Moral......as above Always wear a helmet........

elPedro666

Ages ago, racing pursuit, my friend went down on the concrete banking at about 30mph and we collected 13 pieces of his helmet...

Fifteen minutes later he was up and racing again - and the git still beat me!

Had another clubmate take a gentle, slow-speed tumble with an old leather strap style 'helmet' and months afterwards still couldn't recognise his parents when they visited him in hospital.

I'm a great believer in free choice, but you'd have to be a special kind of imbecile not to be wearing a quality, well-fitting helmet!

[/sanctimony]

Mr Wu

Words seem to fail me when i see people without a helmet on.

Especially the sunday bunch; Mam, Dad, two kids, none of which are wearing helmets. You would at least stick them on your kids heads wouldnt you?

I get funny looks sometimes for wearing a fullface helmet, but... I honestly couldnt care less, i had a bad accident a couple of years ago, which if im honest was all my fault, i was being a twunt trying to catch someone up, if it hadnt of been for that helmet idve been even uglier.

.blitz

I don't have too much of a problem with falling off but there are a lot of low, overhanging branches on the local singletrack and my lid has saved me more than once.

rockhopper09

kryptonick wrote:

I've only been out riding properly twice now (Glentress and Blairadam) and as a beginner I just want to say 1 thing.

I was up at Blairadam and hit a jump a little too fast, fell off and landed on my head. It was actually really funny, my friend and I had a great laugh about it, but looking back I realise that the helmet saved me from a nasty cut/bump/concussion.


Wear a helmet.

Where did you fall off in blairadam, there isn`t many jumps there..... single track stuff is pretty good tho....

cgarossi

I won't ride anywhere without a helment. Infact even if I sit on the bike without one I feel like im somehow unprotected.

I see so many commuters on the way to work not wearing a helmet. People who just seem to think its ok to run red lights or cross junctions without looking or thinking twice.

To be fair, if you don't wear a helmet, natural selection will weed you out of the gene pool one day.

Daz555

Mr Wu wrote:

Especially the sunday bunch; Mam, Dad, two kids, none of which are wearing helmets. You would at least stick them on your kids heads wouldn't you?

Looking back to my time as a kid, I seem to recall cycling being amongst the the SAFER activities I took part in - I really don't understand why it is singled out by the health and safety mafia.

I do always wear a helmet when out on the trails - I fall off far too often to even consider riding without one. :oops:

cgarossi wrote:

I see so many commuters on the way to work not wearing a helmet. People who just seem to think its ok to run red lights or cross junctions without looking or thinking twice.

I also commute to work by bike every day but I see no pattern at all between helmet use and quality of road-craft. There are excellent riders and idiots on both sides of the helmet fence.

cgarossi

Everything in the past was perceived to be safe. Asbestos for example. Maybe thats extreme but there were many more accidents invoving bikes and heads in the pavement than there are now. Which is good.

In this day and age of suing for the most tamest of accidents, I think the health and safety brigade are there to protect everyone from unwanted pain, death and cost.

Anyway, if you enjoy biking then making yourself safe so if you crash, you can do it again some other time with all your bits intact is a sensible move.

kryptonick

rockhopper09 wrote:

Where did you fall off in blairadam, there isn`t many jumps there..... single track stuff is pretty good tho....

Don't laugh, I have no idea! I was just following my mate, he went round it I thought I'd show off a bit (it being only my second time out on my bike). That didn't work out well.....

thelawnet

Mr Wu wrote:

Words seem to fail me when i see people without a helmet on.

Especially the sunday bunch; Mam, Dad, two kids, none of which are wearing helmets. You would at least stick them on your kids heads wouldnt you?

Depends what they're doing tbh. If they're pootling along the cycle path, then the case for a helmet is pretty weak. The evidence supporting helmet wearing for commuting/road use is extremely weak and contradictory.

If they're doing downhill singletrack racing , then I'd tend to agree with you.

Mum and Dad could probably effect a bigger improvement to their kids' safety by buying a bigger car - much more likely to survive a crash than their existing Fiat Punto.

cgarossi

I would argue that cycling along the roads to work with traffic around you is more dangerous than any singletrack.

And wheres the contradiction?

SafeRider

cgarossi wrote:

I won't ride anywhere without a helment. Infact even if I sit on the bike without one I feel like im somehow unprotected.

I have exactly the same thing. My helmet goes on before I even unlock my bike and it only leaves my head when the bike is locked back up again. I won't even sit on a bike without wearing a helmet. I realise that sounds OTT to many people, but after a couple of incidents where I'm convinced I'd have had some kind of head injury had I not been wearing a helmet, it just seems the logical thing to do. We all know being totally aware of your surroundings and knowing how to control your bike are the best ways to stay safe, but I can't think of a single good reason to not wear a helmet. They really can protect you and I do believe, however much disputed (rightly or wrongly), that circumstances exist where they can be lifesavers.

llamafarmer

thelawnet wrote:

Mum and Dad could probably effect a bigger improvement to their kids' safety by buying a bigger car - much more likely to survive a crash than their existing Fiat Punto.

Ah, the sort brilliant logic that means half the mums in the country are doing the half mile school run in enormous 4x4s

cgarossi

SafeRider wrote:

cgarossi wrote:

I won't ride anywhere without a helment. Infact even if I sit on the bike without one I feel like im somehow unprotected.

I have exactly the same thing. My helmet goes on before I even unlock my bike and it only leaves my head when the bike is locked back up again. I won't even sit on a bike without wearing a helmet. I realise that sounds OTT to many people, but after a couple of incidents where I'm convinced I'd have had some kind of head injury had I not been wearing a helmet, it just seems the logical thing to do. We all know being totally aware of your surroundings and knowing how to control your bike are the best ways to stay safe, but I can't think of a single good reason to not wear a helmet. They really can protect you and I do believe, however much disputed (rightly or wrongly), that circumstances exist where they can be lifesavers.

For me I have a phobia of hitting my head and having a fit of some kind. If you have ever seen someone fitting its bloody horrible. Also my friend managed to fall off his bike face first and actually had to have small pebbles removed from his face surgicially. I know that a lid doesn't protect much from full face plants though. But still.

Personally I can't think of anything worse than living my life with brain injury. I think i would rather die.

SafeRider

It isn't really a phobia for me, I just think protection is a good thing. I always wear at least my TSG Evolution helmet and if I'm doing anything a little crazier or something I'm not confident with then it's a full face MX helmet, 661 knee/shin guards and 661 Pressure Suit body armour. I don't really like getting hurt so I may as well take the steps to protect myself and minimise the risks of getting hurt if the sh*t hits the fan (or I hit the floor!)

Daz555

cgarossi wrote:

I would argue that cycling along the roads to work with traffic around you is more dangerous than any singletrack.

Not sure about that. I have not fallen off my bike on the road for over 20 years (I'd have been a kid messing on my BMX last time I hit the tarmac). I doubt anyone can say the same for singletrack riding.

..edit. Ok there was one incident involving several pints of snakebite but that's it. :?

Stumpy Ade

Daz555 wrote:

cgarossi wrote:

I would argue that cycling along the roads to work with traffic around you is more dangerous than any singletrack.

Not sure about that. I have not fallen off my bike on the road for over 20 years (I'd have been a kid messing on my BMX last time I hit the tarmac). I doubt anyone can say the same for singletrack riding.

..edit. Ok there was one incident involving several pints of snakebite but that's it. :?

That reminded me of a mate of mine who spent xmas eve in a ditch, with a broken arm under similar circumstances.

King Donut

Daz555 wrote:

cgarossi wrote:

I would argue that cycling along the roads to work with traffic around you is more dangerous than any singletrack.

Not sure about that. I have not fallen off my bike on the road for over 20 years (I'd have been a kid messing on my BMX last time I hit the tarmac). I doubt anyone can say the same for singletrack riding.

..edit. Ok there was one incident involving several pints of snakebite but that's it. :?

Yep I'd never take any risks on the road so I consider there to be much more danger off road where we are always pushing and taking risks just for fun.

EDIT: but yeah back to OP, off road = wear a helmet.

thelawnet

cgarossi wrote:

I would argue that cycling along the roads to work with traffic around you is more dangerous than any singletrack.

Maybe, maybe not. But riding a helmet off-road has no purpose other than protection. On-road it affects the behaviour of others towards you.

http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/rel ... 10906.html

So it is problematic - wear a helmet and you increase the chance of being hit by a car.

MuddyTom

I always make sure I wear a helmet. When I got my first mtb I went and bought a new helmet, the first time I wore it I binned the bike on a corner and my body flew into a bush, hitting several rather large branches on the way. The helmet was ruined but my head was ok.

And the first time I wore proper motorcycling gear I ended up getting cut up by an old guy in a volvo before hitting a big patch of diesel and sliding across a roundabout on my front towards a sturdy looking metal barrier. Bike was a bit messed up but I was fine.

Always wear your helmet. It doesn't cost as much as your head.

nwmlarge

i hit my head on branches all the time as i'm quite lanky so wouldn't ride without one.
i have done the odd gentle ride without one as i hadn't got a pie case at that stage only the full face.
now i have a diamond back full face and a bell slant

andyonwight

I believe that statiscally most accidents happen within a short distance of your home which for me was true last year less than 1/2 mile from home involved in a RTA with a white van (his fault as well)

Although the accident caused me to 'die' for a short while even with a helmet the paramedics did say that without wearing one I would not of recovered. Putting your parents through it makes it even worse. I still have no memory of the accident or the weeks after and have some difficulty remembering things. As I work with passworded computers I have to have a little black book with reminders of the passwords.

Thats all happened 11months ago. I now cringe with the numebr of adults and children who insist on riding on the roads without a helmet, lights or a flourescent jacket.

podgeorge

kryptonick wrote:

I've only been out riding properly twice now (Glentress and Blairadam) and as a beginner I just want to say 1 thing.

I was up at Blairadam and hit a jump a little too fast, fell off and landed on my head. It was actually really funny, my friend and I had a great laugh about it, but looking back I realise that the helmet saved me from a nasty cut/bump/concussion.


Wear a helmet.

I can't say more about this, as last summer, i misjudged a jump badly and ended up landing directly on my head and knocked myself unconsious for 15 secs or so. I was then concust and couldn't remeber anything from the past week, i ended up having brain swelling, and couldn't go MTB'ing for a month :evil: That was censored , trust me
Although the main point, is that i was the only one out of me and my two mates wearing a helmet, and if i hadn't been wearing a helmet, i would be probably metantally handicaped now :shock: So always remeber, WEAR YOUR HELMET, it could save you life :!:

Daz555

andyonwight wrote:

I believe that statiscally most accidents happen within a short distance of your home.

True. This is because the majority of cycle journeys are short and typically they start or finish at home.