Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hemmet?

Bike helmets are supposed to save your dome in the event of a crash. They give you a crush layer to lessen the sharp impact to your dome when everything goes fruit-shaped and you don't have time to sort out which way is up on your way down. Ask around and you'll soon find somebody who owes their present walking, talking status to their brain bucket. I'm for helmets. Ok enough positive preaching, now on to the hellfire and brimstone...

On the other hand, they're a bit of a hassle. You have to remember to have it with you, it's one more thing to manage when you get off the bike, they restrict air flow on a warm day, they mess up your ironic perm on the way to the show, and most of all they screw up your whole cool thing you got going on there. So yea, there are some downsides to helmets. I can see why maybe you don't want to wear one. Fine. I'm not your mother, and unless you happen to be one of the people I'm willing to nag about helmets because it would be a real drag to hang out with you as a vegetable, do what you want. Random internet people: This means you!

Doing what you want, however, should not include making up bullshit misinformation because you don't want to admit you don't wear a helmet for vanity reasons or whatever they may be. Instead we're getting things like this - people citing a one-man study claiming that motorists might give you more space if you don't wear a helmet.

You know that kid in elementary school that insisted that seatbelts were a stupid idea because without one you could be thrown free of the wreckage and land in a grassy field, presumably one populated by magical fairies distributing lollipops to lucky-ass car crash survivors? The helmet excuse guys are that kid. Same shit, post-puberty. What happened here was somebody decided first that they wanted (or didn't want) to do something, then went looking for ways to justify it. When the revolution comes, science will crush you.
If you don't want to wear one just say you don't want to wear one. Don't fill the internet with bullshit reasons and bad logic. Believe me, I can recognize that mess a mile away, I have a blog.

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