[CR]Do you ride without a helmet

(Example: Bike Shops)

From: "Chris Van Scoyk" <parisbrest@mchsi.com>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 16:30:22 -0500
Subject: [CR]Do you ride without a helmet

Back in 1974 I was a novice racer in a road race in Boone IA. As was my custom, I was in the back of the pack when I witnessed a wreck ahead of me. In those days a hairnet helmet was pretty much it, and we all hated them but they were required. One of the guys in the wreck was knocked unconscious and taken away by ambulance. Later that evening I went to work at my hospital only to learn that the unconscious rider had suffered a severe brain injury and had undergone surgery. I talked to a worried Mike Fathka ( later of Team Raleigh USA ) about his teams' injured rider. The brain injured rider was a Nuclear Physicist at Iowa State University. I hope he fully recovered, but I never knew. From that day on I wore a helmet of some kind every time I rode...still do. I even have an accursed vintage Bell, but would never wear it today.

Chris " lost plenty of brain cells as it is" Van Scoyk Ankeny, IA