Re: [CR] Helmets - Please

(Example: Framebuilders:Rene Herse)

In-Reply-To: <536056.3261.qm@web53512.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
References: <536056.3261.qm@web53512.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 10:35:38 -0400
From: "Edward Albert" <ealbert01@gmail.com>
To: Harry Schwartzman <harryschwartzman@yahoo.com>
Cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] Helmets - Please


I know where this thread will end up but what the hey. I was on a training ride about 16 years ago with a friend when a rusted old muffler clamp got kicked up by my front wheel. It jammed between the tire and the fork crown. The bike stopped dead and I was pitched over still clipped into the pedals and landed right on the top of my head. I woke up sometime later with my wife looking down at me in the ER having just had, I was told, a CAT scan. I was OK with a mild concussion. I WAS WEARING A HELMET, not something I always did in those days except when racing. The helmet was dead meat but I was alive with all my various limbs functioning. I have not doubt that without that helmet I would be either para, quad or dead. End of story. Edward Albert Chappaqua, New York, U.S.A.

On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Harry Schwartzman < harryschwartzman@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Listers, Peter,
>
> I'm sitting here reading Classics Rendevouz all day because I just cracked
> my Femur. Can't move.
>
> Peter, i hear what you're saying, and I know that the Cannibal didn't wear
> helmets, Coppi didn't, Reg McNamara didn't. I know.
>
> HOWEVER, Three years ago I spent three days in Intensive Care after my OT
> clipless pedal failed. I wasn't wearing a helmet. I wouldn't have been in
> intensive care if I was. The stupidest, and I really mean that, thing was
> that my helmet sat at home that day, and when I got out of the hospital I
> saw it as I painfully hobbled into my house. I am man enough to admit that
> seeing it sitting there made me cry. I mean it. Really.
>
> I was generally OK, but I had two skull fractures and I had fractured a
> part of my vertebrae. These things happen. Especially if you ride hard and
> especially if you idolize and try to emulate the greats whenever you ride.
> As you said, in the past riders were hard men, but they did all kinds of
> stupid things when they rode. Amphetamines, no helmets, etc. etc.No need to
> emulate that behavior.
>
> Safety is paramount. What the point of having beautiful bikes if you're in
> a casket? I know you probably don't care what i think and you'r not going to
> take advice from a 32 year old upstart like myself, but if there is no
> greater tragdy than one that could have been averted.
>
> Safely, and bored outta my gourd,
>
> Harry Schwartzman
> Long Island City, NY