Within the hours and days after a nasty bicycle crash, we run via the Hows and Whys and Whats and Wheretofores in an try to grasp what the hell simply occurred to us, and the way we will forestall it from taking place once more.
After all, simply as abstinence is the perfect type of contraception, not using a bicycle is the easiest way to keep away from a bicycle crash. Nonetheless, each these choices suck. Plus, a minimum of sexual abstinence is just about foolproof. Off the highest of my head, I can consider just one occasion of immaculate conception involving a girl, and none involving a person…until you depend works of fiction, that’s:
I cannot inflame the devoted amongst you by suggesting that the stainless conception involving a girl may additionally be a piece of fiction–a minimum of not so quickly after the alleged immaculately conceived little one’s birthday, anyway.
However velocipedal abstinence is in no way a assure that you simply’ll keep away from harm. You possibly can fall within the bathe. You possibly can get hit by a automobile whereas standing on line at Dunkin’ Donuts. You possibly can die from autoerotic asphyxiation, like George Washington did. [Intern: fact-check that.] I’ve invoked the sensible phrases of Frank Drebin earlier than, and I’ll do it once more, as a result of he speaks as a lot knowledge as any of our tradition’s most revered philosophers:
Proper. So I feel we will agree that giving up using isn’t an choice. So what may I’ve executed in another way to keep away from my very own crash? And the way ought to I alter my habits sooner or later?
Helmets
My emotions about helmets are well-known:
In order I flew via the air with an unprotected noggin, you possibly can ensure that one of many foremost issues on my thoughts was, “Boy, if I bash my cranium in, I’m gonna appear to be an actual asshole.”
Thankfully this didn’t occur. Sure, I incurred a lower above my proper eye that required stitches, however until I’d been sporting a full-face helmet with a face protect that would have occurred anyway. [Further to one reader’s comments, I now wonder if it was the ancient Oakley M Frames I was wearing that cut me. Yes, I was wearing a pair of ancient M Frames that day, what can I say? After reading that comment I put them on and they line up exactly with the wound.] In any case, from this I can draw any one in every of a variety of conclusions, the 2 most excessive being:
I used to be extraordinarily fortunate to have prevented a severe head harm in a high-speed crash and may take this as a lesson to by no means, ever forego a helmet ever once more, as a result of subsequent time I in all probability gained’t be so fortunate.
When individuals who put on helmets survive a motorcycle crash they are saying “My helmet saved my life.” I survived a motorcycle crash and not using a helmet. So, following that logic, not sporting a helmet saved my life.
However each of these make me uncomfortable. The primary conclusion is wise on its face, nevertheless it additionally fails to take note of The Drebin Precept, which is that dwelling your life and eliminating danger are to some extent mutually unique. And the second conclusion is clearly foolish and glib, since you shouldn’t give your self any credit score simply since you managed to Mr. Magoo your means via harmful state of affairs.
In conditions like these there are additionally individuals who would possibly ask, “In the event you had recognized for sure you had been going to crash, would you’ve got placed on a helmet earlier than heading out?” Certain, why not? However I’d even have placed on full physique armor, which might have been much more useful on this case, and which even essentially the most safety-conscious riders by no means do. (Downhill mountain biking excluded, after all.) However no person expects you to try this. Plus, since I used to be in a position to stroll (limp) away, it will be too straightforward for me to double down and say, “No, really I nonetheless wouldn’t have placed on a helmet,” which is lazy and contrarian, even for me.
So, after fascinated with it, the place I stand on the entire thing is that essentially the sentiments I’ve relating to helmets as expressed within the above video and elsewhere are unchanged. On the similar time, I now notice that in being so doctrinaire about it I’m making precisely the identical mistake because the helmet zealots. I imagine that the perfect factor about bikes is that they’re handy, enjoyable, and accessible, and that insisting individuals put on helmets always reduces that comfort, makes bikes appear far more harmful than they really are (and makes helmets appear more practical than they really are), and supplies individuals with a handy excuse responsible the sufferer in instances the place the sufferer occurs to not be sporting one.
However even I can’t declare that sporting a helmet whereas using a street bike in technical biking apparel is in any means inconvenient. Wriggling into bib tights and ratcheting my toes into particular footwear that I can’t even stroll in isn’t an inconvenience, however placing on a foam hat is? After all not. And as soon as the helmet is on I don’t even bear in mind whether or not I’m sporting it or not. Certain, when you’re on and off the bike loads and going out and in of outlets and café or no matter it’s annoying to maintain taking it off and placing it on once more. But when I’m sporting all of the dumb roadie stuff I’m not getting off the bike in any respect. I imply I can’t even stroll! Plus, it’s once I’m dressed up this manner that I’m going downhill at excessive pace within the first place. So the reality is, once I don’t put on a helmet in these conditions, I’m sort of going out of my means to not put on it simply to make a degree, which is simply as performative and lazy as all of the pro-helmet propaganda to which we’re routinely topic.
So will I put on a helmet extra typically now? Effectively for years I’d put one on if I used to be placing on all the opposite stuff too, however typically skip it if I used to be simply using in common garments like a standard individual, and going again to that appears cheap. And I do assume all this is a vital reminder that I should be extra versatile in my considering–regardless of the topic–and that I don’t should take a tough line on every thing.
Bike and Route Alternative
Okay, having rationalized my very own beliefs regarding helmets, let’s transfer onto the stuff that’s arguably far more essential. Looking back, I made two essential errors on that fateful experience, and so they had been:
My alternative of motorcycle
My alternative of route
It was a heat and nice day (for December), nevertheless it was additionally winter. This implies the roads are in dangerous form and there’s a variety of crap in them–particularly when it’s a park street on the base of a sheer rock face that experiences common rock slides. The truth is, that street is presently closed to bicycles for that very motive. But I steered my bike onto it anyway–not simply any bike, however a classic street racing bike bike with 25mm tires and slender handlebars. Anybody who’s ridden the skinny-tired racing bikes of yesteryear has skilled that sensation of hitting a pebble or a stick or one thing and feeling the entrance wheel nearly exit from beneath you. On this case the wheel did exit from beneath me, and at excessive pace, too. So what may I’ve executed in another way?
Effectively, I can’t say for certain, however I might enterprise that on the Roadini with it’s 38mm tires and wider handlebar and longer wheelbase I’d have been much less more likely to crash:
It’s additionally arduous for me to imagine that if I’d been on, say, the Jones, with its broad, upright bars and three-inch broad tires, I’d have even come near crashing in any respect:
So I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I’ll by no means experience a racing bike with skinny tires once more, identical to I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I’l by no means experience and not using a helmet once more. However the crash is definitely a reminder to decide on my bicycles conservatively–and there’s actually no excuse for me to decide on the incorrect bicycle for a experience when I’ve so a lot of them.
[And yes, as a commenter notes, it could absolutely have been a poorly-glued tire. Who needs to be riding tubulars in 2025? Also, the idea that I might have crashed due to a bad glue job and then cut my head open on a pair of M Frames is deeply and profoundly embarassing.]
And naturally route alternative is a minimum of as essential as bicycle alternative, and every ought to inform the opposite. When heading out that day I believed to myself, “I in all probability shouldn’t do River Street,” however I did anyway–regardless of having narrowly prevented a small rockslide on that very same hill only a week or two earlier than! Plus, like most cyclists in New York, I’ve at all times shrugged off the frequent River Street closures and simply made my means across the obstacles. However as I sat there bleeding and speaking to the law enforcement officials who referred to as the ambulance for me, we watched rider after rider go round that barrier–simply as I might have executed if I hadn’t crashed. They’d name after the riders to cease, however the riders would simply ignore them. “We’re an actual ache within the ass, aren’t we?,” I remarked, to which one the officers replied, “Effectively, sort of, sure.” She then defined that the obstacles had been there solely for our profit, since if somebody had been to crash and want medical help additional alongside the place the street was torn up they’d have a extremely tough time getting there.
Because it was, I crashed the place the street was nonetheless open, within the quick neighborhood of the police station and near the primary street. Had I crashed just a few miles later I’d have been sitting there bleeding; the police would by no means have occurred by and it will have been tough or not possible for the ambulance or my spouse to get to me, assuming I used to be even in a position to name them within the first place. As a substitute I’d have needed to clomp alongside in my cleats, dragging the wounded Cervino and bleeding from the pinnacle.
There’s loads incorrect with the entire “entitled bicycle owner” stereotype nevertheless it’s additionally not solely unearned, particularly with regards to our perception that street closures don’t apply to us.
My Age
Getting old doesn’t at all times occur to you abruptly, like a damaged chain; it occurs slowly, like, uh, a worn chain. The truth is it occurs so slowly you don’t even discover it…till you put in a brand new cassette and it begins skipping. I’m unsure the place I’m going with this, however do consider I just lately crashed and not using a helmet.
Oh, proper. The purpose is I’ve descended that hill a whole lot of instances, however what I by no means take into consideration is that every time I do it I’m a little bit older. My imaginative and prescient definitely will get a little bit worse. My response time in all probability will get a little bit slower. Possibly 25 year-old me (or 35 year-old, or 45 year-old, or…yikes) would have noticed that pebble and deftly prevented it.
I can’t cease myself from ageing, however I assume I may a minimum of be a little bit extra conscious of the situation of my chain.
