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 occurring once more.
In fact, simply as abstinence is one of the best type of contraception, not using a bicycle is one of the simplest ways to keep away from a bicycle crash. Nevertheless, each these choices suck. Plus, not less than sexual abstinence is just about foolproof. Off the highest of my head, I can consider just one occasion of immaculate conception involving a lady, and none involving a person…except you rely works of fiction, that’s:
I cannot inflame the devoted amongst you by suggesting that the stainless conception involving a lady may also be a piece of fiction–not less than not so quickly after the alleged immaculately conceived little one’s birthday, anyway.
However velocipedal abstinence is not at all a assure that you just’ll keep away from harm. You can fall within the bathe. You can get hit by a automotive whereas standing on line at Dunkin’ Donuts. You can die from autoerotic asphyxiation, like George Washington did. [Intern: fact-check that.] I’ve invoked the smart 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 might I’ve accomplished in a different way to keep away from my very own crash? And the way ought to I alter my conduct sooner or later?
Helmets
My emotions about helmets are well-known:
In order I flew via the air with an unprotected noggin, you may make certain that one of many foremost issues on my thoughts was, “Boy, if I bash my cranium in, I’m gonna seem like an actual asshole.”
Thankfully this didn’t occur. Sure, I incurred a lower above my proper eye that required stitches, however except I’d been carrying a full-face helmet with a face defend 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 all various 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 carrying a helmet saved my life.
However each of these make me uncomfortable. The primary conclusion is smart on its face, nevertheless it additionally fails to bear in mind The Drebin Precept, which is that dwelling your life and eliminating threat 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 may ask, “When you had identified for sure you had been going to crash, would you may have 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 capable of stroll (limp) away, it will be too straightforward for me to double down and say, “No, truly I nonetheless wouldn’t have placed on a helmet,” which is lazy and contrarian, even for me.
So, after eager about 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 understand that in being so doctrinaire about it I’m making precisely the identical mistake because the helmet zealots. I imagine that one of the best factor about bikes is that they’re handy, enjoyable, and accessible, and that insisting folks 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 offers folks with a handy excuse accountable the sufferer in instances the place the sufferer occurs to not be carrying one.
However even I can’t declare that carrying a helmet whereas using a highway bike in technical biking apparel is in any means inconvenient. Wriggling into bib tights and ratcheting my ft into particular footwear that I can’t even stroll in isn’t an inconvenience, however placing on a foam hat is? In fact not. And as soon as the helmet is on I don’t even bear in mind whether or not I’m carrying it or not. Certain, if you happen to’re on and off the bike quite a bit 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 carrying 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 after I’m dressed up this manner that I’m going downhill at excessive pace within the first place. So the reality is, after I don’t put on a helmet in these conditions, I’m form of going out of my means to not put on it simply to make some extent, 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 usually now? Effectively for years I’d put one on if I used to be placing on all the opposite stuff too, however usually skip it if I used to be simply using in common garments like a standard individual, and going again to that appears affordable. And I do suppose all this is a vital reminder that I should be extra versatile in my pondering–regardless of the topic–and that I don’t should take a tough line on all the pieces.
Bike and Route Alternative
Okay, having rationalized my very own beliefs regarding helmets, let’s transfer onto the stuff that’s arguably far more necessary. On reflection, I made two necessary errors on that fateful trip, and so they had been:
My selection of motorcycle
My selection 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 loads of crap in them–particularly when it’s a park highway on the base of a sheer rock face that experiences common rock slides. In truth, that highway is presently closed to bicycles for that very cause. But I steered my bike onto it anyway–not simply any bike, however a classic highway 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 virtually exit from below you. On this case the wheel did exit from below me, and at excessive pace, too. So what might I’ve accomplished in a different way?
Effectively, I can’t say for certain, however I’d 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 exhausting for me to imagine that if I’d been on, say, the Jones, with its vast, upright bars and three-inch vast tires, I’d have even come near crashing in any respect:
So I’d be mendacity if I stated I’ll by no means trip a racing bike with skinny tires once more, similar to I’d be mendacity if I stated I’l by no means trip and not using a helmet once more. However the crash is actually a reminder to decide on my bicycles conservatively–and there’s actually no excuse for me to decide on the fallacious bicycle for a trip when I’ve so lots 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 selection is not less than as necessary as bicycle selection, and every ought to inform the opposite. When heading out that day I assumed 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 all the time 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 cops who known as the ambulance for me, we watched rider after rider go round that barrier–simply as I’d have accomplished 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, form of, sure.” She then defined that the obstacles had been there fully for our profit, since if somebody had been to crash and want medical help additional alongside the place the highway was torn up they’d have a very tough time getting there.
Because it was, I crashed the place the highway was nonetheless open, within the quick neighborhood of the police station and near the primary highway. Had I crashed a couple of 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 inconceivable for the ambulance or my spouse to get to me, assuming I used to be even capable of 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 top.
There’s quite a bit fallacious with the entire “entitled bicycle owner” stereotype nevertheless it’s additionally not fully unearned, particularly in the case of our perception that highway closures don’t apply to us.
My Age
Ageing doesn’t all the time occur to you all of the sudden, like a damaged chain; it occurs slowly, like, uh, a worn chain. In truth it occurs so slowly you don’t even discover it…till you put in a brand new cassette and it begins skipping. I’m undecided the place I’m going with this, however do remember 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 somewhat older. My imaginative and prescient actually will get somewhat worse. My response time in all probability will get somewhat slower. Perhaps 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 getting older, however I suppose I might not less than be somewhat extra conscious of the situation of my chain.
