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Friday 161: General Strike in Brazil (pg. 6)
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| JEO |
| quote: | Originally posted by ziptnf
I'll tell you what thick skin is, it's being 20 miles into a 30 mile route through hills, forests and flat lands, having a serious accident involving a sprained wrist, possible concussion, and a hurt shoulder and hip and then banging out the last 10 miles anyway. |
I wish there was some serious cyclist version of that Gorilla Warfare copy-pasta. |
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| Zoso |
| Damn...nearly missed a thread. Spent the Memorial Day weekend doing yard work, house chores, and generally feeling like death warmed over. We're getting the remnants of a tropical storm/depression over the next 2 days, but we needed the rain. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
Part of my irritation about the helmet thing stems from the tendency of "serious" cyclists to be insufferable "professional hobbyists", the kind of over-worked, put-upon middle class bloke who suffers from road rage, passive aggressiveness in the workplace and a general fastidiously realised frustration that the external world doesn't conform to his exact preferences. It's the same breed of sanctimonious wit who patrols running forums proselytising that nobody should ever wear earphones while running, because there is a chance you could get hit by a vehicle if you're a complete ing idiot and never look around you before venturing onto a road.
I remember once cycling through one of the docks in Leeds in a stretch that is a sort of hybridised road/pedestrian area that allows vehicles through but is mostly used by pedestrians. It was about 8am and there were a lot of commuters walking through, so I was free-wheeling, literally at walking pace, so as not to collide with anyone. A fully fluorescent cycle berk with helmet camera, saddle bags and retina-scarring orange apparel was cycling in the opposite direction towards me. When it became apparent that I wasn't going to move out of his way into the flow of pedestrians, he started screaming "Where are you going? Where the are you going?" like an unhinged Vietnam veteran suddenly flashing back to being abandoned by his squad mates in some creeper-laced foxhole. To this day, I've no idea what he was so agitated about. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by JEO
I wish there was some serious cyclist version of that Gorilla Warfare copy-pasta. |
| quote: | Originally posted by BikeHunt
What the did you just ing say about me, you little ? I'll have you know I earned a yellow jersey in the Tour de France, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Lance Armstrong's lab, and I have over 300 unconfirmed shots. I am trained in men's keirin and I'm the top sprinter in the entire US Olympic team. You are nothing to me but just another sluggard. I will wipe you the out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my ing words. You think you can get away with saying that to me over the Internet? Think again, er. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of soigneurs across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're ing dead, kid. I can be anywhere, any time, and I can outrun you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my fixed gear bike. Not only am I extensively trained in triathlons, but I have access to all tracks selection of the United States velodromes and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the race, you little . If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little clever comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your ing tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the blood-booster erythropoietin and steroids to make it up for your up. |
Ta-da! How about this!? |
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| Lews |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
You'll find me very annoying, then. I don't even own a helmet and I commute by bike.
There's actually very little statistical support for the safety benefits of wearing a helmet. A lot of the data suggests that they cause as many neck injuries as they prevent head injuries, that they encourage motorists to drive more carelessly around the wearer, and even that pedestrians are more likely to suffer head injuries than cyclists. |
I'm going to ignore the next three pages of arguing, but may I ask why you don't own/wear a helmet? I do find that very annoying - besides being a good friend, you're extremely intelligent and it would be a shame if you lost some of your brilliance because of a head injury.
I understand that there may be more injuries whilst wearing a helmet, due to many issues, but they are less severe than the possible serious injuries suffered without wearing a helmet. Surely the expected return whilst wearing a helmet is better than the expected return whilst not wearing a helmet?
I know too many people who have had horrible head injuries, including myself, not to care, but especially bikers who had accidents that were 100% not their fault but the fault of cars/lorries/etc near them (and skiiers/snowboarders/etc). |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lews
I'm going to ignore the next three pages of arguing, but may I ask why you don't own/wear a helmet? |
The main reason is that my work doesn't have any kind of showering facilities, so I need to turn up to work in a state fit to work. Wearing headwear in any season other than winter means getting sweaty very quickly, and I don't want to turn up to work dripping with sweat and with my hair plastered to my head, especially after already having showered at home. In summer, I cycle in a shirt and shorts. Hopefully that should give you an idea of how laid back my commute is.
I decided when I started commuting by bike that the real risk was getting hit by a vehicle in the first place, so I deliberately figured out a commute that keeps me off the road for 80% of the journey, even if it involves cycling on the footpath in places and annoying a few pedestrians. My average speed during my commute is something like 8mph. In two years and well over 2,000 miles of commuting, I've fallen off my bike exactly three times, always due to black ice, and I was going at walking pace on a path physically barriered from traffic on each occasion. After that, I resolved to just use public transport if the weather report gave any indication of ice in the morning.
If I actually owned a racing bike, cycled predominantly in busy traffic and at a high speed, of course I would wear a helmet and padding. I'm not stupid. Wearing a helmet when you're cycling on a path at 8mph on the off-chance you might fall in some bizarre way that stops you from putting your hands out or bracing your body is just ludicrous trepidation in my eyes. There's much more risk of getting a head injury while playing (association) football, but you would get ridiculed for doing that. |
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| Silky Johnson |
| So it's because you're arrogant. Shocking. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| Arf. Get a ing grip. |
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| Silky Johnson |
| Not the response I was expecting. :stongue: |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| I'm frankly amazed that incredibly busy Los Angeles businessman DJ RANN hasn't jizzed out a 3,000 word stat-wank yet. I can feel it in my bones, though, the way cows can feel the rains coming. |
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| DJ RANN |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
The main reason is that my work doesn't have any kind of showering facilities, so I need to turn up to work in a state fit to work. Wearing headwear in any season other than winter means getting sweaty very quickly, and I don't want to turn up to work dripping with sweat and with my hair plastered to my head, especially after already having showered at home. In summer, I cycle in a shirt and shorts. Hopefully that should give you an idea of how laid back my commute is.
I decided when I started commuting by bike that the real risk was getting hit by a vehicle in the first place, so I deliberately figured out a commute that keeps me off the road for 80% of the journey, even if it involves cycling on the footpath in places and annoying a few pedestrians. My average speed during my commute is something like 8mph. In two years and well over 2,000 miles of commuting, I've fallen off my bike exactly three times, always due to black ice, and I was going at walking pace on a path physically barriered from traffic on each occasion. After that, I resolved to just use public transport if the weather report gave any indication of ice in the morning.
If I actually owned a racing bike, cycled predominantly in busy traffic and at a high speed, of course I would wear a helmet and padding. I'm not stupid. Wearing a helmet when you're cycling on a path at 8mph on the off-chance you might fall in some bizarre way that stops you from putting your hands out or bracing your body is just ludicrous trepidation in my eyes. There's much more risk of getting a head injury while playing (association) football, but you would get ridiculed for doing that. |
So if I'm understanding this, the reason you don't wear a helmet is vanity (fair enough), and the fact you cycle in a town with already great cycle friendly paths and routes, barely actually touch a road but also cycle on the pavement and your average speed is 8mph.....
You do realize that your situation is unbelievably niche and just about every other major city in Europe (let alone the states where cyclists are basically annoying tire lubrication) it's a case of when you'll be hit/clipped/have a crash, not if?
And yes, I know very well the site I linked to presents both sides but you'll realize it tries to offset deaths form cycling against people saved from heart disease due to cycling (lol). Also talks heavily bout injuries prevented by helmets - it just has a certain bizarre bias against legislation and I have a feeling it's run by one of these "freemen" libertards. Regardless I posted up enough links and can find hundreds more that show the simple fact of wearing one vs not is a no brainer and the evidence is abundant.I also linked to five other great sites including one that completely debunks the aforementioned slant.
So no, you won't get a 3000 word stat-jizz all over your face from me, I'll just say I told you so and send your Darwin Award when the time comes. |
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