I'd love to go back to the carefree days of my childhood and ride without a helmet.
I was flicking through the Mountainbike Britain book, and there's a pic of Chris Moran in there, riding without a lid, it actually gave me a warm feeling along those^ sorts of lines!
I fall into the TJ camp of "safety benefit of helmet is outweighed by wind in your hair benefits on some rides", llthough I have to admit I crossed the line by some way at New Year.
I took a look at my helmet before a trip up Snowdon. It's getting on a bit and I noticed a number of cracks throught the polystyrene. It was very cold and windy up top, so I figured a wooly hat would be the better protective option, given the dangers.
We didn't get all the way up the Llanberis path, turned round at the halfway house, had an absolute ball on the way down, didn't feel vulnerable until I went otb. 1st time in ages I'd not been able to skip over and land on my feet. (a sneak too fast and steep?).
As I fell towards the ground, my thoughts turned irrevocably to my lack of helmet, and how to fall to protect my head. I managed to tuck it in and roll on my shoulders, managed to severely bruise my knee, and nothing else hurt at all. Felt pretty shaky, though (probably less shaky than the girl who I'd proposed to the day before watching from behind), and it was easier to ride the rest of the way than walk.
So new helmet on the shopping list for when the knee heals up. And I'll check it a bit more regularly this time!
But its not stupid - you didn't die did you
