She’ll need that (massive) helmet though – she only has one brake on those tiny handlebars and it’s not connected to anything. 😕

It was connected, she broke the cable in the crash doing extreme downhill on her rigid fixie. She’s that hardcore.

That explains the bruises under her eyes.

Nasty wounds/bruises on her face. Imagine what she would have looked like without a hat?

[sorry Graham…x-post!]

p.s. I was smiling about this thread during a ride last night. The one thing that no-one has mentioned so far (I believe) is branches. Took a couple of solid branch hits on the helmet last night and was relieved that this was one of the 9/10 rides not the 1/10 version!! Didnt help with the shredded shin though!!

al has made her a unicycle and she is perfectly wise to wear a massive helmet before testing his prototype

teamhurtmore – That’s true – I got a low branch on a night ride. Felt like a baseball bat to the head, and was with my massive helmet [oooh eeer].

Branches and hidden brambles in bracken are my current bugbears.

Everything seems really overgrown (well my cheeky trails anyway) at the moment. I had a couple of “moments” in 7′ high inpenetrable bracken and thorns on “usual” trails last night. Disappeared completely and the subsequent camouflage made me look like i should be on the archery thread!!

The thing I most commonly bang my helmet on (ooer!) is the door frame of the shed 😳

GrahamS – Member

The thing I most commonly bang my helmet on (ooer!) is the door frame of the shed

I have quite a good record of accidently headbutting the missus. 😳

Not wearing a polystyrene hat saved my life!

While riding home from the pub without my polystyrene hat on my head(the eagle eyed among you will have probably spotted the root cause of the problem from the last sentence) I attempted to slide the round a loose gravel corner. The wheels dug in, I high sided, and found myself flying head first parallel to the ground.

When I hit the ground the first point of contact was my shoulder. As soon as it hit the ground I started rolling. The end result was that I had a very sore shoulder, quite a bit of grazing on the side of my head, and a severe lecture from the missus about drinking to much.

Had I been wearing my polystyrene hat the first point of impact wouldn’t have been my shoulder it would have been my head. I can’t tell you how much energy my shoulder absorbed in the impact but I can guarantee you it was more than the 0.2 inches of compression in the helmet would have.

Had I been wearing the lid I’m sure I’d be sitting here saying that the helmet left me ‘only’ concussed and not dead.

I still always wear my helmet mountain biking.

Funny thing with the branches, I think the only times I’ve clocked my head on low branches has been while wearing a helmet.

This is pure personal observation, no axe to grind, no risk compensation theories or anything! Promise!

I’m guessing it’s because your upwards peripheral vision is compromised, especially if you’re sporting a peak.

That’s why I’ve ripped the peaks off all my helmets.

Except the full face helmets obviously. Who ever heard of a full face helmet without a peak. Farcical notion.

The Future, would you ?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Oud3iGXWY#at=46[/video]

Can’t see youtube at work. If it’s the inflatable collarbaghelmet, no.

I saw a lady this morning with her (child’s?) helmet so far back on her head, she was into polystyrene fascinator territory.

Had I been wearing my polystyrene hat the first point of impact wouldn’t have been my shoulder it would have been my head. I can’t tell you how much energy my shoulder absorbed in the impact but I can guarantee you it was more than the 0.2 inches of compression in the helmet would have.

How do you work that one out? Your shoulder took most the impact then you grazed your head. Ok. The extra thickness of a helmet will cause your head to hit the ground sooner. Agreed. But your shoulder is still taking a large amount of the impact. The impact on the helmet would be minimal if your head only had light grazes after the fall. By the way you describe the crash if you had been wearing a helmet and it had hit the ground first your shoulder will still be taking most the impact.