Time for a New Helmet
alt text
Black bicycle helmet with dents and scrapes.
Went mountain biking on my lunch break yesterday, as I often do, here in town. Trails aren't too crazy - lots of roots, some steep climbs, some loose surfaces - but overall pretty mild. I was just there Monday for my weekly group ride, and ride the place often enough I know it well. Good ride overall, with a PR on the first/biggest climb, and at a quick enough pace to add some extra distance.
Then as I was wrapping up, my head found a low-hanging branch that wasn't there two days earlier. It wasn't enough to cause a crash, but I definitely felt the impact, and put a couple of sizable dents and scrapes on my helmet. I still had a headache two hours later, and thanks to having a neuropsychologist wife who knows all the bad things that could potentially be, we made a trip to urgent care to confirm it was a mild concussion and nothing more serious. Symptoms were nothing worse than a headache, and I'm fine this morning.
The helmet did its job. The kind of amazing thing is I've been riding seriously enough to know I need to wear a helmet since the early 90's, and this is the first one I've destroyed. Usually they get replaced because of age, or when they get gross, and this one was quickly approaching both of those points. I'll be happy to continue with this mandatory replacement interval in the future.
Then as I was wrapping up, my head found a low-hanging branch that wasn't there two days earlier. It wasn't enough to cause a crash, but I definitely felt the impact, and put a couple of sizable dents and scrapes on my helmet. I still had a headache two hours later, and thanks to having a neuropsychologist wife who knows all the bad things that could potentially be, we made a trip to urgent care to confirm it was a mild concussion and nothing more serious. Symptoms were nothing worse than a headache, and I'm fine this morning.
The helmet did its job. The kind of amazing thing is I've been riding seriously enough to know I need to wear a helmet since the early 90's, and this is the first one I've destroyed. Usually they get replaced because of age, or when they get gross, and this one was quickly approaching both of those points. I'll be happy to continue with this mandatory replacement interval in the future.
- 382 Views
- 1 Save
- 25 Likes
Post URL
https://stage.mltshp.com/p/1RR1Y
@wjcstp Exactly. Most of my stupid crashes the last few years have been places I knew really well, and probably wasn't being as careful as I needed to be.
Glad you had protection, got care quickly and know what to do.
@shitleopard For a while in the 90s I was working in a professional building hard by a field that had been slated for a suburban development that never happened, so the local riders had done some clandestine trailbuilding, making sure that no part of the trail got within 50 feet of the road where the weeds got thin enough that you could see people.
It was pretty awesome lunchtime ride, particularly if the morning involved having to deal with a super-special client.
Glad I didn't cheap out on a helmet, nor will I this time. My old one was one of the top-rated by Virginia Tech when I got it (still very highly rated). It was more of a glance than direct hit, I suspect the MIPs setup probably helped quite a bit.
It is compulsory to wear a helmet when riding here and I buy a new one every 4 or 5 years or if I have a stack.
This helmet was built 3/22, so it would have been due before too long anyway. I also ride a lot and sweat heavily during our humid summers, so it was starting to get kind of gross.
I had two bike falls last year, both stupid. Hit a parked car, the only parked car in that whole street so it just didn’t register and I was talking with by friend until I saw it, and I was too close. The second one was when the bungee cord of my front basket came loose and the hook got stuck in my wheel until my front wheel blocked completely and I went over the handle bars. In both cases my body hit the tarmac, but my head didn’t. But there was some extreme quick de-acceleration involved so I probably had some light concussions. And the most amazing bruises.
New helmet time.