riding in the cold
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:10 pm
(thought I had posted this the other day, but don't find it in the line up so I guess I must have neglected to press the submit button. so for what it's worth....)
I ride all winter. Most days I don't see any other riders---except, here and there, riders of bicycles. Come late Feb I begin to see other riders--few and far between. Two things I have noticed about these other hardy souls: They invariably are on cruisers and they invariably are sans helmet. This astonishes me greatly. I can well understand how someone might want the wind in his (thinning) hair on a hot day in July, but 30 or 35 degrees on a February day?
Most of the excuses people give for not wearing helmets are related to comfort. My observations above mentioned seem to give the lie to this. I think this helmetlessness-no-matter-what is more a matter of image. They would rather be freezing cold than uncool (or what they consider uncool).
As an almost any weather rider I can say that my greatest friend is my big, yellow, full-face plastic hat. No numb face. No frozen ears. I may look like a potato-head--but I am a comfortable potato and loving it.
I ride all winter. Most days I don't see any other riders---except, here and there, riders of bicycles. Come late Feb I begin to see other riders--few and far between. Two things I have noticed about these other hardy souls: They invariably are on cruisers and they invariably are sans helmet. This astonishes me greatly. I can well understand how someone might want the wind in his (thinning) hair on a hot day in July, but 30 or 35 degrees on a February day?
Most of the excuses people give for not wearing helmets are related to comfort. My observations above mentioned seem to give the lie to this. I think this helmetlessness-no-matter-what is more a matter of image. They would rather be freezing cold than uncool (or what they consider uncool).
As an almost any weather rider I can say that my greatest friend is my big, yellow, full-face plastic hat. No numb face. No frozen ears. I may look like a potato-head--but I am a comfortable potato and loving it.