Helmets – Yes or No?

This video is going to stir people up. So it was mandatory that I jump in to do my bit to help out – in the stirring that is.

I appreciate the ease and freedom of being able to jump on a bike and head down the road without need of worrying about any extra equipment – before I became at all serious about cycling this seemed the point and I flouted any helmet laws as I could. After  years of riding I have now had enough experience to know that unless you are riding down  gorgeous paved, carless streets on a retro cruiser somewhere in Europe, this is unwise  – if not downright stupid. But that, in itself, doesn’t mean people shouldn’t have the choice.

I have friends who, without question, would not be with us today had they not been wearing a helmet. I know how dangerous it is to ride in numerous cities where you have to assume you are invisible if you are on a bike. I have a deep respect for the fact that getting on a bicycle in any environment except an empty paddock after a recent rain is, by its nature, dangerous. This sense of unpredictable danger makes me incredulous of anyone pulling a trailer with children in it through heavy traffic or even, I have to admit, using  a Dutch bike with one of those human buckets on the front. These may well be fine in certain environments – primarily  the wide, flat, cycle filled streets of Holland for which they were designed – I honestly think they are not for rush hour streets in any country with a serious car culture. Personally I would never put my children in such clear and present danger… but I digress.

In the end I see arguments for both sides. Certainly relaxing these laws on those using the metro-based bike hire schemes in Australia would increase the take up. Possibly, as has been suggested, make it a choice and if you sustain a head injury while not wearing one you lose any right of litigation (less nanny state more self responsibility and responsibility for the consequences).

I do however have real problems with this video – and this is less the cyclist in me than the sceptic and marketer.

How these images of people cruising easily through empty streets relates at all to any traffic situation in an Australian city I have no idea.

There is a real problem with equating obesity with helmet laws. It certainly is true that Australia has worked its way up to being the fattest country in the world – implying that this is in any way connected to helmet laws is not only ridiculous but should be the first flag for questioning the way this message is presented.

The video makers are plainly wrong about cycling in Australia – all the indications and statistics show that cycling as an activity, sport, recreation and as transport has increased almost geometrically in recent years. And all the statistics also show that fatalities from cycling accidents have halved since mandatory helmet laws were introduced in the early nineties.

If, as they say, utility cycling has ceased for ‘a whole generation’ ( and as a side note we should be wary of sweeping statement like this in any politically motivated content) it is not because of helmet laws – it is quite clearly, from the visual they show to fit this dialogue, that the streets are so congested with cars that it is, flat out, a dangerous pursuit – which would demand some small amount of caution and protection before doing it – a helmet at least, full body armour and a police escort if you can swing it.

This crusade is presented as wanting to increase cycling take up, which is a noble cause, however I can think of numerous other places to put your attention, time and creativity than getting helmet laws repealed to achieve this goal. I, for one, do not believe having to wear a helmet is stopping any significant part of the population from riding. I’d say lack of safety, cycle ways, and the attitudes of both the not-yet-cycling public and drivers in general are in the way.

This could have been a light, charming call to try a new or lost recreation. This could have concentrated on getting a 1.5m passing law put in place or a campaign to get new cycling lanes established.  If you want more people on bikes this seems an odd route to take. We can only assume that the maker has a new bike, a new do and just can’t tolerate helmet hair.

What do you think?

Yours

Crankski

 

 

 

Not so Tough after all

 

Don’t get me wrong – I love cycling. I love that every morning I can head out and find some casual sport with other riders heading down Beach Road here in Melbourne. I love the irony of engaging in a pursuit the mantra of which is ‘Harden the F**k Up’ while wearing brightly colored skin tight lycra.

I love seeing over weight, middle aged men spending their mid-life crisis getting fit on a bike that their income may afford them but their experience does not – beats the hell out of buying a porsche.

I love the absurd, snobbishness and elitism of roadies. I love that when the meme takes hold all the details do matter – that getting the right socks suddenly seems important. I love the unsaid, seldom written code of the culture that can only be osmosed over time and immersion in it.

I love the gear, the blend of history and technology.

And I’m a roadie. We’re the tough guys, right ? All race face and yelling at each other to ‘close that gap’.

So when a close friend talked me into doing a 6 hour 2 man team Mountain bike race I thought – ‘Sure, I’m up for that’

Admittedly I had spent the week or two before hand drinking martini’s in the tropics with the company of a very recent and talented female friend – Turns out this is only a reasonable training plan if you’re 007 ( Damn you popular culture – you misled me …again!)

Admittedly I have limited MTB skills having only been out into the bush a handful of times.

Admittedly my winter training has fallen foul of the weather…and I  did share three bottles of wine with my team mate the night before ( I’m realising things may have been more stacked against me than I thought) -however I did not realise how unprepared I was.

Pete, the other half of the team, and I did a recky of the 10 km course as the light was fading the day before the race. We had underestimated how technical it was ( for the uninitiated ‘technical’ is Mountain Biker speak for rocky and terrifying – y’know ‘technical’)

The marble ground of the gold fields is brutally unforgiving as Pete found out during our recky – falling twice and injuring himself before we even got to race day. It was a little sobering – hence being driven to drink the aforementioned wine – the best defence against soberness.

So race day arrives and Pete draws the short straw for going first. The riders have to run from the top the a hill down to where their bikes are – only possible due to recessed cleats on MTB shoes – in road shoes it would have been a comedy routine. In the end it was a comedy routine anyway as I waited with Pete bike while he moseyed down the hill. I don’t know if this was a protest or a strategy to let the field get away on us so that  he could take on the technical bits without the added technical difficulty of 300 others trying to negotiate the same piece of single track at the same time.

Pete had been spooked by his falls the day before and walked the ‘techy’ hurty bits and turned up around 50 mins later as I was desperately trying to warm up by doing hill repeats near the transition area. I say ‘transition’ however that is not a good definition of what we pulled off passing the baton throughout the day –  it was more an ‘evolution’ and took a similar amount of eons each time we finished a lap.

I know that mountain biking is a different set of skills and fitness than road riding, I know that riding on Pete’s local bike shop’s demo bike ( lovely as it was) wasn’t going to give me my best performance… but for all of these things I knew it was still confronting bursting my lungs as others rolled on by me hardly  breaking a sweat it seemed. That’s usually my gig – the hearty ‘ How you doing?’  as I effortlessly pass and dust off someone as they struggle up a climb. Somehow it was all exhausting, the downhill parts needed such concentration, on my part, I can’t say I was able to recover from the climbs during them.

Mountain biking (is say with my broad depth of experience) is all about balls and momentum. You have to know and trust both your bike and your ability and the best way over  the rocks is – as fast as you can. Inertia is your enemy. If you lose momentum and then hit that small rock it will stop you in your tracks – and if you’re unprepared you’ll fall. If you have the balls and the skills you can roll right over stuff that will scare the hell out of anyone used to asphalt ( me for example)

I struggled through three laps and Pete finished four – we didn’t totally lose but even with a complete lack of expectation about the result ( we’re just in it for the ‘fun’ – (please define that word again for me))  it was kinda brutal. However I did negotiate  33 km of pretty techy ( by all accounts) single trail with out falling or injuring anything but my ego. I was introduced to  a cycling culture so different from road riding that it needs to be commented on.

This was a race. There were serious athletes competing. The whole course was on single track ( yes that means enough space for one bike) and a very broad range of skills and speeds across the field. I had to pull off numerous times to let others pass me, and occasionally I did pass others. Throughout  what could have been a desperate shit fight, everyone was polite, understanding and totally supportive of us lesser mortals who were just trying to survive. There was no ‘ get off my wave’ stuff at all.

I was kinda humbled by the whole thing. The mad skills of these guys, the massive cahoonas on them and the inclusive and fun nature of the whole event.

I’m not sure when or if I’ll do it again but it has to be said – us roadies, not so tough after all – not this one at least.

 

 

 

 

 

The Shave

When you begin road cycling you start down a road of slow erosion of resistance to things you would never in your life have considered doing in the past. First is going out in public,  ’commando’ in skin tight lycra and in shoes that make you walk like a duck.

The next is a larger jump and I have to admit I resisted for longer than most – shaving your legs.

And if your still resistant your main question will be ‘Why?I don’t really have to do that do I?’

Road riders have many explanations for why leg shaving is so necessary. Most of them are erroneous or just plain bullshit. We may tell you that it is more aerodynamic, that is makes road rash easier to treat, that it makes it easier for the legs to be massaged but unless we are actually an elite pro-rider with regular sessions booked in the wind tunnel and a full time masseur, this is complete rubbish.

There are a few reasons roadies shave their legs and none of them are to do with practically or speed.

1. Belonging – Road cycling has a long and proud history. By shaving your legs you are stepping in to that history and committing to what for many is more a lifestyle than just a sport. You’re giving more weight to a sense of belonging with your fellow roadies than reasonable common sense – all obsessions demand this, just accept it.

2.Vanity – If you have spent years and endless hours and sweat building those quads and calves to sculptural proportions you want to show them off. A haze of leg hair interrupts the sharp profiles and dangerous corners of  those muscles you’ve worked so hard for – these are psychological tools against your opponents in a race, don’t hide them

3.Respect – In any group ride someone with hairy legs is going to stand out as a beginner – someone to be wary of, someone without enough experience (or commitment) to be able to trust. Shaving your legs is a signal that you’ve taken that step to invest the time and pain in taking the sport seriously enough that shaving your legs does not represent a threat to your masculinity – any more than wearing skin tight, brightly coloured lycra in public does.

 

As I said I was resistant for a long time. My legs are, when unattended to, very…. very hairy and I suspect that the sheer amount of work that seemed to be involved held up the decision to take the plunge for a long time.

When I finally did decide that I was going over to the dark side it was when I bought a bike so beautiful that it would have been an arrestable offence to get on it with the legs I had. If I had been in Italy or France I may have been arrested for even considering riding it with hairy legs.

I screwed it up royally. There is something very different about getting a razor to happily plane over the multiple angled surfaces of your calves and knees and thighs – an serious extra level of skill and experience to shaving the relatively uniform, and small area, your face represents. This added to the contortionist act that you need to perform to get to the back of your legs meant I was woefully unprepared – there was a lot of blood and of course having developed my legs into highly efficient machines, the capillaries that do such a great job delivering blood to the muscles also did a great job of continuing that supply – down the outside of my legs.

It was all a little ridiculous and hurty – a kind of tragic comedy routine. This added to the fact that the skin beneath had never previously seen the light of  day and was therefore glow-in-the-dark white, made me question my resolve.

But there was no turning back. I didn’t consider that going out with my legs half shaved was really an option (remembering the 3rd reason ( above) for shaving in the first place) so I pressed on with as little skill as I’d started.

It was a mess and it was surprising how long those small cuts and abrasions took to heal. I tried to pretend they were from my last crash in some important race where a small dog had crossed the course – luckily no-one asked, possibly because it was all too obvious and embarrassing.

The first time – it’s not for the weak hearted. Put aside some time and be patient, careful and aware. Here’s a few tips learnt on the road.

1.Use clippers first if your legs are very hairy. A razor simply won’t cut it against a forest. The clippers on an electric razor work well for this part. Once you’ve got rid of all the fuzz you’ll then be able to see better the complex shapes and corners of your calves.

2. Use shaving foam or gel. I have to admit these days – I just use an electric shaver – the first experience with a cheap razor still haunts me. If you are using a razor, use shaving foam or some similar lubricant. Showering first will soften the hair and make the whole things easier.

3. Go slowly – Remembering your legs have not only  a highly developed capillary structure ( due to all the riding you’ve been doing) but also major arteries.

4.Be smooth and deliberate about each stroke – you don’t want to go over areas again as this can irritate the skin.

5.Tight skin is best for shaving. It provides less chance of cuts and a closer shave so keep those legs straight. Also remember the profiles and surface of your legs can change dramatically dependent on which muscles are flexed. Be especially careful on any concave surfaces and behind the knee. No razor is designed to handle these. The ankles are also places to be careful about for small nicks and the front of our calves can be stripped like a carrot if you’re not paying close attention.

6.Sharp razors are best – and if you are hairy make sure you have enough of them. You don’t want to risk injury using a blunt one and it will be a drag if you have to bike to the store to get more with one leg shaved and the other not.

7. Go all the way. I had this dilmena where I wasn’t sure where to stop – the clear decision is  ’don’t’. Go to the top of your thigh if only so that when you next go swimming you’re not  a laughing stock. The ‘Hairy Shorts’ look was never in – and never should be in any world we want to live in.

8. Never stop. There is no going back – once you’ve started doing this you’ll be doing it forever. Male leg stubble is dangerous to everything that comes in contact with it – including your own legs. Also if you did have to mow down a forest to get there you won’t want to leave it to the point that you have to do it again – its much easier just to shave them every couple of days than get the clippers out again.

9.Be resolute. You have now crossed over to a new level of commitment to your sport – own it. I’ve had to field the eye rolling  and ‘Really, Dad?’ from my teen aged daughter many times. One of her friends even caught me in the back yard with the clippers once. Remember – no-one else but other cyclists will understand. You have a long list of reasons to give should anyone ask – aerodynamics, road rash treatment, ease of massage – all of these can be pumped up to not only sounds plausible but also allude to how fast and hard you are on a bike. It’s all about the spin.

I hope that helps. We need to be honest here – road riding is about many things for those of us that are into it. One of them is aesthetics – the lines on that bike you love, the design of your favorite cycling shirt – your legs, and their sleekness,  are part of this appreciation. If you’re going to take the plunge – good luck, we salute you.