Remember kids... always wear a helmet. (The almighty bikeradar helmet thread)

On my way to work today my boyfriend past me and whistled. He was running lat
e so he sped off. As I watched him ride I got one of those awful thoughts in my hea
d about what would happen if he got hit by a car. My thoughts turned to the fact that nei
ther of us wear helmets. "What happens if he gets hit and is permanently impaired". I thought of my life caring for an invalid. Suddenly it occured to me that Mike is actually just a selfish jerk. While I don't believe the government should have any say over whether or not we wear helmets surely it's just plain selfish not to.
Do we really think that just because we don't think it's cool, or it fucks up our hair, or it's a bit of an inconvenience or discomfort that we should risk putting our loved ones through a lifetime of inconvenience and discomfort as they care for us fools?

There are also kind and thoughtful people who drive cars. While I am in full belief that by accepting the responsibility of driving a death-causing vehicle you accept the risks that come with it, that only makes my opinion stronger that non-helmeted riders are setting up drivers for even more heart-ache, god forbid there is an accident and the rider has brain damage.
I will be the first cyclist to say that if there is an accident between a car and bike, no matter the circumstances, the assumed responsibility is on the driver (perhaps I'll explain this in a different thread). But surely a helmet is a fairly easy way of keeping yourself a bit safer.

Keeping heart-ache and a lifetime of shit away from my loved ones is, I would say, a good goal.

Getting into an accident and being brain-damaged is of course not the most probable thing that will happen when you ride a bike.
That said, getting an STI is not the most probable thing that will happen when you go shag someone. However, I would bet that the high majority of us use a condom.
Sure sex is a lot better without one and they are a mild inconvenience and a mini killjoy but we all accept condoms as a pretty necessary part of the modern sexlife.
We would even go as far as to say those who don't use condoms are selfish jerks as they could be putting someone they care about into a whole world of hurt for their own desires.

So my thoughts go to me lying on my back, not in the throws of passion but with Mike feeding me as I am no longer able to feed myself. Perhaps he is waiting for my mom to come over to take her turn at babysitting me.

Maybe all of us non-helmet wearing selfish fools should sign waivers that say that our loved ones shouldn't take care of us if we injure ourselves because of our own selfish wants.
Perhaps car drivers shouldn't be responsible for head injuries caused by them hitting non-helmet wearing riders. [Note to reader, I have a list of resons why this should never happen].

Basically I think that I'm going to go buy a helmet now and maybe one for Mike (does that make me selfish?)
Maybe I can help create the trend that wearing a helmet is the only way to ride and helmet hair is the coolest 'do in Shoreditch.