How to Ride your Ride

     I was reading Guitar Teds Blog about Risk Assessments.  It got me thinking about how people ride their bikes.  I am sure many ways exist on how to ride your bike improperly.  One that stands out in my mind is riding against traffic.  Outside of that, I can not think of many universally agreed upon ways to ride your bike wrong.  

    What got my noodle going is the helmet issue we still have.  Full disclosure I have done fat bike races without a helmet.  I am a fan of make your own decisions and be willing to pay the consequences when payment comes due.  That is life, look and understand what you are taking on.  Understand the consequences if things get weird.  And when things get weird, have a plan to address the weirdness.

    I lived in Alaska for 3 years while in the Army.  I

spent my summers in the outback hiking and camping.  Often I would carry a .45 handgun in the open.  It was to protect against bears.  I never saw a bear in all my adventures close up.  I saw them from a far or at least 300 yards or further away.  Based upon this experience I did the BC Epic 1000 race without bear spray.  I put a bear bell on my bike to help alert bears.  Welp, that plan failed. Twice, I found myself within 50 yards of a bear.  I survived none the less.  But I made a safety call based upon previous experiences.  From now on, I am taking bear spray with me.  Yes I know it works both ways, and chances are I will never use it, but I am old and I like insurance policies of sorts.

    This leads me into helmets.  I am beginning to wonder if helmets are a good thing.  Guitar Ted already said his piece on it, and I am going to tend to agree with his stance.  I think universal application of safety measures generally negate the safety measure emplaced.  People will find ways to bypass it.  Or people will used their nerfed item to push things farther.  Take a look at any sport over the last 20 years.  Any sport that has industrial currency in it, has become more dangerous.  People are using risk vs reward behavior then pushing the safety protocols to advance themselves.  My dad told me a Vietnam story.  When he showed up in Vietnam no one wore a helmet while operating a deuce and a half truck.  The problem was dismounting the truck and hitting your head on the side mirror.  So like the Army, they imposed a mass safety measure of wearing helmets.  The head strikes went up, but the injuries went down.  People stopped being mindful while dismounting and paid very little consequence for hitting their head.  The side effect of all this was, people had to adjust the side view mirror all the time.  How often after that did people stop adjusting their side view mirrors? My point is, did we create a secondary action that was undesirable?

    My stance on helmets is simple.  If you are racing, wear one.  If you are on the Tour Divide and solo, sure, go helmet less if you want.  Yes Salsa, I remember your Salsa Marketing with Jay Petervary riding with his helmet on his front roll.  I am fine with that, I kind of endorse it.  If you are riding by yourself, I am fine if you do you.  I did the Sterile Iowan 100 one year without a helmet.  I rode my bike at 12am till 6am with no helmet, because I was by myself, and I understood the risks.  

    I also believe if one person joins you on a ride, you should helmet up.  But then again, I violate that rule all the time.  If I take a bike share Divvy in Chicago, I am not wearing a helmet.  I asses the danger I am confronting is not gonna save me.  I fear a car running a stop from a side street more than the potholes in the bike lanes.  

    Back to the theme of the post, ride your bike how you want to.  If you want to rock a unicorn costume and pedal about town, please send me pictures.  If you want to get kitted up in Walmart's latest Rapha attire, go for it.  Can we acknowledge that we are not the cycling masses?  The real cyclist are the people whom are totally reliant on bikes.  Since volunteering at the collective I have connected faces and personalities to cyclists.  These people do not have much in their life.  I tend to give them scorching deals on things or out right refuse cash.  I will be judgmental in my next few sentences.  These people ride clapped out 26er bikes and think the world of them.  I help them dig through our tire pile to find less aggressive tread tires.  I tear off their WTB Velociraptors and put on some 26er Kenda BMX tread tires.  They can now roll faster around town.  

    The point I want to end with is that snob cyclists (yes that means you), we are out numbered.  You have people who have way less than us and are really the ones whom are setting our culture.  I can go an disappear to a big gravel race or Lifetime event and feel oh so inspired by cycling.  But lets be honest, very few of those people need cycling like the poor.  The people I have helped in the last few months know who I am from helping them.  I had a guy shout at me from across the street and thank me again for helping months earlier.  

    What does all that have to do with riding your ride?  Well, it has a lot to do with it.  People who need their bike to survive, do not care about Watts/KG or form.  They care about point A to point B and not changing clothes to do so.  They are basic in their approach and do not over think it.  Sometimes I think they enjoy it, but for the rest of us, are we really enjoying it?  Are we too caught up in fashion and not function?  The fashion of safety over riding and creating new issues that were unforeseen?