[PLUG-TALK] Bike helmets, science, and anger

[Rich Shepard]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2016, Denis Heidtmann wrote:

> I have two personal experiences:

   I started racing bikes in New York City in 1957. The helmets available
then were the leather-covered metal "hair nets." While not as effective as
the foam and plastic helmets developed since then, they did prevent injuries.

   The worst accident in which I was involved occurred in the 1960 Olympic
qualifying trial held in Central Park. The peleton was about 100 meters
behind a break-away group as we rode down the hill along 110th Streed, all
doing about 50 mph, when someone at the front clipped the rear wheel of the
bike just ahead of him.

   About 60 of us went down. I had folks jump my legs, but had a bike ride
over one arm. My riding partner landed on his butt, spun on the asphalt, and
burned off the entire rear of his wool shorts. All of us wore the leather
hair nets and there were no serious injuries.

   The accident (with photograph) made the next week's Sports Illustrated.
:-) So much for my 15 seconds of fame.

Rich