helmet

(You’ll have to click through to read the text of today’s Yehuda moon strip) Today on my ride into Newcastle, I had a passenger of a car lean out the window as he passed, shouting something or other (doppler - don’t you love it?), and pointing at his shaven head. He may have been indicating...
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Let it not be said that I can’t be topical. The Great Helmet Debate is heating up again, so today’s photo hooks right into that. This image comes from Pearlmonger’s Bristol to Bath Railway Path set on Flickr: To enter the competition, just post your caption below as a comment. Remember, I’m offering a prize that...
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I’ve never taken part in a critical mass event. Heck, I’ve never even seen one first hand, so what I’m about to say could just be me talking out of my backside. I have a bit of a problem with the idea of critical mass. The anarchist within me says, “Yeah! Right on! Let’s really...
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There was an interesting question raised on the Commute By bike blog yesterday, as to why the world at large seems to view cyclists as “Kooks, Freaks and Weirdos”. Basically in societies where the car has usurped the bicycle as the mode of transport of choice about town, people riding bikes are very much...
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The question posed today by the Fat Lad, which I picked up via The Bicycle Diaries was, Are dedicated bike lanes protecting you from cagers or treating cyclists as 2nd class road users? It’s one of those subjects like the ‘H’ word that’s sure to generate a stack of opinions, usually backed up with Science. Real...
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This today via Adrian Fitch’s Random Ramblings - a story about bicycle helmets, accidents and blame as reported in BikeRadar. Putting it simply: Involved in an accident on a bike? Hit by another vehicle, and suffer a head injury as a result? Weren’t you wearing a helmet? Then you’re partially to blame. Maybe. Or at least that’s one...
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A lot of cyclists get obsessed with high-visibility. Day-glo jackets, Scotchlite tape, more blinking LEDs than you can shake a stick at, and even changing the paint jobs on their bikes with stick-on patches. But there are two other things that you can use to make yourself more visible - especially to drivers of car’s...
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This via Tom Vanderbilt’s blog and the BBC today - crafty Nigerians are dodging new laws to force them and their passengers to wear helmets. But far from civil disobedience, they’ve got a cunning plan: Make their own helmets from hollowed-out pumpkins. No, really. The country’s unregulated moto-taxi service has particular problems as helmets are expensive,...
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I’m back at school again! Thanks to North Tyneside Council, I’m attending a four-day course on cycle instructor training. The aim is that at the end of it, I’ll be provisionally qualified to teach others to ride a bike safely on the road to the national BikAbility standards. To make it more of a challenge...
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This prompted by something I read on Twitter this morning. There is one thing that makes me see red. I mean, gets me steaming mad to the extent that I’ll mutter slightly more than “Gosh Darn It!” under my breath, and end up having to whistle until I calm down. Drivers using the phone. It’s one of...
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