Bulletproof helmets?

As I posted on Monday, off-duty firefighter Charles Alexander Diez recently shot at and hit cyclist Alan Simons, who was riding with his 3 year old in a baby seat on the back of his bike. The altercation took place in Asheville, which brings it home to all of you North Carolinians, but it's also getting national attention from biking blogs and various newspapers.

The facts of the case are pretty bizarre: Diez stopped to tell Simons that he was endangering his child by riding on a busy road, but then shot (at) him when Simons turned to walk away. (The irony here is too sweet: "It became necessary to destroy the cyclist in order to save him.") But one point that's gotten a lot of attention is the fact that Diez's bullet went through Simon's helmet, but did not actually hit his head. Someone was living right that day.

Which brings me to today's thought: several people have commented on how this is yet one more reason to wear your helmet, and while I don't disagree with that (despite any number of qualifications I'd like to make to the statement), you should wear it correctly. To wit, this picture from a story about bike helmets:

Dude, push your helmet down! As much as I like the 'jauntily askew' look that you're going for here, it doesn't do a damn thing to protect your forehead, and with it cocked back like that any impact is just going to knock it off your (fashionable, but now cracked) dome.

So, for any poor soul who should stumble across this site looking for information on how to correctly wear a bike helmet, I offer this link to a triathlete who provide both a rationale behind wearing a helmet, as well as a short video about helmet fitting. After all, if you're going to put the silly looking piece of foam on your head, you might as well have the damn thing on in such a way that will render it protective, and not just a questionable fashion accessory.

Cyclist Shot in Asheville

Srsly. Shot. With a gun. In front of his wife. And child.

Read the story in the Asheville Citizen-Times here.

I'm sure that there's more to the story than the article reports, but it's hard to image that the facts will look much better when we know them all. In short, the motorist pulled off the road to tell the cyclist that he should be riding with a child in a baby seat. The two got into a 'discussion,' and then when the cyclist turned away the motorist shot him in the head, fortunately missing his actual skull and simply ripping through his helmet. (Note to self: always wear helmet.)

If you read the story above and then scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see what might be the most disturbing thing: the readers' comments. It's here where you get a wealth of community opinion that gets very close to -- but never says -- that the cyclist deserved it simply for riding on the road.

After the death of Bruce Rosar in Raleigh earlier this month this is yet one more reason to remember that being safe and sharing the road is literally life-and-death.

Things not to do during a race:

This is footage from the Presidential Tour of Turkey; the yellow jersey wearer is Daryl Impey. In the video you'll see what appears to be Dutch racer Theo Bos reaching out and pulling Impey down in the final kilometer of the race.

I, for one, wasn't aware that American football had that much of a following in the Netherlands, but it does appear that Bos has perfected the open field tackle, a la Troy Polamalu. Impey now needs to learn the stiff-arm.

Impey was awarded the win.



For more information see Velonews.com, where I found this clip. In his defense Bos is saying that his gaffling of Impey was inadvertent, but from the video it's hard to see that.

Be careful out there!

Ride Your Bike More Often.....

Remember Earth Day is next week......