Bike helmets

The latest Obama snafu is pretty silly if you ask me.

No-helmet Obama sparks ire

Barack Obama's helmetless bike ride on Martha's Vineyard on Thursday has sparked a mini-controversy for those who thought the move set a bad example.
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On Babble.com, a website for parents, Josh Loposer write, "Truly despicable isn't it? What kind of example is he setting for the nation’s youth?"
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The Chicago Tribune wrote that one of its photo editors was outraged ("What kind of fool doesn't wear a helmet while biking?") and wrote the White House in protest.

So, Obama smokes and people hardly make a peep, yet he fails to wear a helmet while riding at the pace of a slow jog and it creates an uproar? Clearly there are a lot of people I don't understand.

This brings up a good story.

The worst bike accident I had was in high school during a 3-block ride from the bank to my dad's office. I was standing and pedaling as hard as I could in traffic, which was fairly slow downtown in a small town, but fast enough for me on a bike.

Suddenly my bike came to a screeching halt and I was promptly catapulted over my handlebars and on to the pavement. My bike landed on top of me. My handlebars were parallel with the front tire. My right pedal was shot.

I was shot. My leg (I was wearing shorts) was a skinned up mess and my arm wasn't doing much better.

As I hobbled the last half-block to my dad's office and called my mom to come get me, I pondered what could have happened to have caused my bike to stop so suddenly.

I've only ever come to one conclusion. In the sticky, 95-degree humidity, I decided I didn't need to wear my bike helmet for the 3-block ride. So, I hung it from my handlebar.

I'm fairly confident that my helmet got caught up in the brake mechanism, locking it up.

I crashed because I decided my bike helmet should protect my handlebar rather than my head.

So I think Obama came to the right conclusion: if you aren't going to wear a helmet on your head, don't wear one at all...