Helmets

All four of us wear helmets with MIPS concussion prevention technology, as much for improved comfort and superior fit as safety. We’ve drilled our kids to wear helmets so insistently that they will sometimes call out to our fellow cyclists without helmets, “That’s not safe!” We chuckle abashedly but as far as we can tell, no one has noticed their commentary so far.

We talked to another cycling family, who regularly sees a dad out with his two kids on their longtail bicycle with no helmets among the three of them. We all thought the parent should do whatever he wants, but the kids should definitely have helmets.

Then I went to pick up my daughter from school in the box bike and forgot her helmet.

There I was, buckling her into the bike with my own helmet on, her beautiful wispy hair waving unobstructed in the wind. I was more than a little embarrassed. Fortunately she was distracted and didn’t notice that I didn’t have her helmet, or else she would’ve cried all the way home “This isn’t safe!” at a volume impossible to ignore.

The truth is, it wasn’t safest, but it wasn’t unsafe. We’ve crashed our box bike before and the kids’ heads didn’t end up anywhere near the ground. We’ve all walked away from those crashes with nary an injury.

That said, I have a vivid memory of when my son was getting the hang of his Strider balance bike. He got going a little too fast and couldn’t quite stop with his feet, the only breaking mechanism. We were on a slight hill, so he gained speed as we entered an intersection which I had already checked for cars. He swerved as he approached the other side of the street, just as I realized how fast he was going. His balance bike tipped on its side and his momentum carried him head-first into a rounded curb, shaped like a bludgeon. It was a moment I’ll never forget. He was wearing his helmet, so he hopped right up and said, “Woah! Do it again?” Meanwhile, I scraped my jaw off the ground and put on a smiling face as I imagined what I’d be doing if he hadn’t had a helmet: calling 911.

As it happens, the guy with the longtail got helmets for his kids. I think it is a good move, but I’m not going to moralize about what happened before the helmets were purchased. He got out there with his kids and nothing terrible happened. We’ll all continue to wear our comfy MIPS helmets whenever we manage to remember them, but I might talk to the kids about the scale between “unsafe” and “safest” and point out that cycling is a fun, healthy activity for everyone, regardless of which safety precautions our fellow cyclists choose or reject.