Wear a helmet. It's better than the alternative...

[Humanist_Activist]

268. My mom always insisted I wear a helmet while riding my bike, and so I did....

Well, one time I was coasting down one street, and getting ready to hang a right to go up another street that has a relatively steep but short hill that leads to the top of the street. I coast down, then when my bike starts slowing down a little on the upcurve, I stand on the peddles and start peddling to keep up the momentum.

So that's when my chain decides to fall off the gears, I jerk my handlebars to the side in shock, and flew right over them into the pavement, head first. My reaction was to try to catch myself, but I failed, badly, I was able to get my knuckles barely under my arms, my chin slapped the pavement and then I slid a little ways up hill. The helmet did two things, first, its fucking fat, so my face wasn't ripped off, I got a slight scratch on my nose, and my chin was scratched up, but other than that, my head was fine. The helmet, on the other hand, hit a rock or something, a big dent in the upper forehead, and of course it was scraped up and the foam interior was a spiderweb of cracks.

My knuckles were laid open for all to see though, that was the most painful part of the experience, first time I ever saw my own bones, joints at that, and they even moved, I damn near threw up just from the view, so did my friend Marky, who was riding with me that day, he walked me home while I was crying. It was a fun trip to the hospital after that, with my mom, but at least I suffered no serious head injury.

If you don't wish this to be anonymous, I will be happy to PM you some of my personal details if you insist, but let's not go for this "friend of a friend" crap, shall we? I still have faint scars from that day on my knuckles, it was a little over 20 years ago now.