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Protect Yourself While Riding Your Bike By Wearing A Bike Helmet
Wearing a bike helmet is by far the most important thing you can do to protect yourself while riding your bike. Granted, other bike safety equipment is important. Much of it is focused on making you more visible to motorists while you’re on your bike. Bright clothes, reflectors, lights, bells, and whistles all help make motorists, pedestrians, and even other bicyclists conscious of your presence, but these devices on their own aren’t enough. A huge number of bicycle-related injuries and almost all bicycle-related fatalities are due to massive head injuries sustained by riders who were not wearing their helmets. While some of these injuries and fatalities involved one rider crashing into a tree or another fixed object, most of them involved a bicyclist crashing into a car or vice-versa. The car always wins.
If you’re riding your bike and you’re hit squarely by a truck that’s traveling eighty miles per hour, no bicycle helmet in the world is likely to save you. However, with most lower-speed accidents a properly fitted bicycle helmet can make the difference between getting back in the saddle next week and eating the rest of your meals through a straw. Modern bike helmets are comfortable, aerodynamic, and cool. Many helmets, especially advanced road and mountain bike racing helmets are so perforated with vents they look like Swiss cheese. Even the airiest of them are safe though, as all major bike helmet manufacturers have their helmets ANSI certified before they’re released. Though a few specialized aerodynamic helmets are not yet certified, almost all available and affordable for the average consumer are all safety-certified and will do a great job of saving your noggin if you’re involved in a crash.
With any bike helmet, be sure that it fits you well before you trust your brain to it. When it’s on your head you shouldn’t have it crushingly tight, but it should be tight enough so it won’t slide easily forward or backward. If it slides easily in either direction it will probably do exactly that if you’re in a crash, doing a great job of protecting the side of your head or the back of your neck while your skull and brain take the heavy impact. To avoid this, adjust the foam inserts and strap until the helmet is snug but not tight. Then hop on your bike and head out into the great wide world, enjoying the ride and knowing that your head is protected, come what may.
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