Helmet Nazi

I am a reformed helmet Nazi. I had a previous life spent mountain-biking on some of the most treacherous singletrack around. It wasn't crazy stuff in the Camloops. I was never a freerider/gravity junkie. But I had many a ride where a wrong turn meant catastrophe. And I wore a helmet every ride - never fail. I made my kids wear helmets to ride in the driveway. I wore one on rides to the grocery store. I wore a chink in my wife's armor and got her to wear one.

I'm here to say the helmet Nazi is gone. My whole mindset is different now that I carry around a deadly disease. I can't even put my finger on the logic, or lack thereof, that makes me skip a helmet some days. I'm not a religious guy, I don't believe in fate. I try to base my life on logic and reason. And it fails when it comes to helmets nowadays.

I know that just as a wrong turn on my mountain bike would have put me 500 feet down a cliff, a wrong turn on my road bike will put me in front of a speeding car. The risk is probably no less on a road bike. But somehow diabetes has turned me into a slight taker of risks. I'm almost 50 years old. I'll probably be dead in about 25 more. And this last 25 had better be damn good years.

I recently read the book "Roadie" - it details the lifestyle of the road-racing cyclist. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in skinny tire bikes. Within it there is extensive information on drafting. This is an important concept in racing wherein the cyclist shields themselves in the slipstream of the rider in front. There is a short passage within the book describing truck surfing. Imagine this - wait on your bicycle for a semi truck to enter a highway and come up to speed. Then you, on your tiny 17 lb. bicycle jump in immediately behind the truck and use the trucks mass to shield yourself from the wind. You need to be just 10 or so feet behind the trailer, spinning like mad so you can stay in the slipstream for a mile or so.

I want to do this. But I'm almost 50 years old now, and physically incapable. It's a shame I'm just now deciding to do some of the things in life I have wanted to do all along - things I kinda' repressed. Now, on Sunday mornings, on the little rural farm roads I ride for training, I'm going to skip the helmet sometimes.