PSA - Helmets save lives.

Helmets are fine.
Helmets are good.
They help your head
when you go boom.

:-/

I took a tumble on my bike this week commuting into work. I was not going very fast but I felt my head hit the ground hard. And once it hit all I could think about was "I am so thankful I am wearing a helmet." I picked myself up, put the chain back on my bike and finished going into work. Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. Once I got to work, I checked my helmet and saw the crack through the helmet. There was a nice dent and scrape on the shell of the helmet to show right where I hit.

I stopped by REI on my ride home and got a new helmet. And reading the instruction manual, they suggest that the materials in helmets do degrade with time so replace your helmet every few years. mine was a number of years old and still worked just fine for the low speeds I was going.

I have just a couple of very minor bruises on my knee, my elbow and possibly my dignity. I have reported the bad pavement area to the local authorities and hope to see it fixed and soon. And my bike is just fine.

This ends this public service announcement.