> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gabriel Orgrease
> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 6:04 AM

> I am convinced 
> that there is an intelligence of the body (that within us 
> which remembers how to ride a bicycle, or the remembrance of 
> lost arms in our prosthetics, or the remnants of our nervous 
> extension into the tools of trade, that for some of us we can 
> think the swing of a hammer and feel it real) and it is in 
> this connection of our ability to see and sense within 
> ourselves that intelligence of the body that is the core of 
> the recreation of the imagination of the built past. 

In support of your conviction, I offer the following reproduced post
from USENET that I contributed to one of the bicycling world's endless
debates about the efficacy of helmets: 

Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
From: Dan Becker <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:14:38 -0400
Local: Tues, Sep 25 2007 10:14 pm 
Subject: Re: Helmet pondering

In article <[log in to unmask]>, Ron 
Ruff <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> On Sep 25, 9:07 am, "[log in to unmask]" 
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> > If I had hit my 
> > helmeted head, would I have gotten a concussion, and subsequently
gone 
> > around telling everyone how lucky I was that I was wearing a helmet?


> A big factor in helmet testimonials I think. Most of us will naturally

> tuck out heads in a crash, but if we have a helmet on this is not 
> possible. Plus we will subconsciously *not* protect our head so well 
> since it is the only part of our body that has protection. So the 
> helmet hits the pavement and shatters, and we strain our necks from 
> the torque... but proclaim that the helmet saved our lives. 

I disagree with your assumptions about tucking heads and "subconscious" 
actions. My testimonial: 

This was a 1998 wreck when someone turned from the opposite direction 
across my path from between a line of stopped cars in the left lane 
(4-lane road cross-section) and I am doing between 25-30 mph in the 
right lane. No warning. I hit the binders hard, try to get behind the 
vehicle as it crosses my path, fail. Hit the rear quarterpanel of the 
car, vault over the trunk, to land on the pavement beyond. 

A most violent collision: Giordona SLX steel frame (I still miss that 
bike, she was sweet); fork was bent straight back, and the front wheel 
wedged firmly against the down tube (pretty impressive to see, I must 
admit). Only one-quarter inch of the stem quill remained in the steerer 
tube...nearly pulled the stem out of the steerer (I was braking hard, 
with a good solid grip on the bars :-). Top tube bent sideways out of 
line and "beer-canned." As I went over the trunk, the bike cartwheeled 
after me as I pulled it up and over, and landed in the road beyond me 
after bouncing off the side of one of the cars stopped beyond in the 
left lane. 

Boy was I pissed off. I got up, dusted myself off, grabbed my bike, and 
threw it to the side of the road in disgust before stalking over to him 
to give the teenage young turk (with an already long record of driving 
infractions and DUI as it turned out) a stern tongue lashing. (Really 
impressive that the front wheel was still wedged after the toss!) How, 
you may ask, did I not die then and there on the pavement? 

In my very young youth, I learned tumbling. Maybe one of those summer 
activities parents sign us up for to spare their sanity; I was so young 
I don't remember the details of what it was or how it came to be. But 
somewhere along the way of growing up I learned to run very fast across 
the room and launch myself over my fellow classmates who were 
side-by-side on their hands and knees stretched seemingly to the 
horizon. 

While imitating a projectile, I learned how to tuck and roll as I 
landed. 

It had probably been 35 years, 130 pounds, and 2.5 feet in altitude 
since I had done such a thing. Then I had a pad at the landing zone; 
this time I didn't. But the motor skills were imprinted on me and I am 
certain that the instinctual response is what got me through it safely. 

You could follow the path of my roll along the pavement from the marks, 
dents, and cracks on the helmet through the tears in my jersey and the 
the road rash on my shoulder, arm, hip, and buttock. A human bowling 
ball. 

The helmet did not prevent me from tucking my head. I certainly had no 
conscious *or* subconscious thoughts about not protecting my head 
because it was helmeted as I flew through the air with the greatest of 
ease. I have no recollection of thinking anything. It didn't happen in 
slow motion for me. 

The helmet did not shatter because it struck the ground in a rolling, 
glancing way as did the rest of me as I distributed the forces of 
landing across a greater area of my body through the roll. Certainly 
friction of contact with pavement scraped up my clothes and me. But I 
didn't have any scalp burn except for a bit of a red forehead (not 
bruised, but 1st degree burn from the helmet pad). I ended up with a 
badly sprained right wrist, and arthroscopic shoulder surgery after 3 
years of trying to work out the inflammation with therapy and a couple 
cortisone shots, both from the big yank on my arms as I clutched the 
brakes. 

I agree that a helmet is NFG in a blunt force collision of the head 
with an object. But I found it very useful in preventing road rash on 
my head, which is good enough reason for me. Healing all that other 
road rash was plenty painful without adding my head to the quota. 


Dan 



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