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No objections from me to the statistics of bikers and injuries and helmets where appropriate. However, statistics need to be analysed and interpreted and applied with judgement. How many of those injuries were Penny Farthing riders. What percentage of Farthingist suffer head injuries? For most of my Penny Farthing life, riding is a show, a circus act, performed with the knowledge of risk and circumstance and relative skill. In Hollywood movies, such as Snow Falling on Cedars - - - a 1940's period piece, where I have been employed as a "Special Skills Extra", the thought of a modern bike helmet in the midst of a carefully costumed 1940's small town Strawberry Festival parade would be like tacking sheet tin over a beautiful cedar roof because it keeps the rain out better.

Riding in parades as I do many times a year, sometimes with other Farthingists, there is no other wild traffic to squeeze through. Even so, one rides with a very heightened sensitivity to risk and risk management. The statistic for not hurting anyone has to be 100% success. There certainly are always risks, but a sweeping general Law about helmets does not take situations into account. At parades, where some up-scale parents of little children now sometimes yell insults for not wearing a helmet (but a straw hat to keep the sun out of my eyes and still appear in historic costume) and setting a bad example for their little ones, I always expect one of the many Policemen along the parade routes to come over and issue a ticket. However by being a "Performer" it always seems that the issue is beyond their willingness to enact the Law, and Victoria is VERY strict about helmets, and I only get smiles from them.

I have yet to meet another High Wheel specialist who thinks that a helmet is anything but a top heavy risk maker. We all like top hats and derbies and straw hats as light weight sun blockers, much more concerned about the risk of ultra UV exposure that head crunching.

"Doing a Header" is a good old Victorian High Wheeler's term. The only time I did one was when I lost concentration while riding across the lawn of a historic site. It was at the end of my first week with the bike and I was feeling too confident about the lawn. On the spur of the moment, I decided to make a little detour to ride past some new flowers that had popped up that Spring day. Looking sideways at the flowers as I passed them, I didn't notice a hole that had opened up in the lawn overnight, a little cave-in caused by the collapse of a rotten wooden irrigation pipe buried in the ground. We didn't even know it was there - - - until - - - I was heading over the handlebars while the big wheel stayed in the hole. I never took much gym stuff, but always liked to watch gymnastics on TV. It is amazing how fast the mind can work in those moments of eternity, and I decided the only hope was to tuck and roll like I had seen the sports guys do. So I did, and just acted like Alice's hedgehog at the Red Queen's croquette game. It actually felt really good. Got lucky. Pay more attention now - - - always - - - when flying up there on two unequal wheels.