I do a lot of stupid things, but it's been a long time since I've been as shocked with myself as I was last night when I read the comment by Sam on the post about Anthony's new bike. Sam suggested we consider getting him a helmet. Prior to his comment, I hadn't even thought of it this time. (We had a couple of years ago.)
Thanks Sam. We got a helmet today.
This is the tracklog for his second bike trip, yesterday.
He was much more adventurous than the first time, and enjoyed using the bike as transport to get places as well. The most northern reaches of his trip were into the Heian Shrine grounds (the entrance to the far back right of this picture), where he got off the bike and played for a long time (while the GPS unit stayed on the bike).
The big square loop on the right is around a baseball field. The oval loop center-left is where he went round and round on the first day.
Yesterday's total was only 3.2km
I was writing an email to you with the helmet suggestin – glad to see you beat me to it!
Glad to see you got Anthony a helmet! Step 2: please-please-please make sure that the pads and straps are properly adjusted. The helmet should never be able to slide “back” over Anthony’s head, exposing his forehead (can’t really tell from the pictures), nor should the chin strap be able to slide up over his chin to his mouth (looks good in the pictures). Riding to work everyday around Shijo, I see so many Moms and Dads riding with their kids in helmets (I think it became law a couple of months ago). Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, 80-90% of those helmets are improperly adjusted, and will do little to protect their child’s noggin.
As Anthony grows, please make sure that his helmet is replaced with a slightly larger one — again, one that will fit him properly. Don’t be afraid to spend a little ¥¥¥ on a nice helmet from Giro or Bell — they even come in cool designs. The guys at Tom’s Craft on Horikawa Street (www.tomscraft-mtb.com) can help you get a kids model.
If Anthony protests at all about wearing the helmet, just tell him that even us super-cool mountain bikers wear them! Seriously, you just don’t look like a real bike rider unless you’re wearing a helmet ^_^
Dan-also-in-Kyoto,
Yes, I know all about adjsting the helmet (which makes it all the more shocking to me that I didn’t think of the helmet in the first place). He wears a well-adjusted motorcycle helmet when we ride on the scooter. The helmet (whether for the scooter or the bike) is cool, and he’s often reluctant to take it off. That’s fine with me.
As far as the people wearing helmets ineffectively, just look at people passing on scooters and motorcycles — many (most?) don’t even have them strapped, much less strapped properly. It’s as if they’re more concerned about wrenches falling from a construction site (which such a helmet would protect them from) than hitting their head on a curb or car or building (in which case such a helmet would have no benefit). Sigh.
I’m happy, Jeff — I’d worried you might take offense, though I worded it as unobtrusively as I could. Some might get angry — probably the same ones who aren’t strapping their helmets.