Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

tomasrojo

Bit more about Kensington's weird decision-making
https://twitter.com/HanneyDP/status/1345144340801318917

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2021/01/01/council-officer-ghost-edited-business-groups-press-statement-seeking-dismantling-of-pop-up-cycleway-on-kensington-high-street/

dinneenp

IT article


Sports and exercise accidents account for a third of all referrals to the State’s main centre for treating traumatic brain injury, according to a newly published study.

Cycling was the most common single activity leading to referral to the national neurological centre in Beaumont Hospital, and for transfer to its specialist care unit.

Over a 30-month period, 463 traumatic brain injuries were referred to the centre, of which 35 per cent related to sports and exercise activities.

The most commonly referred activity was cycling, with 86 incidents, followed by Gaelic football with 30, horse-riding with 23 and rugby with 13. Other referrals arose from soccer, hurling, golf and mixed martial arts. Of 26 patients with cycling-related head injuries who were transferred to the unit, only two were recorded as wearing a helmet at the time of injury. Eighteen did not have helmets and no information about helmet status was available for the other six cases.

The two patients with helmets suffered minor injuries while two-thirds (67 per cent) of those not wearing a helmet suffered intercranial haemorrhage, with five requiring surgical intervention. The four patients who died were all cyclists, two of whom were involved in collisions with cars.

magicbastarder

here it is:

Cycling the single biggest activity for referrals to brain unit

Sports and exercise accidents account for a third of all referrals to the State’s main centre for treating traumatic brain injury, according to a newly published study.

Cycling was most common single activity leading to referral to the national neurological centre in Beaumont Hospital, and for transfer to its specialist care unit.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/cycling-the-single-biggest-activity-for-referrals-to-brain-unit-1.4449848

interesting to note this:

“Making helmet use mandatory may be associated with high-risk behaviour as well as reducing the overall number of cyclists, thereby increasing the risk to the remaining cyclists. The current debate regarding helmet legislation should not be used in isolation but in conjunction with a concerted effort to significantly improved the cycling infrastructure.”

buffalo

dinneenp wrote: »

Sports and exercise accidents account for a third of all referrals to the State’s main centre for treating traumatic brain injury, according to a newly published study.

Does trauma include the likes of strokes? I don't think so. I'd be interested in knowing what makes up the other two thirds of the referrals - assaults? Falls?

zell12

What causes Acquired Brain Injury?
- Impact to the head, such as in a traffic or workplace accident, a fall, an assault or a sports injury.
- Stroke, brain haemorrhage or brain surgery
- A viral infection occurring in the brain e.g. encephalitis
- Lack of oxygen to the brain (hypoxia)

Seth Brundle

Hmmm - is the IT just being anti-cyclist again...?

https://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1346386100907073536?s=19

https://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1346387057657204736?s=19

https://twitter.com/MikeBanim/status/1346391232566718469?s=19

magicbastarder

also have seen a point on FB that they're conflating 'cycling' with 'sports', where as any sport (i.e. contest based) cycling requires the use of a helmet.

cletus

Helmets don't prevent acquired brain injuries. If they did, American Football wouldn't have the issues with CTE that it does. Senior amateur boxing removed mandatory headgear for a reason.

Helmets may help with external trauma, abrasions, lacerations, possibly even fractures. There is no way of protecting against TBI, mTBI, or any other trauma to the brain itself due to external forces.

Think of an egg. The shell is your skull, the white is your CSF (cerebrospinal fluid), the yolk is your brain.

Shake the egg vigorously enough and you can 'damage' the yolk. Now wrap an egg in any protective material you wish, foam, styrofoam etc. Shake the egg like before, and you can still damage the yolk.

Yes, this analogy is broad, and not exactly like for like, but the fact is you cannot prevent the brain from moving in an impact situation, regardless of what you wrap your head in.

breezy1985

More cars on paths

RobertFoster

Obviously the black bezel is at fault, it should be hi-viz.

tomasrojo

Horse riding makes a surprisingly high showing in the sport head injury league table in that data set. How many people frequently ride horses?

http://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1346387056226918403

fat bloke

I can't decide if an article stating the dangers of cycling is pro or anti (cycling). Highlighting of dangers to cyclists - does that vulnerability awareness encourage caution for drivers around cyclists or does it discourage existing or wannabe cyclists from bicycling.

A little from column A, a little from column B I suppose

Breezer

buffalo wrote: »

Does trauma include the likes of strokes? I don't think so. I'd be interested in knowing what makes up the other two thirds of the referrals - assaults? Falls?

Trauma is an injury involving an external force. So yes, assaults and falls would be considered trauma, while a stroke wouldn’t.

Thelonious Monk

I would imagine it was written in the "the f*ckers don't even wear helmets or high vis" spirit.
They just want to make it harder for people to get on bikes because they hate cyclists so much.

Large bottle small glass

tomasrojo wrote: »

Horse riding makes a surprisingly high showing in the sport head injury league table in that data set. How many people frequently ride horses?

http://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1346387056226918403

I remember the Sunday Times did a piece on equestrian related spinal injuries 10-15 years ago; from memory it was way out in front for that type of injury.

I was recently in with surgeon who also does A&E shifts and he commented on the volume of cycling related injuries he dealt with. In his experience the vast majority were occasional cyclists/novices.

Perhaps a piece on training/road craft would be beneficial rather than the helmet/hi vis obsession.

CramCycle

Talking to a nurse in A&E from James years ago who knew I was on a track bike, he said they had a few a week, nearly all 'fixies', typically young male and possibly only riding fixed gear for a short period of time. All was due, in his opinion, due to them not being able to stop as they had no real.miscle mass or road craft or a mix of both. Crashes, f*cked knees with ligaments and tendons ripped apart, and so on.

magicbastarder

i'd say pedal strikes on fixies would be a common cause among people who are inexperienced?

magicbastarder

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'd say pedal strikes on fixies would be a common cause among people who are inexperienced?

No experience of a fixed gear bike myself but do recall reading pedal strikes are more common on conversions than a track bike. Different crank length or BB height maybe?

Chips Lovell

Track bikes tend to be built up with shorter crank arms then road. But I doubt your average brakeless hipster would take that into account. Having said that, even on a "normal" length cranks you'd need to be leaning in fairly heavily to experience pedal strike, at least in my experience.

CramCycle

I recall seeing (and when I used to swap regularly between the two suffering from) a lot of the forgetting you are on a fixed gear, and the pedal pushing you out of the saddle as you went to coast. A very weird feeling, not unlike walking up or down a stairs and not realising that you had reached the top or bottom and your body was not ready for the extra support or lack there of and you nearly fall over.

As for track bikes, yes their BBs are higher and cranks shorter but pedal strike was normally (from observation) of the kerb as they forgot the cranks kept going as they pulled into stop.

eeeee

tomasrojo wrote: »

Horse riding makes a surprisingly high showing in the sport head injury league table in that data set. How many people frequently ride horses?

http://twitter.com/dublincycling/status/1346387056226918403

I'm surprised there aren't more from horse riding, considering the amount of people who do it recreationally and professionally (not just jockeys and showjumpers etc. but those that ride out every morning, breaking and producer yards etc.). It was the main injury I got coming off horses. Many's the time I fell off, I think (!), woke up in a field on my own and had to find and catch a horse and carry on!

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'd say pedal strikes on fixies would be a common cause among people who are inexperienced?

I have never found it a problem and I ride a track bike every day around the city. Last year or the year before I was going around the corner at sussex street at the bottom of leeson street, and a fixie bro (messenger bag, dark skinny jeans, on a funked up fixie/slate or state is it? bike co/ foffa fixie). I had just stopped to let a bus go by in front at the stop before the turn and he flew by me on the corner and bang! Pedal strike fired him out the side. It was hilarious. He was steady enough after that :pac:
I actually feel way safer on a fixie / track bike than a bike with gears/freehub/wheel. You have so much more control fixed.
I get that missed step on the stairs panic when I get back on a geared bike again and go to slow down and nothing happens :eek:
It's what you're used to I suppose.

My personal bike type bug bear are single speeds with no back brake. Why???? Makes 0 sense to me and only removes braking ability. I don't think they're as fashionable as they used to be. I mean all anyone has to do do is look at how you're pedalling to know it's not a fixie, before you even notice the freewheeling and lack of cog on the back. State of them!

CramCycle

eeeee wrote: »

My personal bike type bug bear are single speeds with no back brake. Why???? Makes 0 sense to me and only removes braking ability. I don't think they're as fashionable as they used to be. I mean all anyone has to do do is look at how you're pedalling to know it's not a fixie, before you even notice the freewheeling and lack of cog on the back. State of them!

Idiots who think Single speeds and Fixed gear bikes are one and the same. There was a muppet around Ranelagh for years who used to coast through junctions and roar at people getting in his way. I haven't seen him in awhile, unsure if the two are related. I don't think he had a front brake either :eek:

I had a front brake on my track bike but never used it, never had an issue stopping in time but as someone else here once said, its a fixed gear, I go up hills as fast as I go down hills so never carried the same speed I do on my geared bike, although hit north of 50kmph on the N11 straights on occasion but your legs are a blur at that point. Getting training on the track was invaluable though.

tomasrojo

eeeee wrote: »

I'm surprised there aren't more from horse riding, considering the amount of people who do it recreationally and professionally (not just jockeys and showjumpers etc. but those that ride out every morning, breaking and producer yards etc.).

The number of people who ride horses frequently isn't large compared to numbers playing GAA or rugby or cycling (the others listed in the league table of raw number sports-related head injuries) I assumed. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems unlikely.

tomasrojo

tomasrojo wrote: »

The number of people who ride horses frequently isn't large compared to numbers playing GAA or rugby or cycling (the others listed in the league table of raw number sports-related head injuries) I assumed. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems unlikely.

Not sure if informal and illegal horse riding skews the figures either. Just interested really.

eeeee

CramCycle wrote: »

Idiots who think Single speeds and Fixed gear bikes are one and the same. There was a muppet around Ranelagh for years who used to coast through junctions and roar at people getting in his way. I haven't seen him in awhile, unsure if the two are related. I don't think he had a front brake either :eek:

I can't even.

CramCycle wrote: »

I had a front brake on my track bike but never used it, never had an issue stopping in time but as someone else here once said, its a fixed gear, I go up hills as fast as I go down hills so never carried the same speed I do on my geared bike, although hit north of 50kmph on the N11 straights on occasion but your legs are a blur at that point. Getting training on the track was invaluable though.

My max comfy speed is about 44kph on the fixie, any more results in bouncing, which isn't comfy for me or the bike! I've a wee gear on the commuter, a 48x18, about a 72 I think. Spin city.

tomasrojo wrote: »

The number of people who ride horses frequently isn't large compared to numbers playing GAA or rugby or cycling (the others listed in the league table of raw number sports-related head injuries) I assumed. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems unlikely.

I think more people GAA than any other sport in the country.
There are a metric hape of people who ride horses on the regular, it's actually a huge industry in the country. We're the third largest producer of thoroughbreds in the world, and there's a really big sport horse industry along with it too. You can get as many injuries handling horses as riding them. My worst equine injuries came from handling young horses (bar the concussions). The business end of the sport is bigger than the leisure end.

eeeee

tomasrojo wrote: »

Not sure if informal and illegal horse riding skews the figures either. Just interested really.

Illegal horse riding?!

magicbastarder

illegal riding of horses, or riding of illegal horses?

tomasrojo

About 20% of the population cycled a fair bit in the past year, and cycling is about 13% of trips in Dublin city centre. I just can't see how horse riding is anywhere near those sort of numbers. GAA and rugby, because of school-level participation, similar story, I assume.

The illegal thing I had in mind was kids with sulky racing and things like that.

eeeee

tomasrojo wrote: »

About 20% of the population cycled a fair bit in the past year, and cycling is about 13% of trips in Dublin city centre. I just can't see how horse riding is anywhere near those sort of numbers. GAA and rugby, because of school-level participation, similar story, I assume.

The illegal thing I had in mind was kids with sulky racing and things like that.

Harness racing is very much legal, and quite a big legitimate sport here and France particularly, and in America, just not randomly on public roads!

I think there are definitely less people who are around horses every day, but way more people engaged in the industry professionally and on a leisure basis. Also it's not just riders, jockeys, breeders and producers, there are farriers, vets, equine physios, dentists, saddle fitters and on and on and on, there's a world of people who handle horses on a daily basis. 20% of the population? No. But of those engaged in the equine industry, they're doing it a lot more than a casual cyclist.
Those 20% of people who took up cycling may have only done it once a day twoce a week - if you're in horses it's a minumum 2 times a day job (if you're a small time breeder with a mare or two say, and not an equine dentist or producer riding/handling/working all day every day with them). Expose to risk is much greater as you're with them for more time than you would be on a bike.

tomasrojo

I'm still not sure that many people ride horses frequently, though I am aware it's a bigger business in Ireland than most countries. I've no interest myself but I have relatives who were trainers. I can't find any figures for actual riding. There seem to be about 3 or 4 horses per 100 people, which is the third highest figure in Europe, but I don't know what that means for people riding.

I was thinking of the illegal sulky racing, rather than use of that apparatus generally. I just wondered whether that contributed to the referrals, as group racing on open roads like that seems on the face of it hazardous.