"Wear a Helmet!"

• I put my cycle down at 40 mph, and my head hit the pavement like it was at the end of a whip. It put a big and wicked scrape on the side of my helmet, not on my head. The old biker next door hit a small patch of sand on a rural 2-lane highway during a summer weekend ride without a helmet. He spent 6 mo. in the hospital, then sold his bike. I know more than one guy who isn't as good lookin' after hitting the curb with his face, after falling of his bike drunk. We just want you to protect your pretty head, and that big beautiful brain. Helmets can be fun. A black guy I went to college with had a black helmet with a huge afro wig glued to it. You couldn't tell he had a helmet on at all, he just looked fierce.

• ...or a set of "Village People"-themed helmets (cop, Native American, construction worker), each one for a distinct mood or day of the week?

• Fine ang. You're taking your own chances. But if you're rendered brain damaged from an accident when you're not wearing a helmet, who will support you until your death? If the answer is your own money, no problem. But if you would rely on government funds (and my tax dollars), then obey the law.

• M- Would you wear a helmet that was molded and painted to look like a giant Carmen Miranda fruit-laden headdress?

• I never wear a helmet. Stupid ass USA behavior. I get it- some driver might kill me. When I am a pedestrian also. I ride defensively. I refuse to encase my head in the hard smelly plastic bowl. Accidents do happen , I will take the chance. Just like on my skateboard and surfboard...I am careful, test my boundaries once in a while... I am careful. And I might die. Got it.

• I never wear a helmet.

• you're fucking crazy not to wear a helmet riding your bike walk into an emergency room any day of the week - go on, flash your press pass - and see the athletic bike messenger dudes with cracks on the side of their heads, and blood oozing from what was once a functional brain. You're fucking crazy not to wear one - but then again, maybe you are just fucking crazy !

• let those who ride decide

• MM - During the years I lived in NYC I'd see you on your bike around town. The first time was outside the old VV offices and you said "Hi" - the last time was years later on Sixth Avenue - You appeared to be a careful rider (except when you used your foot to push that old lady out of the way) - and I trust your judgment. No doubt you're aware, though, that others can barreling nuts...

• Cross at the green, not in between!

• what? someone yelled: get your asshole covered, legs?

• No, I'm sure Rosie and Jodie ride Hondas.

• those trucks are driven by diesel dykes like Rosie O'Donnell and Jodie Foster and the "accidents" show their disapproval of Musto's columns --

• Remind me not to go walking with you! Random cars and trucks are always backing into you.

• If they know from experience, then they've got head injuries and what they say is not to be trusted.

• Michael, take it from a 30-year bike commuter: Wear a helmet in anticipation of your first head collision (with the ground or otherwise). If you ride as much as you say you do, it's going to happen. And I gotta tell ya there's nothing more thrilling than flying over your handlebars and feeling that helmet being your first and possibly life saving contact with the concrete. That's why those strangers are also yelling at you to do so---they likely know from experience.

• yes, a short film even exists of Michael M. riding his bike without a helmet in his distant youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLFwwQRSeTY

• Good for you Musto---helmets are for nerds!

• Who needs a helmet when you've got that crazy hair of yours?

• Bitch, you're on a collision course to hell.

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