This is my fourth release of Quale and improvements continue...you can now access my ride schedule either here or by clicking on Quest 1, Quest 2 or Quest 3! These are sponsored by the Outdoor Club of South Jersey or the South Jersey Wheelmen and offer a feature that no other club can provide...tours led by RePete.
For those of you that are first time visitors and to those who are returning, I am happy to greet you! Please stroll around. This is Quibbles and contains my recent bicycling experiences that may be helpful to you. You can also find out about my earlier experiences by going to
Quale
Quotes are your experiences and comments. You can email me at RePete@Snip.net.
Quest contain rides led by RePete and others that have a special appeal.
Welcome to Quibbles for June 1998 and thank you to the over 300 guest that have visited my web site! This is an increase of over 100 since this page was updated some 6 weeks ago. I am happy that so many have graced these doorsteps. An additional thanks to you that have sent messages...yes I do appreciate those comments...please keep them coming.
Well...the second Peach Blossom Tour on April 26 was cancelled because of rain...followed by several cancellations of evening tours. The weather finally allowed for my evening rides to begin during the second week in May. In fact a pair of riders joined me on several of these Just Tour’n shorties. The Piney Hallow tour on May 30 had a good turn-out with 12 Outdoor Club Members attending along with the sun!!! This 40 miler featured a almost flat route with not even an overpass to crossover. A special event included celebrating a birthday for one of our riders....RePete spared no expense in purchasing chocolate cup cakes complete with a candle in each! The group all sang “Happy Birthday” at the lunch stop.
As a strong cycling advocate, bicycling safety is a important topic for RePete. In the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer and many other Sunday newspapers the following article appeared and is being reprinted for those that may have missed and to emphasis this vital issue:
by Michael Ryan
Abe Bergman is a pediatatrician, so a gentle, soft-spoken manner comes naturally to him. But his reassuring calm dissolves into frustration when he talks about a subject close to his heart. “Here we have something that can save lives.” says Dr. Bergman. “It’s easy. It doesn’t cost a lot. And we’re not doing it.”
I went to Seattle to meet Abe Bergman and Dr. Fred Rivara, both professors at the University of Washington’s medical school and physicians at Harborview Medical Center. Bergman is director of pediatrics at Harborview: Rivara directs its Injury Prevention and Research Center. Bergman, Rivara and their colleagues have created a medical wonder. In the last decade, they have saved the lives of hundreds of children and adults; cut by 65% the number of head injuries caused by bicycle crashes to Seattle-area kids; and saved innumerable children from paralysis, loss of brain function, motor control and speech. They have used neither miracle drugs not 21st-century machines to accomplish this feat. Their secret is a device that any parent can buy for about $20: a bicycle helmet.
“Every day tin the U.S., one child dies and 50 suffer permanent brain injuries from bicycle accidents,” says Bergman. “Parents should understand what a head injury means,” adds Rivara. “You can have a child who is completely normal one moment and completely different the next. A head injury can change your life and your child’s life forever. You can spend the rest of your life taking care of that child.”
In studying the scientific literature on head injuries in children, the doctors discovered one paper that estimated only about 1% of American kids wear helmets when they ride bikes. They did research in Seattle and found that their city’s average was nearly as dismal: About 2% of children were helmeted. Every day in their emergency room, the doctors saw the results of such carelessness.
“Of course the deaths are terrible,” says Bergman. “But we see them, then they’re gone. It’s the permanent brain injuries, the disabilities, the children who can’t walk, and can’t talk for the rest of their lives. Dealing with them and their families is the worst thing we have to do.”
Bergman and Rivara turned their concern into action. “Head injuries account for about a third of the emergency-room visits of children, two-thirds of the hospitalizations and three-quarters of the deaths,” says Rivara. In response to such tragedy, the doctors and their colleagues started the Seattle Children’s Bicycle Helmet Campaign. Although 15 states have laws requiring the use of bicycle helmets, Washington is not one of them.
As academic researchers and practicing pediatricians, the two doctors were able to back up their support for helmets with facts. One study--written by Rivara, with Diane and Robert Thompson, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association--showed that bike helmets reduce head injuries by 85%.
“It doesn’t matter what type of helmet,” notes Rivara. “As long as it says ANSI or Snell, it will work.” (The American National Standards Institute and the Snell Foundation both test helmets.)
Rivara and Bergman quickly learned how to get their message out. One problem they discovered was that helmets usually were sold at specialty stores for biking enthusiasts, at a cost of $40 to $60. But most kids’ bikes were purchased at toy stores. Helmets were too expensive and too heard to find for most parents out buying bicycles for kids.
Transforming themselves overnight into marketing experts, the doctors persuaded one Seattle helmet manufacturer to produce a low-priced model. Then they talked local toy stores into carrying helmets for kids. “My favorite was one retailer who put a hang tag on every bike he sold,” Bergman recalls. “It said, ‘This bicycle is missing a part.’ ” Along with the tag came a coupon good for a reduced price on a helmet. Bergman visited the buyer for one of the nation’s largest toy-store chains and convinced him of the importance of helmets. Now children’s helmets are available in he bicycle sections of the chain’s outlets--and the price has gone below $25.
The physicians soon realized that they were fighting something they call “the nerd factor”--the idea among kids that wearing a bike helmet is not cool. To combat this, they enlisted Seattle-area celebrities to appear in TV ads. “Harold Reynold, the former second baseman for the mariners, did commercials wearing a helmet for us,” says Bergman .
The doctors and their co-workers went to Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts camps, to YMCAs--to any place children were likely to congregate. But most of all, they aimed their PR blitz at parents. “If parents wear helmets when they bicycle, then about 98% of kids wear helmets,” says Rivara. “If the parents don’t wear helmets, it drops to 30%.
The latest studies done at Harborview show an amazing turnaround: While only 2% of Seattle area bicyclist wore helmets a decade ago, about 70% do today. With pediatric brain injuries at an all-time low, Rivara and Bergman are eager to replicate their program throughout the country.
Bergman, in fact, already has seen how powerful the campaign can be. Earlier this year he received a frantic phone call from the parents of his 19-year-old daughter’s boyfriend. “They said that Kevin was in the emergency room,” he recalls. The young man had been bicycling down a steep Seattle hill when a car cut him off. He went through the car’s windshield.
“He had serious fractures,” Dr. Bergman says. But Kevin was wearing a helmet, so he suffered no head injuries.
“He’s alive to talk about it,” adds Bergman. “If he hadn’t had a helmet Kevin would be dead.”
My thanks for this timely article at the beginning of summer. RePete can add to this story from personal experience. On one ride my rear tire may have went flat during a turn. I lost control and crashed. After regaining consciousness and a hospital stay, I realized what had happened. The doctor that attend to me said I avoided serious injury because of my helmet. This was reinforced after returning home and looking at my helmet...there was a large impression in the front caused by a rock. Without the helmet, that same rock would have pushed into my skull...please, please wear helmets on all rides and ensure those children near and dear to you also wear helmets!!!!!!!
Now for some disturbing news that was announced with the last update, a close friend has been told that his firm will merge. Most functions are expected to be moved or absorbed. Currently employed with General Accident Insurance that is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As Assistant Superintendent, he is responsible for a staff that does the regulatory reporting to various agencies including the Insurance Services Office. Here is a short list of his major qualifications:
Can you now help? Do you know of anyone that can provide further advice? Email me with any information that may help.
The Multiple Sclerosis annual “City to Shore” Bike Tour is scheduled for September 26 & 27. This is attended by thousands. RePete has participated during the last 4 years. To make this year special, we are forming a team that will raise money for this worthwhile cause. Day one features either a 75 or 100 mile route that leaves from Woodcrest Station, New Jersey. We stay overnight in Ocean City, New Jersey and return the following day. RePete is also seeking sponsors...these will be published on this web site. Also, is there anyone able to provide a specially designed jersey for our team...you business or organization could be prominently displayed! Want to know more about MS? Simply click on Fight Against MS. Now please email me at RePete@Snip.net with your help!!
Interested in having your cycling performance maintained? RePete will provide a series of reports that include both charts and graphs on various information such criteria as distance, time, speed, weight and more. You will receive reports showing these criteria and displayed by individual ride as well as summarized into weekly and monthly totals that are also graphically represented! Your year to date criteria are also provided and summarized by average ride, longest ride, shortest ride, fastest ride, slowest ride and totaled. Email me at RePete@Snip.netfor more information on this great feature.
Say, now it is our turn...continue on into
Quotes, Quale or Quest 1 for April and May Tour, Quest 2 for June and July Tours or Quest 3 for August and September Tours. Then visit the links. Email your comments to:
Safe Cycling!
6/1/98
RePete@Snip.net
RePete