Bought a bicycle helmet today

I've been riding a bike on the street as a way to get in shape. The time spend on the road was adding up, and coupled with my impatience to wait on red lights something was bound to happen. So today a car hit me. I did turn the bike at the last moment and avoided getting under the wheels, but still bounce pretty hard off the side of the car.

First thing I felt hitting hard was my back and shoulders, and then an instant later the back of my head on the asphalt, bam! I really felt my skull hit hard, and was stunned for a moment. I've never fallen off a bike this way. I was really surprised that I wasn't able to make a controlled fall and protect my head. That's just something that I thought would never happen to me because of the grappling. Well I was wrong and it seems that in such a situation the head is almost sure to make strong contact with the ground.

My head doesn't hurt on the outside so much, there's a cut but it's not bad. But it is throbbing somewhat, and my neck is stiff, I suppose it was a whiplash like effect. I hope I don't wake up dead tomorrow Anyways I always thought bicycle helmets was something other people wear, but I went and bought one today. Seems like it has the most material exactly where I hit my head. It's very light, almost unnoticeable, and it has a small visor which should help with the sun.

This is the helmet I got, on sale for $30 at Sports Authority.

Thanks guys. I woke up with my head heavy,, my neck stiff, and what's weird is all around my throat is hurting too. I know its from the crash because it started yesterday. For sure there was a little luck involved in it not being worse. I remember a few such "luck" throughout my life, I wonder if I'm running out like a cat with 9 lives.

No, a mountain bike.

You're one of my inspirations no kidding. For those who don't know Davie lost a lot of weight and looks great. I'm sure it positively affected his diving. It's been a while too so it looks like it could be permanent, until you get hitched at least It's going slowly for me, but there's progress. This fall did put the exercising on hold which is frustrating.

Kyle, the driver that hit me stuck around, but it looked like he was more concerned about the scratch on his car, even though I was bleeding from my head. I felt it was my fault at the time so I didn't want to pursue anything and just went home. In retrospect he zoomed into that empty left turn lane too fast.

Chuck, I think you understood my mindset perfectly. We also never used helmets growing up, so I figured why are they necessary now. Better to be aware and stay sharp, than have a false sense of security. But things change, and these helmets are so light you can't even feel it on your head. I was considering wearing a visor for the sun anyways.

Grappling, in my case I started with Judo at a young age, teaches you how to fall without hurting yourself. It's an automatic learning process because you get thrown a lot from all kinds of positions. The reflex becomes part of you and carries through to different situations outside of the training. I remember 10 years ago I was working a bull terrier, a short stocky dog, that got in front of my legs and tripped me with the leash. I was heading face first into the pavement, the reflex kicked in and I did a Judo roll and ended up on my feet without a scratch or even my clothes getting dirty. See the vid what it looks like. Later, like in MMA, the objective becomes to drop your opponent on his head in such a way that he can't protect himself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rizlP_I0E6c