Christina Mackenzie heads towards Forth Bridge on Land’s End to John O’Groats record attempt

Fine by me Mickey, just remember when you're in a queue of traffic stuck behind a cyclist in the middle of the lane that this is exactly what you asked for.

He's talking about our "tiny island" so I think its fair comment ;-)

Reply t o Rendel I'm serious, it might be a combination of my head shape and the helmet I use but I definitely have more wind rush around my ears with a helmet and notice it when bunch racing compared to social riding.

All over the country it's the same , thousands of cars vrs hundreds of bikes. All this sustainable transport infrastructure for bikes is just a waste of many ,, thousands upon thousands of drivers all report very seldom underused bike lanes. Motorised vehicles are the majority & preference on the roads should be made for them & not for the minority of cyclists. Get rid of all the annoying cycle lanes everywhere.

(reply to Backladder as ability to reply to more than the fourth reply seems to have been removed) I really hope that's tongue in cheek, because if it isn't it's just ludicrous. I have never noticed the slightest discrepancy between wind noise when riding with a helmet and when riding without so it must be minimal at best. I've read quite a lot of debate about helmets, here and elsewhere, and you're the first person I've ever seen suggesting that people wearing helmets might crash because of wind noise.

You’re making a big assumption there that “anonymous person posting on the internet” is in the UK.

Its nice that they have these little things called kilometres for all the show offs to ride large numbers of, but in the UK road signs use miles and speed limits are in miles per hour so come back when you are using big boy units!

I don't know of any research into that question but from my own experience a helmet interferes with my awareness of traffic around me, the noise from the wind in the helmet is louder than the sound of modern quiet cars and other cyclists so perhaps your urban commuters are crashing because they can't hear other traffic around them?

My father undertook post mortems and attended coronors inquests until his retirement and early death. He saw the riders who died in accidents. He built up decades of observed experience. He made us wear a helmet.

I'm glad I had my trousers on. If I hadn't I might have been arrested.