In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| Yet cyclists wear short sleeved and legged thin fabric shirts and shorts
| while riding at 30+ mph on hard metalled roads.

Only extreme racing cyclists reach those speeds on the flat, and only
a few loons do it downhill. It is extremely rare for clothing to make
a significant difference to any normal cyclist, as you tend to roll
rather than slide. Most of the regular cyclists I know of have come
off at speeds of up to 20 MPH with no more than grazes and minor holes
in clothing, and several at much higher speeds.

For heaven's sake - we are descended from hunter-gatherers, and
20 MPH is a speed that many people can reach in a sprint!

| As an ex-racing cyclist I've seen some horrible injuries.

I will bet that the majority of those happened because they were
riding in packs, and were largely due to damage caused by other
people's bicycles. Virtually all serious cycling injuries are
because a cyclist hits an obstacle (either before or after coming
off) or is hit by a motor vehicle. Merely coming off and not
hitting or being hit by anything is rarely serious.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.