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news
Bec Hill Climb 2013 promo still (source YouTube)Helmets to be made compulsory for hill climb competitors?
Helmets could be made mandatory for riders taking part in hill climbs, with the matter set to be voted on at the annual general meeting of the national council of Cycling Time Trials (CTT) on Sunday.
CTT is the national governing body for time trialling in the UK, and its remit also extends to hill climbs, typically held over the autumn.
Events such as the Catford Hill Climb in Kent – the world’s oldest bike race, tracing its history back to 1886 – and the Monsal Hill Climb in Derbyshire attracting strong competition and hundreds of spectators
Regulation 15 of CTT’s Regulations governs protective helmets and starts with the words: “All competitors under the age of 18 years and/or Juniors must wear a properly affixed helmet which must be of hard/soft shell construction.”
A proposed amendment put forward by CTT’s Scotland District Council and which aims to “enhance competitor safety” would remove the words “under the age of 18 years and/or Juniors” as well as the words “(or parent or guardian if the rider is aged under 18 years of age)” from the regulation.
The effect would be to extend it to all riders competing in events sanctioned by the governing body.
However, there have been suggestions on social media that other districts might be mandated by their memberships to introduce a further amendment specifically excluding hill climbs from the scope of the regulation, other than for under-18 or Junior riders.
For the amendment to pass, it would need to have support of at least two thirds of the delegates at the national council’s meeting, which takes place in Daventry, Northamptonshire this weekend.
As well as hill climbs, the proposed amendment means that the regulation would apply to all time trials sanctioned by CTT. While almost all participants in those would wear a helmet anyway – not least to improve aerodynamics – in longer events, riders may remove them late on for reasons of comfort.
Other proposed amendments to the regulations on the agenda for Sunday’s meeting include that competitors should be required to have front and rear lights to make them more visible to other road users, and that a current ban on headphones and earphones other than hearing aids be extended to include bike-mounted speakers.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- RoubaixCube 5 hours 6 min ago
And if you put the Gamel Helmet on back to front. You could become Robocop!
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Or any non-drivist. A few years back, I was walking and crossing a side road not far from home. The road has particularly wide corners, especially...
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This was it in November 2022. Now you see the futility of reporting things to the police or DVLA
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I can tell you exactly what LC will be doing about that offence: nothing. I used to get letters like those- in fact, exactly like that. When you...
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21 comments
A shit-for-brains proposal that helps no-one and is, thankfully, very unlikely to be passed.
And thanks to riskymoth for knowing who drew it.
I'm glad someone can save these cyclists from themselves. Will somebody please think of the children.
Not since the court order
I'm just disappointed I won't be able to race up the Rake with Chemical Brothers blasting out of a set of B&W 603s strapped to the forks.
With each year that passes I ride up various local hills and they're rarely as bad as I remember them. Except the Rake. That's worse. Every time.
Not entirely relevant, but I kept this image to post it on the next helmet debate.
I don't know if it's new to anyone, but I liked it.
Thanks to the Cycling Professor, I found it on his twitter page.
helmets.png
Thanks to Dave Walker (The Cycling Cartoonist) for drawing the cartoon!
Seems pretty relevant to me, except the LH column could include drivers and quite a few cyclists and anyone who hasn't looked at the evidence.
Mandatory helmets and lights comes up every year. Hasn't been passed yet.
Does anyone not use a helmet in a standard TT? I can quite understand not wanting to use one for HCs.
Not seen it in our club 10 mile but at the 24 hour lots of people gave up with the aero lid. Probably because of the weight over that amount of time.
I know 2 people who race TTs without a hat. There were 3 before I acquired an aero helmet.
You killed someone for their helmet?
Paging CyclingInBeastMode...
47267682-funny-squirrel-with-blank-popcorn-bucket-and-3d-glasses-on-white.jpg
Who cares, it's a very narrow cross-section of a small out group that mostly stays out of sight.
8a2f275add406f36a944cef0e20123d5.jpg
That's clearly a cricket helmet, and therefore nothing to do with cycling. Away with you, foul rodent! (W. Shakespeare, Wm III, Scene two, Act three)
Looks like an American Football helmet to me.
american_football_squirrels.jpeg
c'mon man, everyone knows that those helmets are banned under current rules, why won't anyone think of the kits ... (note space before ellipses
)
They would lower the chance of trash tossed from a car/van hitting you in the face without committing to the full face motorsport helmet so probably very useful in today's rat infested roads.
(sits back, with a bag of popcorn...)