Originally Posted by Six jours

Oh, and just as a side note... The ride is a crash fest; a total free-for-all with no rules and no pack manners. I was a complete fool to do it without a helmet, and a good argument can be made that one is a complete fool to do it at all. It's a very good example of the idea that "You have to wear a helmet, bicycling is dangerous!" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't know what you're doing, bicycling can be very dangerous. The mistake is in assuming that nobody else knows what they're doing either.