I can often be found fixing, riding or coveting a bicycle. However my main pastime these days is hiring bikes – here’s your bike, here’s your lock and here are some lights so you don’t get in trouble with the local law, I can be found saying daily.

Occasionally the hirer stays in my yard looking perplexed about something.

What’s wrong, I say, you don’t like my bikes?

No they’re lovely bikes, they reply, but... I really need something on my head.

Ah well, I tell them, luckily for us Brits, wearing the bonnet of safety is not mandatory, and yes, I expect them to leap with joy at their new-found freedom or at least choice in the matter. But no, a sad smile with a shrug of the shoulders and then payment for a new helmet is what ensues.

Now the people who hire my bikes are not making on-the-spot health and safety decisions, weighing the risks of head injury against damage to their wallets; no, they are just following the law of their land.

Back in their homes, obviously, its display is a legal requirement.

But I have to be honest and admit, I don’t really wear a helmet now.

You see, as a young child, I had to wear a bright green helmet that my father and many other parents of my unfortunate school chums found on special offer at Halfords.

The helmet in question looked like a pea, so needless to say the daily commute into school was often accompanied by some jeering and the occasional chorus of the theme tune to the children’s TV classic The Poddington Peas (anyone remember that?).

Well, as you can appreciate, that really is enough to scar a child for life and although I would like to think myself immune to bullying, this experience may well have shaped my adult decision regarding helmets.

One such man who does take his safety on a bike seriously is James Cracknell, the twice Olympic gold champion.

Recently he was involved in a road accident in Arizona which put him in intensive care.

He was wearing a helmet which bore the brunt of the crash but was left shorn in two (and it was an expensive helmet at that!).

His head survived the collision, whereas, through my own vanity, mine wouldn’t have.

And yes, I do have some cracking scars above the eye to prove my resolution to dice with death.

I understand the risks involved in abandoning safety apparel when cycling, but in my head, the picture postcard image of vintage bikes and Pimms in the park still holds true and as far as I remember none of those images involved a bright green pea-shaped helmet.

Thanks Dad!