Categories: In Memoriam

In Memoriam: Unsafe Headgear

I appreciate my helmet. I treat it with respect. I never leave for a ride without it. I replace it after a crash or even after helplessly watching it bound down the stairwell like some kind of deformed styrofoam slinky-dink after allowing it to slip from my grasp. (This activity also typically involves some assertions questioning what it does in its spare time, its origins of birth, and things of that nature.) Community member @chaz also recently suggested that, in accordance with motorcycle tradition, we ceremoniously cut the strap on the helmet and hang it in the VVorkshop in deference to the purpose it served us.

Suffice to say, I’m grateful for the advances technology offers us when it comes to protective headgear, because staying alive is in alignment with my strategy. But progress is the slayer of ritual and tradition, and I can’t help but look back longingly to the days when helmets were rarely worn and if they were, they consisted of thin strips of leather that, assuming it stayed on, would do little more than keep your cranium from coming apart after cracking it to bits on a cobblestone or some such object.

The hairnet was the coolest cranial accouterment ever designed, with the insulated cycling cap that fit over it being a close second. The cycling cap on its own was, of course, also a class piece of kit to be worn forwards, sideways, or backwards – made cooler only by perching a set of cycling-specific shades on top of it. A helmetless head saw hair slicked back by the wind as a byproduct of the V as riders raised their arms in triumph over the finish line. The bare noggin on the high mountain passes was a beacon of Purified Awesome, allowing us to see in all their glory the suffering faces of the riders as they moved sur la plaque over the summit.

Take a moment, fellow Velominati, to honor the Useless Headgear of our past.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Headgear/”]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Bintang says:

Dec 16 2011 at 10:45 am

I saw some nasty falls from people who were not wearing helmets. Better safe than sorry, because 'sorry' probably equals: 'it doesn't matter, anymore'...
Buck Rogers says:

Dec 16 2011 at 11:13 am

SUPER piece, Fronk, and a timely one as well as I was setting my own roller record yesterday (2:01:09 for those of you inetersted :) and was watching the '94 P-R on dvd and was just thinking how amazingly cool and old school they all looked, except for the few US dorks in the early Giro helmets, in their hairnets or just cycling caps.

Esp when Duclos-Lassalle threw his cycling cap to a fan while in the "trenches of Arenberg".

Great stuff.

That being said, I never throw a leg over the top tube, and never will, without a hemet on.
Ron says:

Dec 16 2011 at 11:26 am

Awesome lead photo! Love the jersey, really like the very think hoops near his wrists, and the precipitation coming down adds to the shot. Nice.
Ron says:

Dec 16 2011 at 11:40 am

It is kind of crazy how something that was once the norm can seem so out of place now. Freely flowing hair & just caps. Helmets now seem as much a part of the peloton now as the bikes and the racers themselves. Hard to picture a race without them. I also can't imagine anyone playing ice hockey without a helmet on, but I do remember the days when some didn't wear them. The game has definitely gotten faster since the 80s, but still...skating in an enclosed space with strong, fast dudes and a heavy puck? Insane.

I've gone from inexpensive helmets to nicer and nicer ones. Now anything but a super-light, very nice one feels like a boulder strapped to my head.

And, is it just me or are the people riding bikes and not wearing helmets, plus wearing ear phones, always the ones who seem to need their sense of sound & a protective lid the most?
gaswepass says:

Dec 16 2011 at 11:44 am

2nd position rider in photo 12 has some funny handlebars- is that (display of total ignorance here) Lemond? those handlebars (knee bashers, courtesy of scott!) I don't think lasted very long. but some cool campy brakes to be sure.
eightzero says:

Dec 16 2011 at 12:24 pm

Il Pirate: Best. Headgear. Evar.
Nate says:

Dec 16 2011 at 12:35 pm

@Buck Rogers

SUPER piece, Fronk, and a timely one as well as I was setting my own roller record yesterday (2:01:09 for those of you inetersted :)

Sick.

I got on the rollers 3x this week (2x to sufferfest vids) and feel so much better than I usually do at this point in the week.
snoov says:

Dec 16 2011 at 12:36 pm

Is that Indurain shifting partir la plaque?
Nate says:

Dec 16 2011 at 12:41 pm

@snoov
And is that a Swatch he's wearing?
frank says:

Dec 16 2011 at 12:42 pm

@Ron

And, is it just me or are the people riding bikes and not wearing helmets, plus wearing ear phones, always the ones who seem to need their sense of sound & a protective lid the most?

As my dad says, if you're not wearing a helmet, you don't need one.