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/”]
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Love #6. I reckon that's Joop Zoetemelk in the stripes and would the PDM man be Steven Rooks?
Research suggests this is T-A 1986 as Zoetmelk won in '85 but if that's the case I wonder why they are wearing hairnets -- I associate those with racing in Belgium.
Transitioning from a Brancali hairnet to a Bell V1-pro for USCF in 86 SUCKED! A helmet you could stick in a jersey pocket pre or post race vs. Half a hollowed out bowling ball. the Giro Prolight made helmets palatable. The specialized sub 6 was pretty bad ass. But nothing has replaced the go to, broken in just so, cap used as a training ride essential.
I can't stand to see helmetless parents riding with their helmeted kids... Inconsistent much?
I'm a firm believer in helmets for motorcycling and skiing too; in addition to obvious safety improvement I find both activities way more comfortable enjoyable when my melon is encased in EPS. On the bike however it's a necessary discomfort; I've seen serious injuries even with helmets that would've been catastrophic without them. Bucket up, boys and girls!
@sgt
Our neighbor does this. Drives me nuts.
I had a hairnet helmet back in the day when I wanted to look like Danny Clark. I crashed wearing it once and my head split open, staining the inside with blood. It was a white one with coloured "sausages" and the staining was graphic. I used to show it to any of the kids who turned up to our races with one of them so that they knew how useless they were.
Oh God, helmets - the bike forum equivalent of Godwin's law.
I'm genuinely sorry this has come up, so I'm just going to not come here for the next few days otherwise I will be tempted to argue with all the 'believers'.
Suffice to say I do not wear a helmet.
There is little or no actual evidence of their benefit as a matter of statistics.
Check the actual standard your helmet is tested to and see if it matches your riding. And the faster you ride the less effect - that's physics.
There is evidence of their harm in preventing cycling, which has greater effect on overall safety.
They portray cycling as a dangerous activity and allow it to be marginalised.
You wear them if you like. I'm not stopping you and I'm not commenting on your choice or what it says about you.
But I really genuinely object to portraying people like me who make a different choice, especially one they have given some thought to, as stupid, ignorant and reckless.
Whoever suggested making a Rule... the day that happens is the day I stop being a Velominati.
See you in a few days.
@ChrisO
I agree with the sentiment. let those who ride decide. When I ride bike #1 I wear one. When I commute on my 80's Shogun I wear a cycling cap to hold my hair down.
you know, ChrisO is right, science has not replicated this point, nor could it. Really, think for a moment and tell me how many people will sign up for that one, or how can you go retrospectively and quantatively assign values to these things...you just can't.
so it will always be the dissention. i have ridden without for years, now i ride with, preferring the bell sweep and envy the new volts.
but alas, my last bad wreck left me spinning circles like the proverbial smashed cat in the highway after an 18wheeler hit it, that was me after a bad spill with a shep dog, split my bell sweep in 5 directions from my posterior occipit, lacerated my scalp at the same place to the skull. Had it not been for my helmet, i am convinced my brainstem woulda spilled out also...so kudos IMHO to the helmet. I ride yet again
and...in tribute, here is my idol
ps: who needs a rear derailleur anyway....
@RedRanger
This is not the forum for this discussion...but...
I'd be OK with that so long as those who decide not to protect themselves were not part of my insurance pool. But we don't do that.
And I would be a widower if it wasn't for the Bell Helmet Company. The assertion that there is no statistical proof is bullshit. I'm 1 for one on the deal.
This is not the place for this discussion.
@Souleur
Look at the massive drop on those classic bend bars. He could fit his whole head in there!