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/”]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
The arrogant, patronising and condescending airs of those who are pro-helmet are akin at times to those rabid bible-thumpers who think nothing of foisting their narrow world view on others, whether they want to hear it or not. Usually not.
The beauty of being a rational, thinking adult is that one can disseminate information and arrive at one's own conclusion, and just because it may not agree with your own doesn't mean they are wrong.
@Oli
Indeed. Although I would contend that the suggestion that a study regarding the efficacy of "soft" helmets in rugby has some relevance to today's bike helmets is flawed...
This is a discussion for someplace else. Swap email addresses. It never ends well.
@minion
For once I think u may be right!
@Oli
Agreed. I'm a big fan of helmets, but not a big fan of helmet laws or otherwise telling people what to do. I'd say let the insurers and actuaries decide whether they want to cover someone who won't bucket up, or let people live with the consequences. And remember, arguing on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics...
@Oli
Amen to that Oli... that's why I used the term 'believers' and have stayed away.
But Marcus just for you because you said I look PRO :-x , I should have said I don't wear a helmet when I have a choice. Obviously in races and events I am forced to wear one.
A few people in my local club group have been pressuring me to wear one lately - it's this automatic assumption that pisses me off and the shocked surprise that I would disagree. Like Oli said, it's as if they had offered me the chance of heavenly paradise and I said No Thanks, Eternal Damnation is fine.
Anyway, I see we have a new article so ... move along, nothing to see here.
You don't wear a helmet for yourself. You wear it for your family. You wear it b/c the squirrel who took you out in the crit will feel bad enough with you bandaged head-to-toe, much less you in an ICU. You wear it so that I and the rest of the people in your health insurance plan don't have to bear the premium increase b/c of your redneck, Harley-driving helmetless style insistence on "being free" or some such crap. You wear it b/c you understand that arguments about seeing a study once that drivers are more careful with helmetless riders is complete wishful thinking at best. You wear it so that your teammates who are unfortunate enough to have such an inconsiderate friend won't have to wear black armbands. This is not hyperbole. This is not some "narrow world view" being foisted upon fun-loving lefties. This is reality.
Anytime a guy shows up for our standing team ride with no helmet (and it's ALWAYS a guy), they are not allowed to start with us. No exceptions. I don't want to have to call some stranger's wife.
@Otoman
Arrogant, patronising and condescending. Perfect.
My Radars fit perfectly.
PS, I don't always sit at the computer with my helmet and glasses on. Sometimes I just wear my helmet.