I believe that the "Bailen Bucket" helmet was the first or second plastic helmet released for bicycles in the USA. Along with my very first raleigh grand prix, my parents bought me a bell biker helmet in either mid 1973 or maybe january of 1974. i think that the bailen bucket was the only other non-hairnet helmt available at that time - they might have preceded Bell by a few months or maybe a year.
Sadly, the Bailen Bucket was not a great helmet. It very much looked like an enlarged "thumb protector" in that it was a hard circular headband with 4 wide tangs at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock that went up towards the cranial peak, but did not meet nor connect. Because they did not connect the headband did not have much stiffness to resist ovalizing (your head) during an impact. I think that helmet was lined with open-cell foam, so that with even a light impact your head would hit the shell at nearly full speed.
I believe that this is exactly the helmet used by competitors in the movie "Breaking Away" during the "Little Indy 500" race in the movie.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA