Sean Flores asked:
Okay, without getting into a crazy safety discussion or the merits of helmets, I have a pretty surface level question (and would love to keep it as such). Do hairnet type helmets do anything for you? Is there any merit to them?
To which Kyle Brooks replied:
Certainly, you're no worse off than going bare-headed, but don't kid yourself that it's any better.
To which I say:
My grandfather was a doctor in a shipbuilding town, and in his experience even a knit cap offers appreciable protection against head injury, at least from dropped objects. Note that I say, "appreciable," not, "sufficient". This is only one datapoint, but it does not support the assertion that a hairnet is no better than nothing. Of course its better. Is it adequate? Would it make any sense to wear one today when modern helmets are vastly more protective and not really any heavier or hotter? I'd say not. Still, we weren't all just delusional to wear them. What viable alterntive was better? To some the viable alterntaive was the first gen of hardshells like the Biker. To others only introduction of the Giro brought a better choice. Hairnets were, for a long time, the best technology on the market. Sure, the technology was immature given what materials and design techniques were actually available, but what was on the shelf that was any better?
Also, Bill Ungar wrote:
As you probably know, European road racers from the late eighties on back, rode helmetless, and only went so far as to use the hairnet (with or without cloth cap on top), on rougher roads and cobbles, such as Paris-Roubois.
To which I reply:
Note that is was European professional riders who rode helmetless. The amateurs were required to wear helmets (hairnets). Also, the sudden donning of helmets for Paris-Roubaix may have had less to do with the cobbles and more to do with the requirement for pros to wear helmets when racing in Benlux countries. At least that's what I recall.
Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA, USA
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