Enjoyed the posts on helmets. I would up the timeline on using helmets to no more than two/three years depending on outdoor riding time. Our new safer helmets do get hard/petrified after several seasons of exposure and won't shatter on impact as designed to absorb the hit. Instead, the helmet when hard is like a litewate brick, and when impacted with your head inside will be like a sledgehammer crunching your skull. I was riding in a club race next to a fellow masters rider about 10 years ago. He was about one length in front of me and about four feet on the side. I saw him touch the back wheel of the rider in front of him, flip the bar out of his hands, and fly over the bars like a spear and hit the pavement head-on!. He was wearing a very old Bell helmet that was totally hard like a rock inside. The spill cracked his skull, and after living on machines for about 3/4 days passed away without waking up. That picture is forever playable in my mind's eye on recall request, of a colleague and friend going headfirst into the pavement just several feet to my side. So, don't talk nonsense or be cheap. Check your helmets and after a couple of seasons and see if the liner is still soft enough to absorb shock and shatter on impact to save your cabeza de melon or coconut if you prefer. One important factor is to get a helmet that is moulded to fit your head's shape. Rounder or more oval so the padding fits nice and even all the way around. If the helmet you choose for fit and lastly price doesn't come in a color you like, get it painted. Be safe, be smart. I've been in and seen too many spills over the last 70 years, so don't be like Jobst Brandt was recently. The odds are against the player and it's money in the bank the house can't get if you keep your wits about you. One of the best helmets I ever had was my old motorpace helmet that Brian Ignatin has along with my Rickert motorpace machine. Moulded leather with a suspended leather liner which kept your head about a half inch or so away from the top and with very nice ear covers. Saved my life in my one serious motorpace spill at about 50/55 MPH. I walked away and rode the next heat, although I did look like a reincarnated mummy riding a bike. Yeah, I'd do it again. Ted Ernst Palos Verdes Estates CA USA
On Feb 18, 2011, at 7:06 AM, bsandel@verizon.net wrote:
> Awfully quiet out here today listers. Maybe Dale put the fear of Tulio into us about off-topic posts. I hope this question is not too out there. I'd hate to get banned.
>
> Helmet use is not optional for me - I'm going to wear one no matter what. I'm wondering if anyone knows of modern helmets that may not look as goofy with classic bike and kit as a typical brightly graphical Giro etc. I'm hoping for plain black with simple air slots and a head hugging shape (rather than the current rear-flared helmet shape). I've Googled and found some tweedy covers and the archives weren't much help. I'm not trying to start a debate, just wondering if anyone has found something they like.
>
> Ben Sandel
> looking to spend some bread on something for his head in Harrisonburg, VA.