smoke

don't knock the helmet. who cares what it looks like? everybody laughed at lemond's sunglasses until he won his first stage, and the next day half the peleton had 'em. if you have a goal, and are close to achieving it, spring for the helmet. even the poorest equipment nowadays is so good that there are only small advantages to buying much more high-end equipment. the point being, a 45 second gain in time for less than $200 is a ton of time for a relatively small amount of money. upgrading just about anything else you have to gain another 45 seconds is gonna cost a bundle. having said that, if you are only doing the tri's for fun, or to test your fitness, then the helmet probably isn't worth the cost