Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
Race with a hairnet helmet in the 70's, I switch to the Kucharck because it was the best out there and only slow racers used a Bell. Had a Skid Lid in the 80's. Never had a Bell, they were Fred before Fred was Fred. Brancale was another popular hard shell in the 70's.
I raced a hairnet my first year, 1976. Started racing open races the next year and bought the Bell just so I'd be wearing it in the next Cat 3,4 pile-up. No sprint here; there was no way I could "ride the front" all day to stay ahead of those crashes. That pile-up never happened (well I rode around quite a few), but that decision saved my life a month after the season ended. I got to be Bell's poster boy for the Boston area cycling community. (I had fun with this years later. I was then living on the west coast. When I went back, I would go to a bike shop I have never stepped in before, go to the helmet display and wait for a salesperson. That salesperson would start his pitch citing my accident.
Another poster said that only slow folk wore the Biker. 1977, two of us wore Bikers in the Maine International and finished in the lead group, in the money and under the old course record.
Oh, those hairnets? The word in the peloton was that we were wore them so we could have open casket ceremonies.
Ben