Pardon the term "brainbucket." Figured it was an eye-grabber though.

So:

Let's talk vintage helmets today. I've seen the earliest helmets (one people started using helmets) were nothing more than some strips of what looks like puffy leather. (Ebay has some NOS ones and repros)

Then the next thing on my timeline is the modern-day teardrop helmets.

There's some stuff missing in the middle, I think, if you guys would like to fill me in and create a nice little archive on vintage helmets, feel free to help out!

Also, if you know of any producers of "old-style" helmets today (even if they actually are made with "safe" materials,) let me know. I think having a neat old helmet to match the neat old bike would be cool.

Actually, having any helmet would be nice.

Right now when I wear a helmet, it's for rain. It's a steel helmet from world war II. It works very well for rain, small-caliber ammunition, etc. I dunno about bike crashes, though.

The leather strips were sewn with foam in them (hairnets). There was the "Skid Lid", possibly the first effective bicycle helmet. Some people used mountainiering helmets, Bell had a bicycle helmet early on, there were the styrofoam ones with cloth covers and now the aero styrofoam with plastic shells.

Honestly, back in the 70s, 1 out of 15 riders used a helmet. The "hairnets" were required for racing, but studies found them to be practically worthless; hence the further development.

I keep looking for an old Skid Lid to complete my Fred outfit.

You must realize that before the puffy-leather, there was the pith helmet.
This was made popular by the first cross country cyclist, Thomas Stevens.

for anyone thinking about looking the vintage part, skid lids were not effective and were eventually taken off of the market after several deaths from head injuries. There was some discussion about whether skid lids made impacts worse, although I don't see how that could have been.

And, I'm highly offended by the term "brain bucket". That phrase would imply that I have a brain.

I would suggest that if you want to continue to possess the credentials to tell us where we should shop, you walk over to WalMart and buy a helmet for about $20. On the other hand, you could go to your lbs and buy one that is just as effective but a lot cooler looking for about $100.

Nah. Just go to Dick's Sporting Goods or your local equivalent and get a Giro Indicator. Modern design, comfortable, and well vented for about $30.

Mid-70s we used to wear a leather 'hairnet' helmet by Cinelli. Then a super-paddded white hairnet by Kucharik . . . really nice.
Not effective? Wish to dispute that. Had my steel garage door fall down on my head one day with my hairnet on . . . sorta buckled me at the knees, but not even a lump on the head.
Agree the V1-Pro by Bell was one of our favorites. They came in black only (at first) with a gold pinstripe. Painted ours brilliant white; living in AZ in the summer you don't need anything that absorbs the heat! Later they produced white V1s.
Currently have a Rudy Project and a Giro.

One of the first modern bicycle helmets was the Baden bucket(not sure of spelling)the advs for it showed a bicycle rider with a bucket on his head.It was manufactured buy a company that made mining helmets.

This one is so ugly that it is almost cool!

Wearing that and people might think you have "special needs".

Reminds me of the movie Tron.

Interestingly enough, Stevens credits his British-pattern pith helmet with protecting him from injury on a couple of occasions during his around-the-world ride (1884-86).

Elisabeth Young also credited her (French-pattern) pith for saving her from a nasty concussion or worse during her coast-to-coast-to-coast tandem ride with husband Jim in 1938.

tcs

There has to be a lawyer or two involved somewhere....

Thats a Skid Lid!

Is there a reason that most bicycle helmets have pseudo aerodynamic look? Any engineer should be able to tell you they aren't remotely close to aerodynamic. I want to wear a helmet if only to keep the dear wife from nagging, but I want one that, to me, doesn't look so weird. I could've tolerated one of the early Bells, but they don't seem to be available anymore. BTW, a helmet saved my life when I crashed my motorcycle a few years ago. So, I'm a believer, but I just can't bring myself to wearing something that looks like an inverted sailboat hull. Also, FWIW, when I used to bike to work, I got hit twicw by idots making right hand turns in front of me. Fortunately, only minor damage to the bike.

John

Bell Citi.

HTH,
tcs

https://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Bell-Bra...1%7C240%3A1318

The Bell Biker was a pretty good helmet. There really isn't anything like it now. I need to get a new helmet, my current Bell is driving me nuts -- I think my head got bigger.

I started with the basic padded leather hairnet, which I quickly replaced with a heavily padded Kucherik hairnet. After my one-and-only bike-car crash in 1976, I promptly bought a Bell Biker, which I used for about 10 years before progressing through Bell Image, etc. to my current best-ever Giro Xen.

I have a Vetta around here somewhere that I bought around 1986. It is similar to the Bell Biker, but it came in colors other than white.

I actually saw an older roadie riding with a hair net recently. I was wondering if it was some old skool repro or has he been using this for the last 30+ years.

There were some improvments in "hair nets". When I started racing they were very little more than a strip of leather. The last one I had strips about 1.25 inches thick. The rules also changed to limit the size of the openings. I think we all knew they weren't going to do much, but that was what was available. I'm just glad I never had to test mine.

I saw a guy wearing a regular "skateboard" style helmet in a cyclocross race recently and I think I'm going to do that as well (i don't wear one on the street, but racing requires it). I have this one:

Definitely a skid lid, a very popular helmet in the eighties, but it never met the Ansi/snell standard.