I was cracking into the ol' Glenn's yesterday night, looking how to get into my Schwinn's bottom bracket and got distracted when I saw their bit on commuting.

This is a bicycle mechanics book from 1973, so it has a different tone than today's books; for example, suggesting that women should cycle to stay nice and thin; that would really trigger people today. This is the 1976 re-print, but it's well out of copyright now, so I think I'm OK to share this excerpt here.


Cover

This is a tunnel from the Elroy-Sparta Trail that I just rode last weekend! (but without all the moss) It was relatively new then, and a big deal. Bike commuting can save a whopping $10/month! ;-)



Not a helmet to be found anywhere.



The last bit.

I have this book, too. Love the campiness of it.

I also have it but haven't cracked it in a long time. Maybe I should because I didn't remember the writing style. The glorious B&W illustrations are very helpful.

I took a couple of teen trips with American Youth Hostels in summer of 1975. AYH had just started selling helmets, and they had just come on the market. They had the Bell Biker and also an MSR helmet designed for spelunking. The description said that it was hotter than the Bell. And the Bell was quite hot. I got myself a Bell in about 1979. People ridiculed me for wearing it, as it was quite unusual. My college girlfriend had a spill on her bike, and she apologized for ridiculing me and bought a helmet. In 1982, I had a horrific crash, as I was hit head-on by a car. I don't remember the crash or the ambulance ride. My memory is "turn left, wake up in the hospital in great pain." My Biker helmet was scratched and crushed, having done its job. The doctor who woke me up had witnessed the thing and said I flew 50 feet in the air. Thinking about that, I'm not sure I believe him, but that's what he said. If it's true, it's amazing how well I fared. I was scratched and bruised and nothing else. My bike was mangled so I guess my bike and helmet did a great job protecting me.

Me too. Used it a lot in the 70s-80s. Mine is decorated with fingerprints in axle grease.

Re. helmet ridicule: When my brother and I were kids, Mom took us to spend summers with my grandparents, all through the 80s. He had a couple of folding bikes from a phase he'd gone through that we rode all over town. He insisted we wear his son's old hockey helmets though, which we thought was just horrible. We were the only kids in town wearing helmets.

My brother crashed once going at least 25 mph* down a steep hill. banged up his face and broke off a tooth, but no head injury, thanks to that old hockey helmet! Hockey helmets did have some ventilation, maybe more than the original bike helmets. I wonder why they didn't realize at first that ventilation was necessary?

* We know it was at least 25, because my grandpa, following behind on his speed-limited moped couldn't keep up.

Me Three.
My 1973 version got lots of greasy use while learning how to adjust my coaster brake equipped commuter bikes in the 70's. Once adjusted correctly, they stayed adjusted.

The Bell Biker helmet had what they called "massive air scoops," and I hope you can see the linguistic trouble with calling a hole massive. Anyway, they didn't work. It was hot as heck. I guess they didn't test it or they didn't know how to encourage air flow.

Updated language aside, it is still harder for ladies to bike commute. In a business office, even a business-casual they have an unwritten expectation to have hair and makeup done, and fashion that doesn't lend itself to riding bikes. A guy can often get away with wearing his work clothes and merely untucking his pants from his sock on arrival, unless he's riding far or in the weather. There's a narrative that bikes were liberating for women in the 1890s bike boom, maybe so, but in the next decades cars sold like hotcakes, at least in part because they could do all this at home and arrive fresh

Aren't the biggest kinds of holes also the most massive things in the universe?

Among the early Snell-approved helmets, the MSR Research version didn't have much ventilation. But the Bell Biker had several large vents front and back. more than any hockey helmet of the era.

Maybe you're thinking of the Pro-Tec helmet, although that used spongy foam rather than expanded polystyrene and thus was not approved by the governing agency (the USCF, I think) for racing use.

Sure, and I happen to be teaching about them in Earth and Space Science class.

A couple of weeks ago, we tasked the (10th grade) students with designing their ideal planet. Each foursome had a big chart paper and markers. One group discovered there was a hole between the desks the paper was on, so the marker went through and made a hole in the paper. In their presentation, they said that their ideal planet has black holes built in ... for garbage disposal.

These kids crack me up. Today, one of them said something that's not fit for a family web site but it was, at the same time, heartening.

You could share this if it’s not too late

Oh my goodness, I love it. I love xkcd. I will at least share it with my coteacher. She's the subject matter expert, and I'm the SPED teacher. It might be too late to add it to the class materials. Currently we're talking about the lifecycles of stars.

I had to Google it to see what it looked like. Wouldn't you know, the first useful hit was from here:
Bell Helmet Circa 1979


That sounds kind of old fashioned, especially for California.
Women wear slacks these days. There are 4 women in my group of about 20, and they NEVER wear skirts or dresses. One of them wears a little make-up, but she has a 30 mile, bike-hostile commute, so no danger of her riding in.Just a bit longer hair than typical men's. (thought that isn't a given any more either...)

Yeah, the hockey helmets had thin, spongy foam inside. They were from the days when helmets were optional in hockey, but my grandpa made my uncle wear one anyway.

They had small vents everywhere, as I recall. More for letting sweat vapor radiate out than a constant airflow coming through.

Would've been a lot better than whacking our heads without them, though.

Apparently, they are collectible now, or at least this ebayer thinks so!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286070778043

Funny! Though $59 is a pretty modest ask for a "vintage collectible."

I bet you, one zillionth of a bitcoin, that all of them are wearing make-up. Unless they have a plain ponytail, they did their hair this morning too. Even short hair takes styling. They don't, like the song says, wake up flawless. (That should not be construed as a suggestion to poll them about it. It's nunya.) I wasn't really talking about slacks vs dresses either as it's definitely possible to cycle in a skirt, it's more about being rumpled. Again, looking fresh.

As for California, most of the news you hear about culture in California vs other states is really overblown. American culture is pretty homogenous. For this discussion, the weather is a bigger difference than the state. News outlets like taking something a progressive neighborhood in SF (or Madison!) is trying, and tarring the entire state with it.

I didn't look carefully. Does the seller list the weight? It was about 17 oz, much heavier than today's helmets.