Only works if humidity is pretty low. In my area, you'll just get even more sweaty and disgusting if you try that route. There's also nothing stopping you from doing something similar with a helmet.

Me too. My Giro is great when it's hot. Ventilation is like nothing's there, plus I get some shade, and even a bit of sweat band. Old helmets were very hot by comparison.

I have had or worn at various times:

Skid Lid - not hot but not great protection
Bell Biker - hot and heavy
leather 'hairnet' - it is what it is, cool looks not much else
Brancale - hot but decent protection
90s style foam with lycra cover - less hot and totally dorky
early microshell - marginal improvement on the above
modern Giro - not not, not heavy, could look better


WRT fashion, I think modern helmets like modern sneakers are grossly overdesigned by fresh out of school art center grads. They have all sorts of pointless useless swoopy shapes and pointy things, and for the most part are covered with hideously overdone tasteless and gratuitous graphics.

So a hat AND a helmet. Like I said, the weight is an issue when pushing 700km in seven days. I'd rather not get my neck sore because of the few hunded grams. There's a limited time I can wear a gopro even and that's much more important in my opinion

My first helmet was a Skid Lid, around 1980, I think...

My Dad had one of the hard shell Bells.

My first, I think, was a fabric-covered type. I got it as a teenager. I don't remember having one as a kid. My 80's childhood was prior to the rise in popularity.

For maybe the last 20 years since they got polycarbonate shells they have seemed substantially the same.

I too appreciate the sun protection of a helmet compared to wearing a hat because of the air moving better through, but hey, whatever works for you.
Personally, the weight of my helmet doesn't give me any sore neck issues, even after a 600 or 700 km week, and I'm a pencil neck sort of guy--again, that's me.

FYI, at least on the helmet I have, the visor is removable. In rainy, cold weather I take mine off so that I can put a helmet cover on.

I knew this was going to go through the whole belittling phase. FIY, it's not that I can't, it's because I 1) don't want to and 2) because at the end of the day the extra weight is still more uncomfortable than if the weight wasn't there, especially if looking up at the sights/mountains a lot. If you keep your face facing the road I suppose it's not as big of an issue.

Next we should start comparing deadlift results and body part sizes to determine the tougher guy, eh?

Hardly belittling, just many have a hard time understanding a few hundred grams causing neck pain when no helmet does not, especially when a soaked hat is hardly lighter than many of today's helmets. All of us understand perfectly well the answer "I don't want to wear it". I didn't personally want to wear a helmet on my last tour, so I didn't. Granted, crashing changed that outlook for the future, but for that particular tour I didn't wear one out of nothing more than not wanting to.

In any case: GoPro on your handlebars takes care of that issue of yours! Plus, frame grabs make contributing to the "Behind Bars" photo thread much easier :)

...you must have the neck strength of a toddler.

I like my helmet - light and vented. In fact, i wish it were *more* vented! Alas, i'm too cheap to buy another one that is better vented.

I cannot feel the weight of my helmet *at all* - though i do wear a 19 1/2" neck size dress shirt so a dinky little styrofoam helmet isn't going to cause me any discomfort. Even with my "Take-A-Look" Bike Peddler mirror attached I can manage the weight.

Crux, that's unfortunate you took my answer that way, nothing was intended.
Safe riding

Aren't you giving a mature impression..

How do I feel that every time there's a helmet discussion and someone prefers not to use one, a fanatic gets all twisted inside and starts throwing insults. It happens all the time in the helmet thread.

Come to Europe, where cycling is safe enough for no protection is needed. It might open your eyes and you may also grow mentally a few years (because when speaking of toddlers and your attitude, well....)

I would ask everyone to please keep the topic and tone to the reason I started the topic, which simply came from having memories of my first bike helmet while touring and how they have improved so much.

If you have other contributions, feel free to add.

I would add that the strap systems, and especially the rear "cradle with tensioning ratchet" systems are great for both holding a helmet on properly compared to the older systems, and especially for quick easy changes of adding or removing warm head gear depending on the temps--which I do a lot in the beginning and end of season riding.

The manufacturers really have to come up with great adjustable strap systems compared to the older stuff.

I wear mine all the time, don't even think about it and also gives a place to mount one of those small mirrors so I can tell what color car is trying to run me over. I've mentioned this before on here- one problem I have with my Giro helmet with all those fancy vents is that I was getting a really funny sunburn on my head due to my thinning hair (hey, I'm 63 so it's OK). Now when it's sunny out I put on a do-rag before my helmet. It makes it fit a bit snugger and a little hotter, but better than having my family laugh at my sunburned spots on my head.

never wore a helmet growing up. would jump the old
murray 10-speed over ramps, down gravelly dirt trails,
never a care.

first tour decided on a helmet....cause of those crazy
drivers in europe....had the golf-ball style bell with
clip-onto-glasses mirror. (cotton shorts and athaletic
socks, too!)

at one time had one of those freaky alien-looking
aero helmets. (on sale, $5 closeout from nashbar)
made a hell of a racket in hail storms.

really liking the new style, dial lock fit, super light
weight, excellent ventilation, sun visor....just need
to wear a doo-rag to prevent sunburn.

I'm not bald, okay? I shaved my head. Do you under stand?

How come I always have to get the sake?

I was just in Europe. I just crashed in Europe. It hurts as much as when I do it in America. Luckily I managed to keep my helmetless head up and off the very hard cobblestones, but I don't presume I will always be able to do that.

Re sun, I recall reading a cgoab trip journal of a fellow biking in Mexico using one of those "da brim" thingees that goes over your helmet and recreates a wide brim like a big cowboy hat, or a big straw hat, or an Asian peaked "workers in a rice field" hat--basically the whole idea of keeping the sun off your face and neck isn't new, and being genetically British, I do have to be careful, so I do appreciate even a front visor (and am careful with applying sunscreen, at least 50, it works great)

When I was going through nursing school some time ago. I spent a bit of time in the head trauma ICU. Very sad to see those kind of injuries. Most people never really fully recover.
Helmets are a good thing.

Sitting in my basement is an old big fat leather "hairnet" helmet. Late '70s? Kirkland?? Kirkxxx (something)
The leather chin strap needs replacing as well as the the chin strap snap. I really should get it fixed. With a Retro wool jersey!! Break out the toe clip pedals too!!

My first 'helmet' was a 1962 Kucharick (sp?). It consisted of leather tubes stuffed with Kapok and, from what I know now, was completely useless as a head-protection device. We didn't know any better at the time.

Joe

It was better than nothing.
I had one. Maybe I still do.

The only problem is that helmet standardsare actually quite low in terms of prtection and the vast majority of bicycling helmets are NOT designed to prevent concussions. i think that a helmet is better than a bare head but most people don't realize just how little prtection most helmets really offer.

Some might find this of interest.

Helmet standards and capabilities

Cheers

Joe, week at least it would float! Remember those horrible kapok filled life jackets, bulky, to forever to dry out, smelly...
Hadn't seen or thought of that word in decades.

This touches on flotation devices too, look how much better they are, but i guess this goes for most stuff over the last 20, 30 years.

My helmet cover holds better with the visor and it keeps water off my glasses better than without.

This picture was taken during the transition from "hair nets" to hard shell requirements for racing.

There was a lot of confusion about what an adequate helmet was. I just used my hockey helmet until the rules were firmed up.

The Bell "mushroom" helmets were just coming out. My wife wanted me to get one. I did not usually wear a helmet for training and recreational rides, but my wife wanted me to wear a helmet on this tour. She must have actually worried about me. I slapped some reflector tape on the old hockey helmet and told her I'd wear it. You can see where it spent most of the time. It was still lighter and more comfortable than the early Bell helmets.



I wear light comfortable helmets all the time now, and am reminded all too frequently by the emergency room doctors to "get a new helmet."

This one was replaced when we finished the tour. I've had 3 of this model of helmet in the last 8- 10 years.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...cae3354ac3.jpg

I live in a mostly black neighborhood, 90% or more. The larger area is generally poor. The black adults and their kids generally have beat up dept. store bicycles and don't wear helmets. The white folks who ride through the neighborhood tend to have somewhat better bicycles and wear helmets. Mostly commuter cyclists. I'm just curious what the difference is about.

You know what it's about: money & all the rest of that crap! (racisim, opportunity, education, culture, etc)

I wear a $30 helmet, made by Bell and sold at Walmart. It is a good as any helmet at any price. Any helmet that can legally be sold in America is good enough to prevent a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) from the great majority of falls.

I know what I'm talking about ;o)

Joe

Doug64:
The essential part of a helmet is the foam and that lasts a very long time (20 years or more).

Joe

Not when the doctor who tells me to get a new one is pickings gravel out of my ear. In every case where I needed to replace a helmet, the foam was cracked or compromised.