Helmet advice

unionman

I have a dorky helmet.

I didn't realise it for ages. I dandered about on my bicycle thinking 'helmets, sure aren't they all the same?'

I was deluding myself.

So convinced was I, in my belief that all helmets were the same, that the one I have now (the really dorky one) is probably my oldest piece of cycling kit. It has been a sittin' on me noggin since 2002.

And then I went out on some spins.

And emty took some pics from time to time.

Happy as I was with evidence of being out on a bike in the mountains, something just wasn't right.

The perforated pudding bowl keeping my skull under cover emerged as the offending article.

God it looks ridiculous. OK, the facial expression does not help.

So, anyway, I think I'lll get myself a Giro Atmos. I'll probably still look ridiculous, but at least that will be just down to me, not the helmet.

Is it worth the few bob? Where's the best place to buy 'em? (A lot of the online stores seem to be out of L sizes at the moment, at least in the colour I want).

And can I place an order with el tonto for a few Fred t-shirts?

Thanks for being so supportive through this difficult public confesson of dorkiness.

TinyExplosions

I reckon it's worth the cash -I have an Ionos myself (the model above), and like it. Got mine in CRC

DirkVoodoo

Man, you do look ridiculous!

Atmos is a very good helmet, although I have only used Giros (all two of 'em) I find that they don't sit right on my head. I have to say though, the Ionos is amazingly well ventilated and really light, the atmos seems very similar in terms of ventilation.



I did find the Bell "one size fits all" helmet fit me a lot better, but I was swayed by a good deal and advice I got somewhere that "one size" helmets don't work.

I think you should pop into a few stores and try on as many as possible. They all look good on the internet when modelled by the likes of Assos lady, it's a different matter when they sit on your melon.

unionman

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I reckon it's worth the cash -I have an Ionos myself (the model above), and like it. Got mine in CRC

Mmmm...so the Ionos requires a little more splashing out than the Atmos. :eek:

The big problem seems to be supply, all the usual online outlets have little or no stock in my size for either helmet.:mad:

scottreynolds

unionman wrote: »

Mmmm...so the Ionos requires a little more splashing out than the Atmos. :eek:

The big problem seems to be supply, all the usual online outlets have little or no stock in my size for either helmet.:mad:

Go to the Cycle Superstore and try the giro helmets on. I tried on many different helmets Giro, Catlike, Specialised and eventually settled on the Catlike because it fit me best oh and cause it was plain white.

You best not to choose by brand but by fit, then by color

niceonetom

Of all the jedi mind tricks that the manufacturers of cycling equipment have played on us, the €150 piece of styrofoam is the most impressive.

Gavin

niceonetom wrote: »

Of all the jedi mind tricks that the manufacturers of cycling equipment have played on us, the €150 piece of styrofoam is the most impressive.

Huh, that's the sort of thing someone who doesn't wear a helmet and hit his head would say. DARWIN FTW DOOD

In other news, I have a specialized helmet, super strong and dead cool.

TinyExplosions

unionman wrote: »

Mmmm...so the Ionos requires a little more splashing out than the Atmos. :eek:

The big problem seems to be supply, all the usual online outlets have little or no stock in my size for either helmet.:mad:

Have you taken a tape measure and measured your head -I know I came out a smaller size than I thought (i was top end of M, and so went for it over a large)

Zipp101

I have a specialized decibel(Gerolsteiner edition),very light and looks great IMO.

Home:Ballyhoura

Yeah, try on all the brands first. I have the Atmos and it fits me perfectly but I went for a Met Kaos which was on sale for the MTB and it doesn't suit me at all. Lots of specific contact points and gaps here and there, very odd shape. I like the look of the white Catlike whisper scottreynolds has, but wheater it not it would fit me OK is another thing.

P.S. Where did you get yours scottreynolds?

Ryaner

I got an Atmos from CRC yesterday actually. The helmet itself fits quite well however the straps really let it down. My other cheap helmet bought in argos many years back has much better ones that are much more comfortable. On the atmos, they twist slightly and the place where the straps meet is a straight clasp where is should be wider like the ones in http://www.riversideonline.com/source/images/image_popup/fsm7_bikehlmt_right.jpg

Trojan

I bought a really cheap on in Decathlon. No helmet looks cool.

DirkVoodoo

Trojan wrote: »

I bought a really cheap on in Decathlon. No helmet looks cool.

I saw a spiderman helmet in Joe Dalys, that was a cool helmet.

Unfortunately it was a child's helmet, otherwise I would have bought it, euroness be damned!

Planet X

Trojan wrote: »

I bought a really cheap on in Decathlon. No helmet looks cool.

Catkike looks cool!

il gatto

I have a Specialised Airforce 3 in the post (it's a one size jobbie with a super large and tiny to fill the gaps, so if it doesn't fit, I'll pass it to a friend and get the next appropriate). I think they look o.k., they're well ventilated, and at €35, a bargain to boot. Mightn't quite as flash as some of the Giro helmets, but it's a third of the price.

Lumen

Try before you buy.

I have a large head with "a big loaf" as a member of my family from Waterford described it.

Bell fits me much better than Giro - the cradle fits under my "loaf" really snugly.

My huge head makes me look like a snake with an afro. I tried using a cycling cap and no helmet, but I couldn't find one big enough so it looks like I stole it from a child.

And you think you have problems.

As Tom says, €150+ for a piece of foam is ludicrous.

ROK ON

Ryaner wrote: »

I got an Atmos from CRC yesterday actually. The helmet itself fits quite well however the straps really let it down. My other cheap helmet bought in argos many years back has much better ones that are much more comfortable. On the atmos, they twist slightly and the place where the straps meet is a straight clasp where is should be wider like the ones in http://www.riversideonline.com/source/images/image_popup/fsm7_bikehlmt_right.jpg

Have the same helmet, and the straps are poor. Always feel like they are 'off centre' so to speak.
Also, there is too much strap on my helmet, and there is no clasp to tuck it into, so it blows about a bit.

scottreynolds

Home:Ballyhoura wrote: »

I like the look of the white Catlike whisper ....Where did you get yours scottreynolds?

The new cycle store within Arnotts. However it wasn't cheap €170 but I needed it then and there. Served me well so far and is very comfortable and keeps me cool.

Junior

Is it wrong that I don't own a Helmet ? I may get one before I do some league races ..

scottreynolds

Junior wrote: »

I may get one before I do some league races ..

I'm pretty sure all leagues require you to have one.

unionman

Thanks for all of the comments and advice people (and for not letting it descend into another pro v anti helmet thread )

Lots of good advice and ideas in the mix. What I have resolved to do is go to the shops and try on lots of lids until, Cinderella-like, I find the perfect fit.

In the meantime, I will continue to use the pudding bowl, which I have re-named 'The Ugly Sister'.

@Lumen, I have a similarly challenged 'loaf' and even as a child had a ridiculously large head. Getting a cap to fit me when I was a cub scout was a quest that invariably ended in tears.

@niceonetom - yes indeed, I have fallen under the expensive styrofoam spell. A big head and a weak mind

souter

Fairplay unionman for coming out, but is the underlying discomforture more to do with the realisation that you actually want to look cool?

Hmm, I may be projecting here myself - as a longtime cynic I would go out of my way to wear baggy canvas shorts, sandals, pudding bowl helmet etc.
It didn't take many sessions on the couch to figure that I was consciously trying to avoid looking like a "proper" cyclist, making it so much more fun when I could occasionally ambush a lyrca warrior.
Then came a slightly fancier bike (ok, it's only a specialized tricross, but a big step up to what proceeded it).
Next decided to try clipless pedals and just happened to get a pair in metallic blue. And clomp around the office in cleat for far longer than was strictly neccessary.
I used to wonder at the pretension of these cyclists in wrap around shades in all weather, while I manfully cried the bugs out of my eyes. So shades came next (chosen for value and functionality I hasten to add, though they do get worn off the bike with increasing frequency).
Then along comes aldi/lidl with their dime bags of lyrca and fingerless mitts. I would hurry them home and pretend I had just stopped in to get some parmesan and olive oil (still haven't actually worn the lyrca road shorts, settling for the concealed mtb ones).
A spare pair of shoes was called for in the chainreaction sale and when I chose an Italian brand in silver instead of the cheapest the Rubicon had been crossed.

A new helmet suddenly seems like a most excellent idea. I followed the various posted links with barely concealed lust. But at least while I don't share my legs, all these decisions are justifed by utility. Aren't they?

Apologies for rambling, all aspersions etc pertain to me rather than unionman who had the misfortune of triggering this this stream of consiousness.

eggie

Try them on is the best advice. I have an Ionos which fits me fine, light and well ventilated but I hope I never have to test how strong it is. I dont mind paying for a helmet cause if the time comes to use it for real its worth more than any bike.

abcdggs

souter wrote: »

Fairplay unionman for coming out, but is the underlying discomforture more to do with the realisation that you actually want to look cool?

Hmm, I may be projecting here myself - as a longtime cynic I would go out of my way to wear baggy canvas shorts, sandals, pudding bowl helmet etc.
It didn't take many sessions on the couch to figure that I was consciously trying to avoid looking like a "proper" cyclist, making it so much more fun when I could occasionally ambush a lyrca warrior.
Then came a slightly fancier bike (ok, it's only a specialized tricross, but a big step up to what proceeded it).
Next decided to try clipless pedals and just happened to get a pair in metallic blue. And clomp around the office in cleat for far longer than was strictly neccessary.
I used to wonder at the pretension of these cyclists in wrap around shades in all weather, while I manfully cried the bugs out of my eyes. So shades came next (chosen for value and functionality I hasten to add, though they do get worn off the bike with increasing frequency).
Then along comes aldi/lidl with their dime bags of lyrca and fingerless mitts. I would hurry them home and pretend I had just stopped in to get some parmesan and olive oil (still haven't actually worn the lyrca road shorts, settling for the concealed mtb ones).
A spare pair of shoes was called for in the chainreaction sale and when I chose an Italian brand in silver instead of the cheapest the Rubicon had been crossed.

A new helmet suddenly seems like a most excellent idea. I followed the various posted links with barely concealed lust. But at least while I don't share my legs, all these decisions are justifed by utility. Aren't they?

Apologies for rambling, all aspersions etc pertain to me rather than unionman who had the misfortune of triggering this this stream of consiousness.

Awesome post....

Lumen

souter wrote: »

Rambling

There are to be no half-measures.

If you wear proper lycra shorts, normal people think you look stupid.

If you wear baggy cycling shorts, normal people and other cyclists think you look stupid.

No doubt Gavin will be along shortly to justify the baggy shorts, but he's a truffle hunter so his opinion doesn't count.

ROK ON

@ Souter: Its very simple. Men of a certain age (any age) dressed in lycra (& not in a certain type of nightclub:)), do look stupid to the rest of mankind.
On this basis, you may as well go the whole hog and bedamned with convention and wear the most garish lycra that you can.
Thats my plan, I have yellow stuff, mint green, sky blue and bright pink jerseys. (I am only praying for a fine couple of days to wear them and show them off).
Every time I arrive home from a cycle my wife usually has a sarcy comment about just how ridiculously gay that I look. I just put it down to jealousy, as my legs are simply better than hers:D.
Go all out there is some great lycra out there.

As a start, check out this site
http://www.prendas.co.uk/default.asp
Have some great jreseys, shorts etc, often at a very good price. Quality of jerseys is great.
Other folks on this site will be able to point you in the direction of where to buy even more wonderful lycra.
There is no point in just going half way.

unionman

souter wrote: »

Fairplay unionman for coming out, but is the underlying discomforture more to do with the realisation that you actually want to look cool?

OK, to be clear, even if the world's best stylists did a makeover on me, adorning me with suits by Prada, Hugo Boss or (my favourite) Paul Smith, and having me photographed by Annie Liebowitz, I would still look like a little fat Freddie, and that is a state of being I am completely comfortable with. I just can't look cool, and I stopped trying years ago.

And as ROK ON so excellently pointed out, in Lycra we all look ridiculous to everyone. Man, the looks I get when I arrive in the office in the gear, they look at me with a sort of sympathetic sigh, as if to suggest that I am mentally ill in an 'innocent' sort of a way. It does make me laugh.

And before I forget, excellent post souter, I am chuffed that you honoured my humble thread with it.

I suppose the helmet thing is a completist issue. I bought the Ugly Sister when all of my other bike stuff (and my bike) were equally pedestrian. Now it seems like a relic of an earlier cyclist, long since forgotten, and I want to peel off that final layer of skin to reveal the new and improved....

Sod it, it's the jedi mind trick thing, they have completely suckered me.

I'm sure once I have the helmet I will find some other piece of expensive kit to lust after. Titanium bottle cage bolts or something similarly 'vital' to completing the W200 in 10 (count 'em) hours:o.

Trojan

Lumen wrote: »

If you wear proper lycra shorts, normal people think you look stupid.

If you wear baggy cycling shorts, normal people and other cyclists think you look stupid.

Not true. When I wear baggy (MTB) cycling shorts, my audience feel relief more than anything else.

rubadub

unionman wrote: »

Sod it, it's the jedi mind trick thing, they have completely suckered me.

It is a great marketing acheivement though. A girl I know recently got a bike but had not gone out on it, saying she still "needed to get a helmet". I was asking if she ever cycled before, leading into the fact that she probably cycled for years before without one. All of a sudden people think it is essential, I get asked all the time if I wear one, and why I do not. I am surprised more companies have not tried jumping on the safety bandwagon, cycle helmets in cars are supposed to offer great protection. People might laugh at them now, but cycle helmets were also ridiculed.

Trojan wrote: »

Not true. When I wear baggy (MTB) cycling shorts, my audience feel relief more than anything else.

Yes, I think what people find off putting is the pants so tight that you can tell somebodys religion...

Trojan

That and the fact that overweight front row rugby players don't look very fashionable in skin tight *anything*

Gavin

Lumen wrote: »

If you wear baggy cycling shorts, normal people and other cyclists think you look stupid.

No doubt Gavin will be along shortly to justify the baggy shorts, but he's a truffle hunter so his opinion doesn't count.

I wore lycra the other day. At a truffle hunter race. As I snuffled in the dirt I realised I look hot damn cool no matter what I wear. No expensive Assos or Rapha garb needed to buck me up, no siree.

unionman

Well, I did it. Tried 'em all on, including Giro Atmos and Ionos, and was underwhelmed. Twisty strap business was a nuisance but the Ionos made my head look HUGE:eek:.

Then I tried on Bell Sweep and hey presto. Great fit, nice looking and a few shillings less than the other two. €106 in cyclesuperstore. OK, maybe cheaper on the web but I wanted it now and there's a recession on, so local business needs support.

Great shop, first time in it.

Don't worry, I still look like a dork.

DirkVoodoo

unionman wrote: »

Well, I did it. Tried 'em all on, including Giro Atmos and Ionos, and was underwhelmed. Twisty strap business was a nuisance but the Ionos made my head look HUGE:eek:.

Then I tried on Bell Sweep and hey presto. Great fit, nice looking and a few shillings less than the other two. €106 in cyclesuperstore. OK, maybe cheaper on the web but I wanted it now and there's a recession on, so local business needs support.

Great shop, first time in it.

Don't worry, I still look like a dork.

We must have the same shaped head because the Bell helmet also fit me perfectly, I only went with my mongo Ionos due to the price it was on sale at.

monument

niceonetom wrote: »

Of all the jedi mind tricks that the manufacturers of cycling equipment have played on us, the €150 piece of styrofoam is the most impressive.

And they play more mind tricks making some of you think they look cool, or ever that some look cooler than others.

souter

So my lovely Gaerne road shoes arrive yesterday, except despite exhaustive research they are definitely not SPD compatible. I go to cycleways to be sure and they keep referring to spd as "mountain biking" cleats.
Now the sensible thing would be to return the road shoes, accept that commuting and 1 sportive does *not* require specialist road shoes. But... they have look keo pedals going cheap. And the shoes are so shiny. And much much harder to walk in than the SPDs. I'm sold!
So with an eagerness akin to a footbound chinese woman I buy the pedals, to match the shoes.
Only nagging problem is these are going to be a bit out of place on my tricross, so I'll be swapping them on and off at the weekends. Unless...(hopefully not to be continued)

TinyExplosions

souter wrote: »

So my lovely Gaerne road shoes arrive yesterday, except despite exhaustive research they are definitely not SPD compatible. I go to cycleways to be sure and they keep referring to spd as "mountain biking" cleats.
Now the sensible thing would be to return the road shoes, accept that commuting and 1 sportive does *not* require specialist road shoes. But... they have look keo pedals going cheap. And the shoes are so shiny. And much much harder to walk in than the SPDs. I'm sold!
So with an eagerness akin to a footbound chinese woman I buy the pedals, to match the shoes.
Only nagging problem is these are going to be a bit out of place on my tricross, so I'll be swapping them on and off at the weekends. Unless...(hopefully not to be continued)

Time for a new bike

You were confusing SPD and SPD-SL, Shimano's MTB and Road cleat respectively

Lumen

Souter, I have some Look Keos in the shed that I bought off El Tonto a couple of months ago.

I haven't got around to making the switch from SPDs yet.

You can have them for what I paid for them, which I think was €20.

souter

Cheers Lumen, but too late - I've already bought the pedals for 55e. They knocked off 10% without me even asking, plus threw in some lithium grease, with me the worlds worst haggler it must be crunch time at the LBS.

Yes Tiny, I did indeed make that mistake. I was aware of the difference while researching shoes, I must have had a brain spasm when I saw "Italian hand-stitched one-piece design". And this from the man who doesn't update his wardrobe until Penneys have a sale.

LeoD

Anyone know of a shop in either the midlands or Limerick that stocks Catlike helmets?

Gavin

sorry

LeoD

No worries, at least somebody replied! From what I've gathered here, Arnotts seem to be the only place that stocks them for sure which is not really of use to me...

Enduro

I work in the arnotts shop part-time. I'll ask tomorrow, if I remember!

LeoD

Thanks although Arnotts is a good bit out of my way. I think The Cycle Inn in Tallaght may also stock Catlike which would be a lot more convenient. Will give them a call.