Who remembers the Brancale helmet?
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates, CA
> In a message dated 5/27/05 6:11:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
>
>> <<Skidlid >>
>
>
> I rode across the US part way with Kevin Montgomery in 1976. His Dad
> invented the Skid Lid and he and his two girlfriends wore them. We used
> to kid him
> about it but he just made fun of the guys whose Bell Bikers were serving
> as
> sleeping bag protectors because they were too hot to wear. Fast forward
> to 1977
> when my friend Barbara crashed in her Skid Lid and sustained a concussion.
> They really were about as useless as a leather hairnet, and lasted way too
> long
> on the market. We used to say, they are fine if all you are going to do
> is
> skid, but if you are going to crash, you need a real helmet.
>
> I think it was the Bailen Bike Bucket that was the original Sweat Bucket.
> It
> had no holes at all. You could actually carry water in it. The Bell
> Biker
> actually wasn't that bad. I had one when they first came out, serial no.
> 1176. Rode it all the way across the US and then for a few more years.
>
> And the MSR helmet cannot be put in the same lot as the Biker. Although
> it
> came out about the same time, it had a nylon strap suspension inside, and
> no
> foam at all at first. That only came a few years later. It was good for
> deflecting small rocks that fell on you when you were climbing, but would
> not do much
> for a 25-lb head being propelled into the pavement by a 175-lb body at 35
> mph.
>
> Bob Freeman
> Seattle
>
> "Those who don't wear a bike helmet have nothing to protect"