Recently I found out my old helmet actually wasn’t protecting me from anything at all. It was $8 so I’m not really surprised. I replaced it with a bog standard, boring white Bell. Frankly, the Bell helmets bore me, and I don’t like how they make you feel like a tard if you want a ‘BMX/Skate’ helmet. I don’t like the traditional bike helmets! They look bad and they feel funny. If you’re not biking for speed (which I’m not), there’s no point. Had I known, at the time, about these things, I would have picked up a helmet from Nutcase, like the pictured ‘Rose Hibiscus.’
When I woke up this morning, it was raining. A nice, steady, drizzle, that punctuated my ride to the train with a staccato of plastic poink. And yes, I got wet. Right now, an hour after I’ve gotten inside, the thighs of my jeans are damp. It’s a ‘Jeans at Work Week’ thing too, which is nice, but realistically, my jeans dry out a whole lot slower than my work pants. Still, it’s not uncomfortable, just noticeable, and I can totally live with it. The real trouble today was the gloam. It was very overcast and dark, and it was hard to spot things, so I put my front and rear lights on blink. I usually don’t ride with my headlight on, unless I’m actually biking in the dark. It’s a removable one, and I’ve got this idea it’ll pop off when I’m lugging my bike around in it’s bag.
My read-light is new, and it was a present from Bike to Work Week. It’s got a rubber band (super strength!) that binds it to my seat post, which is great when I’m not wearing a long coat. Since I have been known to bike in my 3/4ths length peacoat, it causes a problem in that my coat will cover the light. For that reason, I have a second rear-light, which I clip to either the back of my coat or my shoulder bag, and let it flash there. So far, 5 people have expressed surprise at my biking in today in the rain (and most of them seem to think I’m a bit nuts), but it’s Bike to Work WEEK, and I’m going to do it every day this week. So far I’ve proven to myself that I can do it, and it’s really not that hard. Also, the weird weather isn’t insurmountable.
I rant a lot about bike gear and how I hate bike specific gear. It’s a uni-task thing. I don’t like items that have only one use. A helmet is not a uni-task item. My gloves are, but frankly my hands were hurting, and the gloves really help a lot. I probably don’t need them, but my wrists no longer hurt after a commute, and I’m going to blame that on the gloves. The helmet is, much like a bike lock, a necessity. And they are multi-use, when you think about it. I can use my lock only for locking (and my helmet only for protecting my head), but I can use them on multiple things: Bikes, rollerblades, motorcycles, mopeds … anything on which your head is in danger or needs a lock, these things are useful.
Tangent: For fuck’s sake, people, only use a helmet for the activities for which it is rated. Unless your bike helmet says ‘Good for horses!’ it is not a good replacement for horseback riding! You fall differently off of different things, and helmets protect your head in different ways. Okay? Good.
I’m stretching the point, I know, but even Alton Brown admits that sometimes, there are useful Uni-Taskers. If you watch Good Eats, he often says the only uni-tasker he has is the fire extinguisher. In truth, he admits that uni-taskers CAN be useful, if you use them a lot (check) and they do their job very well (check). The problem I had with the lock was how to carry it, since it’s awkward and the mount didn’t fit on my bike (and I don’t want to lug it on my back if I don’t have to. Lucky for me, someone else came up with a solution to how to carry your lock around on a Dahon. Mind you, there’s a way to set it up that works, and one that will push your rear-brake on, so be careful.
Basically my hate of uni-taskers stops when safety is involved. Lights, locks, helmets and, yes, those dippy protect your pants velcro straps (with reflectors). The straps are only for when I’m wearing full length pants. If I’m not wearing my work pants, I put on knickers, which means I can avoid the chain problem all together. And yes, you will get it caught eventually. My knickers, by the way, were $15 from Old Navy. They’re lightweight cotton, and I wear them on or off the bike without feeling silly. My only complaint is they’re girl knickers, and thus have shitty, shallow, pockets. Yes, this is why I hate girl pants. Women need pockets too!
But the rain, oh the rain causes me headaches. For now, I’m stuck with my PVC crap parka. As the world cools, I’m going to find some non-itchy merino wool shirts (yes shirts) to wear to work, where I will towel off and change into a work shirt (though honestly, I bet I could just wear ’em around the office and no one would notice). Merino wool can be machine washed, which means no extra money on the dry cleaner. Buy two or four, wear one shirt for a week, if you’re only wearing it too and from the office, and then wash it the next. While I would very much like one of those trendy Barbour waxed cotton jackets, it’s far more likely that I’ll sock away my spending cash and make a trip to an Army Surplus Store for a waxed cotton poncho, and look all trendy European.
I’ll close out with another Overheard about bikes, that explains this title.
Meet the Poster Children for Bike Helmets
Kid on scooter: Where are the brakes on this?
Kid on scooter #2: What is “brakes?”–Sunset Park
Overheard by: blistxaddict
via Overheard in New York, Jan 29, 2009