Vintage helmets

Vintage Helmets

leather hairnet helmet

Spanish tanker helmet repurposed for motorpacing on the track

Leather helmet from the 1930s adjusts with ties in the back

1920s Motorpace helmet

Jimmy Stillmakers hairnet from the ’70s

1960s Brancale leather helmet

Bicycle helmets have only been around since the 1930s, when Bill Honeman led the charge to get effective head protection for himself and his professional bike racing colleagues.  Originally head protection meant a leather bowl or several leather straps going over your head with cotton, leather scraps or wool usually used as padding inside the leather. Sometime in the 1970’s or early ‘80’s hardshell helmets with styrofoam padding became the norm, and we have been working with this same basic technology ever since.

This old touring helmet weighs over three pounds

The Giro Prolight ushered in modern lightweight head protection

Skid Lids from the ’80s were known to exacerbate head injuries

1991 Specialized Sub 6 helmet. Under 6 ounces

The Bell V1 Pro, one of the first popular hardshell helmets

Troxel “golf ball” aero helmet, 1997-2000 Nat’l team issue

Clearly, since the early introduction of the leather hairnet, bike helmets have changed a bit. 

We have a bunch on display in the bike shop, some more effective, and some more attractive than others…