Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New lid

I got a new helmet. It's a Fly Racing. My old helmet was pretty beat up.




Here are some observations about my helmets (and snowboards, come to think of it).

I'm fairly certain that I've never seen anyone wearing the same model and design that I have.

I have a habit of buying a new helmet and going out and crashing the first time I wear it. Since it's new, I can't live with the thought of replacing it as the manufacture and magazines all suggest, so I keep wearing it until I can reasonably justify it's replacement. That can take anywhere from a couple more rides to a couple seasons, and I'm happy to say the last one was a couple seasons.



Here's my Simpson, it's an early 80's Bandit. I raced Karts in this helmet.




This is my first Bell, it's an M1. It was my street and racing helmet for a few seasons. I don't think I crashed this one.




This is my 3rd Bell, back when they were made by Shoei (I think). I raced this for a few years, then crashed pretty hard at a 1/2 mile race in Brockton Mass.



I was concussed.



My last Bell.




My first KBC, which originally stood for Korean Bell Corporation until Bell Helmets found out about it and told them it should stand for something else. So I don't know what it stands for now. This helmet got wrecked at Square Deal Riders in NY.



Thursday, April 7, 2011

Gas Gas

I rode at Hunter Farm today. Started out on Hannah's XR200, just plunking along, setting up some singletrack lines to ride. Fred joined me on his Gas Gas trials bike, and we had a nice ride, stopping to ponder some of the possibilities for routes. We completed a circuit of the farm, and I parked the Honda and hopped on the Gas Gas. What a blast! Such a different type of riding that calls for a different approach, and opens up some completely new lines to the terrain that you thought you knew.

This is a rock face that I hit a few times. Super fun.