New "minimalist" helmet for a new biker?
- Thread starter Vandon
- Start date
Vandon
Member
James - I have a dilemma concerning M or L. I am right on the high of M and low of L. What to do? If I could get away with the M, I want to. It would be nice to avoid the Charlie Brown look!
Vandon
Member
I am just over 22in and 56cm. I am worried that this will be too snug for the winter insert? Or even too snug in general...
FitzChivalry
Active Member
Being new here, I was surprised to see Court without a helmet in many of the reviews. Not only would it be setting a good example to have one, but a good place to mount a camera too!
This me isn't what I call minimalist, but I like the fact that it has got a single comment because there is really nothing else to be said about it...
http://www.amazon.com/Nutcase-Ameri...id=1406518802&sr=8-34&keywords=nutcase+helmet
This me isn't what I call minimalist, but I like the fact that it has got a single comment because there is really nothing else to be said about it...
http://www.amazon.com/Nutcase-Ameri...id=1406518802&sr=8-34&keywords=nutcase+helmet
calvin
Active Member
All those motorbikes! It looks like Saigon hasn't changed much in 35 years, except that you are carrying a racket ball paddle on your shoulder instead of a M-16.
Vandon
Member
I will have to superimpose either an M-16 or an M-1 on this photo and give it to my dad on his birthday!
calvin
Active Member
Make it a M-16, the M-1 was used in WW2 and perhaps on the Korean peninsula.
Vandon
Member
Actually, as the US left, they provided the South Vietnamese Army with a gazillion M-1's and M-2's. New recruits trained with M-1's, which was my father's first rifle. He would love to have one for nostalgic purposes but I would rather get him a bike! He is on acute dialysis right now and is on the transplant list. If he gets a transplant, I will certainly get him an e-bike. In Vietnam, I have ridden everything from legitimate motor bikes, to mopeds, to the most rickety basket-cruisers known to man. The amount of people who stop with the soles of their flip-flops is amazing there. It would seem to me that there is some sort of heavy v-brake shortage. I wonder if and when e-bikes will ever hit the third-world markets. Many can relate Asians and bicycles in their minds but the e-bike issue is a bit complicated. Larger cities in China have banned them. It is similar to the dilemma they are dealing with in New York City. Elderly people may afraid of getting run over by an e-biker. I could say affordable bikes like Big Cat cruiser doing well in a place like Vietnam, so long as the market widened and prices went down. I think the biggest issue will be people worrying about theft. The most popular bike on earth is the cheapest one that one can find because it's the one that they can most afford to lose.
calvin
Active Member
Sorry to hear about your father's health problem and I hope he can get a kidney transplant soon.... I did two tours in VN, and as you can well imagine for a young man of 20 years it was a cultural, mental and physical shock of the first order. But by the close of my second year there, I and others like me were gradually going "native" so to speak. We were walking around in "Ho Chi Minh" sandals as we called them, instead of our boots, oftentimes shirtless, making Vietnamese (ARVN) friends, comfortably living in bunkers and tents, when not "working" that is. The second tour was noticeably more dangerous in the northern part of the country.
I was and still am pissed off about how we chickened out on the Vietnamese that had allied themselves with us. The knucklehead that ran the embassy in Saigon was in such a hurry to get on his helicopter, he failed to burn or destroy records that documented the names of 30,000 Vietnamese that had thrown themselves onto our side. They were all slaughtered. I could go on for days about that war but this is not the time or place! But Grrrrr!
Thanks to your father for doing his part in defending his country. If we had won that war I am sure we would have a totally democratic Vietnam today. What ARVN unit was your father in? Where was he stationed? The first tour, I was with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade who fought in conjunction with the 18th ARVN Division in and around Long Khanh Province... and the cities and hamlets of Xuan Loc, Gai Ray, Vo Dat, Dinh Quan, Vung Tau. We were targeted mostly against the 33rd NVA Regiment (who were a group of hard core MF's) and the 274th VC Regiment. Good guys in the 18th Division, they fought and held up the NVA advance into Saigon for two weeks, and fought off everything that the NVA could throw at them!
Back to ebikes. There is as of yet little in the way of existing or planned infrastructure, to make room on the roads and streets of our cities or China's, Vietnam or any country for this type of transport, excepting Denmark and some other EU states. Sidewalks are for pedestrians and roads for cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Bike lanes as they are now are a joke. However, some places like Chicago are implementing buffered bike lanes: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/07/...bike-lanes-keep-bicyclists-outside-door-zone/ which is cool but even more physical separation is needed. I have read where, this same city is testing bike lanes that have a concrete divider that keeps vehicular traffic out of the bike lane: here is that article: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/07/...s-first-curb-separated-bike-lane-on-clybourn/ Another type of bike lane in Chicago is this:
So I guess that there is some stuff happening. Perhaps a thread on bike lanes is in order.
I was and still am pissed off about how we chickened out on the Vietnamese that had allied themselves with us. The knucklehead that ran the embassy in Saigon was in such a hurry to get on his helicopter, he failed to burn or destroy records that documented the names of 30,000 Vietnamese that had thrown themselves onto our side. They were all slaughtered. I could go on for days about that war but this is not the time or place! But Grrrrr!
Thanks to your father for doing his part in defending his country. If we had won that war I am sure we would have a totally democratic Vietnam today. What ARVN unit was your father in? Where was he stationed? The first tour, I was with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade who fought in conjunction with the 18th ARVN Division in and around Long Khanh Province... and the cities and hamlets of Xuan Loc, Gai Ray, Vo Dat, Dinh Quan, Vung Tau. We were targeted mostly against the 33rd NVA Regiment (who were a group of hard core MF's) and the 274th VC Regiment. Good guys in the 18th Division, they fought and held up the NVA advance into Saigon for two weeks, and fought off everything that the NVA could throw at them!
Back to ebikes. There is as of yet little in the way of existing or planned infrastructure, to make room on the roads and streets of our cities or China's, Vietnam or any country for this type of transport, excepting Denmark and some other EU states. Sidewalks are for pedestrians and roads for cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Bike lanes as they are now are a joke. However, some places like Chicago are implementing buffered bike lanes: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/07/...bike-lanes-keep-bicyclists-outside-door-zone/ which is cool but even more physical separation is needed. I have read where, this same city is testing bike lanes that have a concrete divider that keeps vehicular traffic out of the bike lane: here is that article: http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/07/...s-first-curb-separated-bike-lane-on-clybourn/ Another type of bike lane in Chicago is this:
So I guess that there is some stuff happening. Perhaps a thread on bike lanes is in order.
Last edited:
Barry Jones
New Member
Another vote for Nutcase.
There seems to be some crossover between water, skate and bike helmets.
What is the difference ?
Could you use a water helmet for biking ?
They all offer protection, right ?
There seems to be some crossover between water, skate and bike helmets.
What is the difference ?
Could you use a water helmet for biking ?
They all offer protection, right ?
Vandon
Member
It sounds like you could benefit from a proper bike tour in Vietnam! Ex-American War veterans are very welcome in Vietnam. You may never even be asked if you served. In fact, I have encountered many former GI's that have gone back to Saigon to stay after never feeling at home again in the US. It's odd but it happens. About my father, he was born in Nha Trang. My family that couldn't get to Saigon/Vung Tau on the last day still resides there. However, he grew up on Tan Son Ngut Air Force Base where my grandfather was a sargeant. At twelve years old, he was a drug runner on base and moved coke, weed, and heroine between barracks and pool halls. (My family was extremely wealthy. My dad was just a troublemaker.) The GI's taught him how to shoot up and he was addicted to coke and heroin at age thirteen. My grandparents eventually tied him to a bed for the better part of a month in an effort to break the addiction and my grandfather arranged for him to join the 2nd Battalion ARVN Rangers, also known as the Tigers. That unit originated in their home town of Nha Trang and he eventually stationed in Pleiku. If you can believe it, he did the better part of three years as a Ranger and wasn't even eighteen when he escaped and ended up doing a "senior year" here in an American high school. Those days are long gone. When you see him in Vietnam today, it is as if you are looking at someone that is aware that a war ever occurred. He hasn't been for two years because there is only one fully-equipped dialysis center in Saigon. That would be fine if it was fully-functional as well.
Interesting about Chicago. I have been to Chicago a countless number of times and if there is one thing to know about Chicago, it is that being in a vehicle can be an evil experience. At age sixteen, my dad used to sucker me into driving into Chicago from Madison to go to Chinatown. I used to think that getting to Argyle was like getting into Times Square. I think that situations like this is when the climate becomes preferable for bikes. According to the famous Hal from Bicycle Habitat, bike lanes have widened in New York in the last few decades. However, Manhattan is an island and you can't stretch it out. If anything, it is gonna shrink. I can tell you this much. A few weeks ago, I got on my first e-bike and made the mistake of believing that I was going to have the option of combining sidewalks and streets as I did when I was a teenager throwing newspapers at front doors. I learned very quickly to roll with the automobiles. Consistency is so much safer. This is why I original enquired about Helmets. I did look at Nutcases but eventually went with the Bern Watts. I needed something cool and slick! I am thinking about putting a sticker on the back of it. What do you think, Calvin?
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