Cycling UK Forum

I normally wear a helmet because it doesn't bother me to do so. However with this heat I have stopped doing so and .... it is wonderful . It makes the commute enormously more pleasurable. I'm feeling a renewed sense of freedom. It may be my imagination, but I seem to be getting a wider berth from car drivers too.

I now only wear a helmet in wet or ice conditions. After 40 years of cycling with an upper case "C" i understand the lack of risk attached to my choice.
The feel of the wind through my hair outweighs the sweat running down my face.

Stylish Cycling caps for me.

Rapha Tom Simpson today.

Bikes`n`guns wrote:Stylish Cycling caps for me.

Rapha Tom Simpson today.

I've taken to cycle caps too in my post helmet riding too (2003 on), partly as I don't have any hair up top to feel wind blowing through. Peak keeps sun and rain out of my eyes and the removal of windchill from the top is often a Good Thing.

I do have a Rapha (Paul Smith, IIRC) but TBH it's less good in many respects to my Walz, which I find better designed and implemented.

(This week I've been riding in a wide-brimmed hat (Ultimate Crusher, much like a Tilley T5) so I don't need to worry about my ears and neck frying, which a cap doesn't manage.)

Pete.

I tuck a hanky under the back of my peaked cap to protect my neck from the sun

Me too.
Cycling caps.

I stopped wearing my helmet during the summer of 2015 due to complete hair loss. It was uncomfortable, and to be honest, it was a good excuse to stop wearing the damned thing.

First started wearing one in 2005 so I made ten years with them.

I'd would feel naked without it

Bikes`n`guns wrote:Stylish Cycling caps for me.

Rapha Tom Simpson today.

The cotton cycling cap is a greatly underrated item, providing a sweat-wick, an eye-shade and a certain cycling-elan not available to the wearers of the polystyrene bananas, which tend to look like an externalised and spread-out brain or something that Mekon would sport on a Sunday outing aboard his special-bling air-scooter.

However, one must be careful not to destroy the elan of the cap by choosing the wrong emblems. Molteni, Faema or perhaps Café de Columbia .... these are stylish and denote an almost lost tradition of cycling; but anything of the modern cycling teams looks a dog's breakfast after it has regurgitated it, whilst Raphoss and similar upmarket stuff is often spotted on the bonce of the worst ilk of MAMIL (under a £300 helmet).

Cugel, fashion critic extraordinaire.

I usually wear a cap whether cycling or not
It is my custom to greet people by doffing it

Hi,
Keeps the sun out of my eyes..............but is good at catching occasional bees..................stung on the head........ended up in a&e..............still wearing...................

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
Keeps the sun out of my eyes..............but is good at catching occasional bees..................stung on the head........ended up in a&e..............still wearing...................

Mine (from Aldi) has a fairly broad mesh under the vents so wasps etc. can't get in.

yakdiver wrote:I'd would feel naked without it

You get used to it, same as most of us got used to feeling weighed down by them, having grown up riding normally.

I have three caps and one helmet.

Never wear the helmet anymore, but I wear the caps ........... but not all at once.

UpWrong wrote:I normally wear a helmet because it doesn't bother me to do so. However with this heat I have stopped doing so and .... it is wonderful . It makes the commute enormously more pleasurable. I'm feeling a renewed sense of freedom. It may be my imagination, but I seem to be getting a wider berth from car drivers too.

I used to wear a helmet when riding in town, but stopped about 6 years ago during a heatwave. Like you I found that drivers gave me more room so I haven't worn it since.

Who in their right mind would stop wearing a life-saving device, just because it is hot? Surely, if they are convinced of the efficacy of a helmet, they should wear it constantly (maybe take it off for bed).