A modest proposal for stupid TT helmets

Tech
1

I have a simple rule change proposal to address the eyesore TT helmets that we have to be subjected to in stage races: you can wear any (safety-approved) helmet you want in the TT of a stage race, but you must wear the same helmet in the next road stage. If there is no next stage, then you have to wear the same helmet as the prior stage. You want the aero advantage that badly, you have to live with the shame.

If the race is solely a TT and not part of a stage race, then the rule doesn’t apply because if you actually want to just do a TT, then we don’t need to make your day worse by not letting you indulge your fetish. It’s a stand-alone TT so nobody who you aren’t paying or married to is going to watch and have to see your ridiculous Dark Helmet lid anyway.

Is there already a rule prohibiting wearing TT helmets in road races? Probably. Is this serious? Not at all. But neither is the head-dong that Jonas and Pauline had to wear in front of millions of innocent people in their Tour TTs.

2

Yes. and they strengthened it even further this year.

2 Likes
3

I’d just shrink the allowed dimensions box. Take the largest “normal” aero road helmet, define the box it fits in, and add maybe 20mm in each axis.

For these monster helmets I’d really like to see off-axis crash test data showing the torque effects of having a long lever arm strapped to one’s head.

3 Likes
4

Or, to make it fairer/proportionally consistent across the rider size spectrum, allow the helmet to be within a percentage range of the riders shoulder width, and the length a ratio of the width (I.e. bigger shoulders permits wider and longer helmet, given bigger shoulders are likely on taller people.