This prototype of a fashionable helmet that folds up is either
A) A really good idea.
B) Something that would section your brain like an orange on impact.
It’s kind of cute, though.
Made from textile
“Made from textile instead of rigid materials, the “TopUp Head Protection” for cyclists and walkers is an exploration of the honeycomb pattern and device a protective gear for the head. The brief was to design a gear that was is light and compact and that could deal with minor bumps and falls. The honeycomb was an obvious choice for its impact resistance and shock absorption qualities.
Sure would be convenient
Despite my misgivings, it sure would be convenient to have a helmet that would fold up small enough to fit in a bike bag, purse or briefcase when you aren’t wearing it.
Obligatory safety warning
I would be remiss if I didn’t pass on this reason for wearing a helmet. Regular readers can tune out. You’ve heard it before.
Mother Nature gave a bit of a break to cyclists participating in the annual Boca Raton Bike Club’s Frank Stark Celebration Ride July 12.
The humidity was high, but the temperatures were in the low 80s when the riders rolled out to do a 30-mile or 62-mile loop starting in Boca Raton.
Who is Frank Stark and what’s the ride all about?
Frank Stark was an airline pilot who was forced to retire after quadruple bypass surgery and two heart attacks. He took up cycling as rehab and worked up to the point that he would “ride his age” every year on his birthday. One of his friends said he had a nurse riding with him in the early stages of his rehab.
Before long, the Boca Raton Bike Club started looking forward to the birthday rides. When Frank died of heart failure on a bike ride just a month short of his 71st birthday, the members established the Frank Stark Celebration Ride.
Most of us wish Frank had been born in a cooler month.
The ride is very well organized. It’s the only one I can remember doing where iced towels are provided. Don Braverman tried to tell me before the ride that they even cut the crusts off their PB&J sandwiches. He was either pulling my leg or the sandwich crew was slacking.
The club was offering new members a great deal. If you signed up at the ride, you could get an 18-month individual membership for $25 and a family membership for $40. What makes it an even better deal was that it included membership in the Florida Bicycle Association AND the League of American Bicyclists.
Rider suffers serious injuries
There was one thing that marred the event, however. Rider Tim Warren was southbound on A1A just south of the Anchor Park rest stop in Delray when a car turned in front of him. Witnesses said that Warren had the green light.
He was taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair several facial fractures. His wife said his jaws will be wired shut for up to six weeks. The driver of the car received several citations, she added.
The first riders to stop did a good job of making sure his neck was stabilized and that nobody moved him until medics arrived.
You can do everything right
That just goes to show that you can be doing everything right: be part of a well-organized group ride; ride responsibly, wear a helmet and obey the traffic laws and your life can still change in an instant.
Cycling really ISN’T a dangerous support, but we should always remember that we don’t have airbags, seatbelts and safety glass to protect us. Our crumple zone starts at the tip of our nose.
Here’s a gallery of photos.
Thanks to Son Matt for shooting most of the stills while I was running around playing videographer.
If you click on a small picture, it will load a viewer for all the pictures. Hover your mouse on the right or left side of the picture and you will move forward or backward. If you want to return to the thumbnails (like most folks), click BEHIND the image on the sides and it will take you page to the thumbnail page.
I was driving up A1A near Boynton Beach, FL, behind a SAG wagon covering the Boca Raton Bike Club’s Frank Stark Ride when I saw the last rider in a group hold up his hand.
The SAG driver must have missed seeing him, so I did a U-turn, pulled up alongside the rider and asked if he needed help.
Need help?
He said he needed air for a low tire. He had flatted and changed the tube, but his CO2 cartridge left it more more flat than filled.
Just before pulled back on the road, he noticed the sidewall bulging out. The tire bead hadn’t seated properly.
Pssssssss. Deflate the tube and try again.
This time it looked good. He pumped. And he pumped. And he pumped.
“Wow, this is a lot of work,” he said as he put all his weight on the handle to get it to 119 psi. At 120 psi, there was a loud bang.
It wasn’t the tube. The hose on the pump had blown.
The rider was mortified. Knowing that Blackburn had been good about honoring their lifetime warranty when I had problems with the pump head, I told him not to worry about it.
He hopped on his bike and headed back to the start
If Blackburn balks at replacing the hose, I’ll do a followup posting. Otherwise, assume that they are a good company to deal with.
I sort of let this month’s Full Moon slip past me. I noticed it was pretty big on the Third of July, but I figured everybody had plans for the weekend and I let it go.
Now I’m kicking myself
Hilary Carmichael, my former chief lab technician posted the picture above to her Facebook profile, along with some others of the spectacular sunset that night and some more ohhh and ahhhh fireworks shots.
That got me to recalling that I HAD ridden the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail one Fourth of July night. From high atop the dike, you could see fireworks from all around the lake.
Next year, Full Moon or not, I’m headed out to get LOST on the 4th.
[Hilary, you may recall, was the only one on the staff who got an actual snow picture when it snowed in West Palm Beach in 1977. (I could use some of that ice I photographed on the backyard birdbath back in February.)]
I’m going to have to put together a list of coming events. I KNEW that the Boca Raton Bicycle Club always sponsors the Frank Stark Celebration Ride in July, but exactly when slipped my mind until Son Matt reminded me that advance registration closes July 9.
Frank Stark was a member of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club. He was a former airline pilot who was forced to retire after quadruple bypass surgery and two heart attacks.
As part of his rehab, he took up cycling and celebrated his birthday by riding a mile for every year of age. Before long, it became a club event, with as many as 1,000 riders showing up.
Not a bad way to go
Frank died of heart failure while riding his bike, just a month before his 71st birthday. The club has been doing a ride in celebration of his birthday for almost 20 years.
I rode the Frank Stark only once (inadvertently)
I took off on a ride in July 2001 and turned south on A1A from West Palm Beach. All of a sudden I started running into hordes of riders.
I pulled into a rest area where I saw a bunch of activity and found out the background of the ride. They had some of the best-looking iced watermelon I’d ever seen. I confessed that I wasn’t part of the ride, but the person staffing the stop said to help myself anyway. I tossed ten bucks into the pot (all I had) as a donation and left refreshed.
A real steam bath
The main thing I remember about that ride was getting caught in a rainstorm on the way back north. I swear that you could hear the raindrops sizzle like they’d been dropped on a hot griddle when they splashed onto the hot blacktop.
Then, just as soon as it started, it stopped. Instead of cooling the air, it created a hot steam bath that gave me a lot more sympathy for the lobster in a pot.
This prototype of a fashionable helmet that folds up is either
and watched him pump away.
