[bootsie_cat]

It is a pretty cool world when you are riding in from doing an epic illegal singletrack and you see Charlie Cunningham riding over to do the same trail. Cords, down jacket, 80's Cunningham, V1 pro helmet, big smile on his face and everything.

 

[Rumpfy]

It is a pretty cool world when you are riding in from doing an epic illegal singletrack and you see Charlie Cunningham riding over to do the same trail. Cords, down jacket, 80's Cunningham, V1 pro helmet, big smile on his face and everything.

Thats more than cool!

I think you meant to say 'legal' trail though didn't you? Hmm?

Would have been worth it to go back out and try to keep up with him.

 

[pinguwin]

Kinda cool, but the V1-Pro is a bad idea. The newer helmets are much, much better in both terms of safety and comfort. Another thing is that such a helmet is so old that it's questionable whether the foam is any use anymore. All the sweat, skin oils, UV, and brittleness from aging in general would make such a helmet most suspect. Other than that, it's cool.

I was in Moab for a few months and once saw Tom Ritchey. Didn't make a fuss about him, but he wasn't wearing a helmet. This is the last place for mtn. biking where I wouldn't wear a helmet. There are no soft falls there, everything is rock.

Ok, my soapbox just collapsed. I'm done.

That said, I've needed my helmet twice so far. Once when I didn't duck far enough under a tree leaning over the trail and other when I hit a tree head on (BUT...through no fault of my own. A so-so rider tried to pass me on a very difficult section in a race and I said, "Not" I didn't the word "HERE!" out. He collided with me and I was pushed off the trail into a downhill section of woods. I dodged the first four trees, but not the fiftth. I had to put that in as my ego doesn't allow that story with the "It wasn't my fault!" bit

 

[ssmike]

Kinda cool, but the V1-Pro is a bad idea.

I'm trying to get a mental picture of Charlie in the latest hi-tech helmet...nope not working. Keeps flashing back to a V1 Pro.

...and cords are just plain wrong for riding - think of the chafing they can cause

 

[bushpig]

I don't think that Charlie would be using a V1-Pro. That's just what it looked like. It is a near certainty that he has modded out a superior helmet that is both lighter and safer than those for sale to the general public. Furthermore, the protective properties of a potato jacket [cuz that's what down jackets make you look like] are justly famous.

Honestly, when I first saw Charlie's famous potato jacket I went on a mission to get my own - scary fan syndrome! Where I was living there is a Czech woman that hand crafts beautiful down creations - the Cunningham of down if I might say so. I still have a couple jackets, a duvet and a hearty sleeping bag.

I have ditched my V1-Pro though.

 

[pinguwin]

I ditched my V1-Pro when my LBS told me they were tyring to get them out of circulation and were giving a significant trade-in value, akin to 60% of the value of a new helmet when my V1 was five years old. It made me wonder why they didn't want them out there anymore, plus it was too good of a deal to pass up. This winter, I have to be buying myself a new noggin' bucket as my current one is getting old.

BTW, what's a potato jacket? The only references I could find to one dealt with eating.

 

[bushpig]

Potato jacket is slang for a down jacket because wearing one, you look like a potato.

 

[Veloculture]

Potato jacket is slang for a down jacket because wearing one, you look like a potato.

must be an obscure east coast thang.

 

[WTB-rider]

I'm trying to get a mental picture of Charlie in the latest hi-tech helmet...nope not working. Keeps flashing back to a V1 Pro.

...and cords are just plain wrong for riding - think of the chafing they can cause

LOL!!!

Or a Bell Biker

 

[Bigwheel]

must be an obscure east coast thang.

Actually I was thinking that it was an obscure west coast theng. Cause I grew up wearing them on the ski slopes of VT. and we always just called them down jackets. To be fair though my first one was orange and it did kind of make me look like one, an orange that is, at least from waist up to my neck.

The fact that he was wearing a big smile on his face is good enough for me. Whatever else Charley or anyone else decides to wear while biking is subject to their own personal discretion as it is a free country last I checked.