A decent cycling helmet still gets old, and it’s good to replace one every few years. I generally go until the padding starts to fray a bit. Then it’s time to start looking.
I’ve had Giro helmets for my past two — a Foray, and then an Agilis — both MIPS helmets. MIPS is a system that’s designed to shift on impact — a little internal give that reduces the possibility of brain injury in a crash. I tried a Smith, but ended up sending it back immediately. This is one of the disadvantages of living where I can’t really try a lot of helmets before I buy. But I was in the market and stumbled upon the Lazer brand. Problem was, the two in which I was interested were quite expensive. Then I saw the Lazer Tonic in a crash test study, where it got five stars. It was MIPS equipped, but the best part was that it was only eighty bucks.
I haven’t gotten to take it on a long ride yet, but so far it’s a good fit and quite comfortable. Of course I moved my mirror over to it, and the positioning is going to take a bit of getting used to, but other than that, I’m thinking this may be a success.
I posted a couple days ago about going totally tubeless. I spoke too soon — but then I didn’t. Apparently, my Panaracer back tire had been through a bit too much, so it either wasn’t seating right or the big hole in it was irreparable through the puncture kit. I’m going to give it another shot with a patch on the inside, but I need to pick up the kit for that. Until then though, I’ll be using a tire a friend had. I put it on today and so far so good. I was a bit reluctant, because I have a big ride planned for tomorrow. If I wake up in the morning and the tire is flat, it’s gonna put me way back in the timing of my ride. But it seems to be holding fairly well so far — still pumped up after about 6 hours. As a matter of fact, I had to take a bit of air out of it. My ride tomorrow will be all pavement, so I don’t have to go less pressure.
You should see here tomorrow how it all turned out.
