Helmets.....Looking back..

Just reminiscing a bit and laughing how we used to dress up our helmets when we were younger....
When we were puppies, we could only buy white helmets....open face was the favored choice. I was riding a Kawasaki when i bought this new helmet. My cobbers and i had a brainwave that we could paint it black so off we go and buy a can of gloss black spray paint...a visit to the fabric shop secured some lace about 3 inches wide. We taped a piece of lace across the lid from the front to the back with masking tape..put the helmet on the handle end of a broom and leaned it against a chair and sprayed it black...nice even sprays. Then we removed the lace and hey presto we had a superb looking black helmet with a white lace pattern over the top!
One of the boys was handy at sign writing and wrote 'KAWASAKI' in white on the helmet over the top of my eyes and also around the back....I thought i was proper cool!

That's pretty creative. I'd just glob stickers and more over time until you couldn't even tell what color it was anymore.

I didn't know you were a 'Lace lover' Tal.
You must have looked REAL cool then, and here is another opportunity to 'Lace up' and set a new fashion trend! You may even get a few options for different outfits.

BRIDAL Motorcycle Helmet Cover Wedding Gift for Couple | Etsy Australia

Ride with style on your motorcycle Who said that your motorcycle helmet needs to be boring? Dress it up with our colorful motorcycle helmet covers and have a spectacular ride in town! If you can’t find the style that expresses who you are, ask for a custom made motorcycle helmet cover and we

www.etsy.com

One like this was on eBay recently but withdrawn before the auction ended.
They weren't claiming it was Hailwood's though like this one, and it was going for about Au$250.

Cromwell cork helmet.

AN EARLY MIKE HAILWOOD 'FOR THE LOVE OF THE SPORT' PUDDING BASIN MOTORCYCLE HELMET, BY CROMWELL,
cork-lined helmet with leather chin-strap, painted red with white band, bearing Union Jack and Checkered Flag design with Hailwood 'For Love of the Sport' motto scroll design to front, showing signs of wear, possibly used in the late 1950s early in his career with MV Agusta on 125cc machines.



MIKE HAILWOOD'S RACE WORN 1966 CROMWELL HELMET AND SUPER-FOSPAIC RACING GOGGLES,
the cork-lined 'pudding bowl' hat painted in off-cream, red and gold, with cloth inner webbing and elasticated softer lining, with Cromwell label and indistinct stamp, leather strap and ear protection with ear ventilation. Paint loss and evidence of accident damage to the hat with remnants of chequered flag design and Honda transfer to the front with 1966 Isle of Man TT scrutineers' label to the side. The goggles with ventilated frame, coil sprung adjustable headband and remnants of rubber protective cheek pieces displays deterioration and damage to the lens.

Footnotes​

• According to information supplied by the vendor, a former mechanic for Hailwood, the hat and goggles were acquired from Mike following a couple of drinks at The Prince of Wales pub in Highgate, London, during the mid-1970s. Offering to drop the vendor home, Mike, “opened the boot of his canary yellow Iso Grifo and got out a couple of helmets and suggested we put them on as we had drunk a few pints and it would be safer. When we got home I offered the items back but he suggested I keep them.” In 1977, in the company of the vendor, Kork Ballington had occasion to wear the hat and goggles, his words being that he, “would be lucky after putting on Mike's helmet.” The following year he became 250 and 350cc World Champion (see lot 547). A year later the vendor, working as a mechanic at the 1978 TT, was asked by Mike if he still had the items – “when I told him I had, he offered me two helmets he wore on his return to the TT as he did not have any of his old pudding basin helmets left from his old days of racing, but I declined.” It is possible that the hat and goggles are the same as those pictured on the front cover of 'Hailwood' by Mike Hailwood and Ted Macauley, the paint loss to the hat and transfers closely matching.

Herre ya go Tal relive the experience, all white and ready!

Seems you can still buy new cork helmets from Japan. Just Au$200 with free delivery. Obviously will not be road legal most places but who has ever had their helmet checked by a LEO, certainly not me.

My cousin Graeme was a bit of a rebel....rode Trumpys, beezers, Norton Commandos...he got a fox fur stole that our Grandmother wore...had the head and all on it...he glued it on his helmet with the face just above his eyes and the rest glued right over the top. The tail hung down his shoulders...He looked pretty mean coming at you with his leather jacket, denim vest over the top and that helmet...He liked making noise and going fast too...

I picked up a 3/4 bright silver-flake metal helmet from Goodwill... At the time, I was too embarrassed to be seen with it on base so I painted it flat black. I've come a long way since then...
-MIG

Looking back at my last half lid.

I'm the only one around here that wears a full helmet, but then again I'm the only one that doesn't ride a Harley

Saw a guy on a sport bike wearing one of these recently: