Last summer I was riding my bike home one day when I was cut off by a driver pulling out of his garage. The quick breaking sent me flying over my handle bars and crashing to the ground, head first. I can confidently say that I would have literally cracked my head open had I not been inexplicably wearing a helmet for maybe the second time in my life. As it was, I escaped with a dislocated shoulder, ripped up knuckles and some pretty badass body bruising. And I decided I would never ride my bike without a helmet again, though I had to get a new one because mine had cracked in half from the impact.
That lasted about a year. Then summer rolled 'round again and I've been bitching about how hot it is and how my hair looks like ass when I take off the helmet and a bunch of other things significantly less important than whether or not I end up bleeding profusely from the head. So I started leaving my helmet at home pretty much every day.
Well, two days ago I crashed again (it wasn't terrible, just some bruises), but the whole thing reminded me all over again of how incredibly stupid it is to ride a bike without a helmet. But just because I'm newly committed to not being a moron on a bike doesn't mean I need to look full on terrible. In order to make the transition back to helmet-dom more palatable, we've rounded up the best looking protective head gear out there.
