A nifty (& cheap) rain-cover for bike helmets
02-19-01, 06:28 PM
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As a bicycle commuter of many years experience (first in Saudi Arabia and now in California), I thought I was well prepared for any sort of road travel you might expect to encounter in temperate zones. It is ironic, therefore, that I discovered in California (where it never rains ;-]) the fact that no one seems to have come up with a simple bicycle (over the) helmet rain cover. There are apparently a few 'under the helmet' head covers, but the effects of dreaded 'helmet hair' compression are bad enough as it is, without getting to work with an even more firmly plastered down look, thanks to use of a skull-cap under the helmet. At any rate, the more I searched for a simple over-the-helmet rain cover, the more astounded I was to find that not a single bicycle accessory company thought that a helmet rain cover was important enough to bother about producing a suitable item that would provide protection against drizzle and downpour alike. I contacted Bell, Gyro, and any number of bike helmet manufacturers and they all responded more or less the same with the same "Thanks, but we have nothing like this--try a bicycle accessory products company." Meanwhile, I was getting by with a "Columbo Sour Dough Bread" plastic bag wrapped around my helmet that needed to be taped on each time it rained and then removed afterwards (great promotional material for the Columbo French Bread Company, but too tacky for my tastes). Then one evening, during a rare moment spent watching the tasteless, blathering fare of a commercial television channel, a spotted a new S.C.Johnson & Company product, marketed under their 'SARAN WRAP' trade-name. The item was advertised as a disposable food dish cover, intended for use in covering serving dishes containing left over food to be kep in the refrigerator, with the product name "Quick Covers". This item was very much like a plastic shower cap with elasticated edges, but was intended to be disposable (and therefore made with lighter plastic material). The "Quick Covers", as they are called, come in small, medium, and large sizes, with the large size being absolutely perfect for covering a full-size bicycle helmet like the Gyro Boreas so suitably that it is almost as if it was custom-trailored for the helmet. None of that 'shower-cap' tackiness, either. The effect is secure, sized just right, and quite perfect for reuse any number of times. A container of the "Large" size SARAN Quick Covers holds 10 of these covers and the covers themselves are small and compact enough to carry one or two as spares in a bike bag or pocket. If you have to commute through rainy seasons and your raingear is OTHERWISE complete and well suited for rain, consider using the SARAN "Quick Cover" as an external (over the helmet) rain cover for either regular or emergency use. They ought to market these things unchanged at bike shops as SARAN Bicycle Rain Covers. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried them and has had some experience using them. Thanks.
02-26-01, 01:55 PM
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raincap for over helmet
burely makes a nice rain cap. here's a link showing it if anyone's interested:
https://www.burley.com/html/access/rain/rain.html
-junebride
https://www.burley.com/html/access/rain/rain.html
-junebride
02-26-01, 10:05 PM
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Rain cover for helmets.
Junebride: Thanks for the Burley Raingear link. They have some other nice rain gear as well as a helmet cover. Good to know about their helmet cover, however. As Napoleon never said: "'Raincover' n'est pas un mot francaise..." Merci!
02-27-01, 03:50 AM
#5
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Gore make a bright yellow goretex helmet cover, at least in the UK.
Id like to know how cycling in Saudi Arabia was. I know that mountain biking is popular amongst UK staff working in mountainous areas, but how did you find commuting.
Id like to know how cycling in Saudi Arabia was. I know that mountain biking is popular amongst UK staff working in mountainous areas, but how did you find commuting.
02-27-01, 07:39 AM
#6
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shower caps work too
Thanks for the neat and practical solution for a helmut cover.
I use shower caps. Some hotels provide disposable shower caps in the rooms. I always nab these to use as bicycle seat covers when my bike is parked in the rain and for helmut covers.
The neutral clear cap is acceptable by all, but you can get shower caps with flowers too...
Mike
I use shower caps. Some hotels provide disposable shower caps in the rooms. I always nab these to use as bicycle seat covers when my bike is parked in the rain and for helmut covers.
The neutral clear cap is acceptable by all, but you can get shower caps with flowers too...
Mike
02-27-01, 06:37 PM
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Water on the brain (rain helmet covers)
MichaelW and Mike: Thanks for the posts. It is good to know about the Gore rain cover. Wonder if you (Mike) have a link that would help track it down in UK? As far as two-wheel commuting in Saudi Arabia is concerned, any travel on a regular KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) roadway by bicycle is about as ssssssafe as letting a Krait bite you on the nose! Although the Saudis as a national entity are collectively a wonderful, hospitable, and friendly group, they have about as much awareness of driving safety as the fellow who presented his schnoze to a Krait (see above reference). Each commute undertaken on a regular Saudi urban road is terribly hazardous and simply not worth undertaking with anything less than full attention, as road bicyclists in "The Kingdom" have a life expectancy of about 2 hours. The only safe place to bike to-and-from work is on protected compounds (especially the monsterously large, sprawling types, such as the medical and hospital compounds in Riyadh). However, even in that semi-protected domain many of the simpler Saudi drivers make a game out of trying to hit runners and bikers. The first time someone almost took me out on a bike, I thought it was a fluke; the 4000th time this sort of near-miss event took place, it finally dawned on me that this was a game--with the object being "try to hit the stupid foreigner on a bicycle (or on foot)". It is a matter of particular pride amongst Bedouin bus drivers to cut bicyclists off, turn in front of them, and generally attempt homicidal maneuvers in the vicinity of any human-powered two-wheel vehicle. When I finally understood the ground rules implicit, I had frequent opportunity to exercise a considerable vocabulary of Arabic insults, hand gestures, and generally imprecative gesticulations in return for all the deliberately near-catastrophic encounters (whilst fully staying on the alert for stupid tricks by ALL 4-wheel vehicles). The more common (that is simple, uneducated) Saudis (mostly of Bedouin extraction, it would seem) simply have no concept of responsibility for the health and safety of foreigners (after all, the operative principle seems to be: "If the foreigners weren't here, there would have been no accident"--impeccable 25% to 75% IQ Gaussian curve solipsistic logic). Still, once you understand the rules of the game, it becomes a very invigorating and quite exhilarating activity (biking to work). Bicycling Rule #1 in KSA is "Bicycling is a very hazardous undertaking"; Rule #2 is "In the event of an accident, the foreigner is ALWAYS at fault (regardless of whose fault it really is)". Once that is well and fully understood, commuting by bicycle on a Saudi roadway is about as much sport as mountain biking down the North Face of Half Dome on a Winter day in Yosemite (National Park). Clearly, I am having some fun with this subject here, but the very real bottom line is that although KSA roadway commuting is great exercise, it is terribly risky. In other words, if you love adrenalin rushes, this is definitely something you ought to try over there; it is not an activity for the faint of heart or spirit. PS: On the other side of the equation, the outback mountain biking in the Hijaz area (Great Western Escarpment, down near Taif and Khamis Mushayat way) is absolutely fantastic! Malesh Sidiyki!
03-05-01, 08:47 PM
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Jean-Paul Phd, it sounds like you enjoy hostile natives.
You would have made a good explorer 100 years ago.
100 years from now, people will read about you in awe as an adventurer in hostile lands bringing an ancient technology to a save a new world.
It will be written:
"Ah, how they laughed at Jean-Paul Phd and how insensitive the natives were when they finally killed this great man with their imported gasoline powered vehicles.
How could they know that their savagery would some day be a source of shame for their lineage; forefathers of the land of sand, killers of the great bicycle visionary known as Jean-Paul Phd, thieves of knowledge that would be desired by the future generations."
Ride on, Jean-Paul Phd. Ride on with your destiny of bicycling in the land of oil riches. Introduce the future to them now - a future on two wheels powered by gastric digestion and not by petrol combustion.
For the riches of the future belong to the Chinese and Indians - builders of bicycles. The oil-wealth of today's middle-easterners will evaporate as quickly as it arrived leaving behind a people bicycling from necessity rather than recreation.
Ride on Jean-Paul Phd. Ride on...
You would have made a good explorer 100 years ago.
100 years from now, people will read about you in awe as an adventurer in hostile lands bringing an ancient technology to a save a new world.
It will be written:
"Ah, how they laughed at Jean-Paul Phd and how insensitive the natives were when they finally killed this great man with their imported gasoline powered vehicles.
How could they know that their savagery would some day be a source of shame for their lineage; forefathers of the land of sand, killers of the great bicycle visionary known as Jean-Paul Phd, thieves of knowledge that would be desired by the future generations."
Ride on, Jean-Paul Phd. Ride on with your destiny of bicycling in the land of oil riches. Introduce the future to them now - a future on two wheels powered by gastric digestion and not by petrol combustion.
For the riches of the future belong to the Chinese and Indians - builders of bicycles. The oil-wealth of today's middle-easterners will evaporate as quickly as it arrived leaving behind a people bicycling from necessity rather than recreation.
Ride on Jean-Paul Phd. Ride on...
03-05-01, 09:42 PM
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Why, Mike...that's absolutely lyrical and poetic. "Great sand-visionary".....I like that; has a nice ring to it, too. I have a Welsh cousin (who holds a PhDF) who claims that some of my more spontaneous pontifications are likely the chance result of a poorly controlled case of borborygmus...but I frankly suspect that he is merely being rude in his erudite medical manner.
Your remarks about my being a legendary hostile-native fancier of future historical repute reminds me of that classic old chestnut of a joke in which the military attache in the 1850s British embassy in Delhi looks out the window, notes some groups of rioting Hindus, and remarks to the ambassador: "Sir Andrew, the natives are revolting!" .....to which, Sir Andrew rolling his eyes Heavenward remarks, "Yes, aren't they...?"
Your remarks about my being a legendary hostile-native fancier of future historical repute reminds me of that classic old chestnut of a joke in which the military attache in the 1850s British embassy in Delhi looks out the window, notes some groups of rioting Hindus, and remarks to the ambassador: "Sir Andrew, the natives are revolting!" .....to which, Sir Andrew rolling his eyes Heavenward remarks, "Yes, aren't they...?"
11-29-09, 01:15 PM
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I think J&G make a over the helmet rain cover:https://www.bicycleclothing.com/Water...et-Covers.html
11-29-09, 05:51 PM
#14
Dirt Bomb
Saran Quick Cover. Got to remember that. Thanks. Could have used one today.
11-29-09, 09:02 PM
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What is a member of academia doing worrying about helmet hair? I've found that helmet hair always gives me the eccentric genius looks that immediately commands the respect of my peers and students 
12-01-09, 03:17 AM
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So too, should this thread.
12-01-09, 12:53 PM
#20
it finally dawned on me that this was a game--with the object being "try to hit the stupid foreigner on a bicycle (or on foot)". It is a matter of particular pride amongst Bedouin bus drivers to cut bicyclists off, turn in front of them, and generally attempt homicidal maneuvers in the vicinity of any human-powered two-wheel vehicle. When I finally understood the ground rules implicit, I had frequent opportunity to exercise a considerable vocabulary of Arabic insults, hand gestures, and generally imprecative gesticulations in return for all the deliberately near-catastrophic encounters
I would have wanted to use this:
And they would be wondering just how to fill the acute shortage of Bedouin bus drivers...
12-02-09, 09:40 PM
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the hotels I stayed at this fall provided courtesy shower caps - which of course I brought home. They fit quite nicely over my helmet even with the visor. they are clear and my reflective tape appears through it fairly well!
