Item of Note #1: Half a mile into my ride, my bike hit a mileagestone. I found it interesting enough to take a picture (well, three of them; this is the one that came out best). 20 years to accumulate as many miles as most cars get in one.
Item of Note #2: There's a cool store in Carroll Gardens, at the intersection of Smith and Butler, called Smith and Butler, which I last checked out the week they opened in the fall. I decided to spin over there yesterday because I've been thinking about getting a 3/4 face helmet to wear on local rides and I wanted to see if they'd gotten any cool new stuff since I was last there.
I really liked some of the helmets on the shelf shown in the first picture at the link above and loved one in particular. They were all size Large, and I'm at least an XL. I was being helped by an employee named Kyle and he said he'd check downstairs for an XL. He found one, brought it up (it happened to be the one I especially liked), and it still didn't fit. So he said he'd check with the manufacturer to see if they had XXLs they could send. The store was getting $170 for the helmets and, since I hadn't budgeted $170 to spend on a new motorcycle helmet yesterday, I figured it was just as well that I didn't get to buy one.
I took a break from IMing my friends and found this line of helmets online today. Here's the one that I thought yesterday was the best-looking helmet I've seen that didn't have viking horns on it:
The star on this helmet is subtler than it looks in this picture. From some angles you can hardly see it. When the light catches it nice, it looks incredible.
Looking at the full line again today, I kept coming back to this one as well:
I'd like to see this one again in person to see how well the flag is integrated into the helmet. If it looks at all like a sticker, I'm not into it. If it's clearly a part of the helmet, it's fairly awesome.
Now, the PROBLEM with going back to the store to see it is that I'd feel like sort of a dick. Because Kyle emailed me today to say that he ordered the flat black model with the star in XXL and is going to let me know when it comes in. Thing is, the same helmet that he's selling for a buck-seventy is available online for $70 (and the website-store carries XXL). So I've got to figure out how to play this one. I'm pretty sure I don't have the nerve to walk in there again, try on the special-ordered XXL to ensure a good fit, check out the flag model again, and then buy one of the two online. I guess at this point I'm leaning toward going in there, trying on the helmet, explaining to Kyle the discrepancy between his price and the interweb's, and offering him $80 or $90 cash. He told me yesterday that recently, while in college, he'd sold his beloved Honda because he was broke and needed money. So he can probably understand a customer's need not to overpay for a $70 product by a hundred bones.
I'll let you know how this pans out once the panning is complete. If you like one of the two choices a lot better than the other, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Item of Note #3: I did make one purchase while I was there. I bought this patch for four bucks and I'm going to put it on my backpack:
And yeah, it could probably be found on the internet for a dollar seventy-five, but I'm OK with not doing my due diligence on this one. I'll post a new picture once it's actually on my bag (allow six to eight months for this). Oh hey - does anyone know if you're supposed to sew these things on, or use an iron? Both? Other? Thanks.
Addendum (non-Motorcycle content): A sincere R.I.P. to the latest victims of my elite mouse-trapping skills. I wish I could fight my recent infestation through a more natural application of the food chain but I don't want to be that single guy with the cat. So the artillery in my war against mice is glue traps; I've used two to catch four. Though I am bigger and in some ways smarter (I'm book-smarter; they're probably street-smarter with better senses of direction), I am impressed by their loyalty. As Trevor pointed out the first time I caught two mice on one trap, the second one was probably just trying to help the first one. Though the results are ultimately ugly, the sentiment is kind of beautiful.
* This post (in particular, the beers I drank while writing it) sponsored by my Mom.
Happy Belated Valentine's Day, everyone.
3 comments:
Now why couldn't someone have custom ordered an XXL Giants helmet for you when you were 6?? I'm just curious to see if the XXL fits!
It must be a Gordon male thing, my hat size is 7 5/8 and I can never find stock hats/helmets/do-rags that fit me. On the patch front I've always sewn mine on even though they look like iron-ons
I have to say I'm not sold on either helmet necessarily. The star is a *little* cheesy, and I bet you the flag is actually a sticker. The one *I* prefer is the more Evel Knievel-like all-over stars and stripes helmet. That's the real shit right there.
Post a Comment