Pithy

ordered east

With all the bike fashions that've been coming out there recently, the one aspect that gets little or no attention? Helmets. It's an important question if you're a vehemently anti-lycra lout. You know what I mean if you've rejected neon colors for civilized tweeds. You spend your time trawling velopunk sites for just the right thing to wear on nostalgia rides. But headgear? It seems our sartorial predecessors needed no stinkin' helmets. So I imagined the next best thing - the venerable Wolseley Pith Helmet. What it lacks in actual cranial protection it makes up for in stylish panache. And, as I found out during last September's raining A.B.C.E., it's weather-proof as well!

Then, yesterday, I discovered that my historical speculations were spot-on. Here's a British divisional cyclist corps in Wolseleys from Cycling magazine, July 1915.

HUZZAH!!!!!