COMMENTARY : Going to a Hard-Shell Approach

It’s too late for Rod Ballard, but the hard shell is finally mandatory.

Ballard was a 36-year-old Brentwood bicycle racer who died last month of massive head injuries incurred in a crash at the Encino Velodrome.

He was wearing the so-called hair net, which is nothing more than leather strips that cover the head. They keep your hair in place, thus the nickname, but won’t do much to keep your head in place in a serious accident.

Now, a month later, hair nets may be going the way of the leather helmet in football.

The United States Cycling Federation has passed a regulation requiring hard-shell helmets for all participants in its events, beginning in 1986.

Actually, the new regulation sets up testing standards for helmets. But the only helmets that can pass those standards are the hard shell--the outside being material like fiberglass or plastic, usually with an inner lining of Styrofoam.

Although the decision comes barely after the dust has cleared in the Ballard case, cycling federation officials at the organization’s Colorado Springs headquarters say there is no connection.

“This has been in discussion for at least two years,” Josh Lehman, director of programs for the federation, said by phone from Colorado Springs. “It was one of those things where we said, ‘Do we table it (for 1986) or do we take action?’ We took action.”

When you’re hurtling along either a track or the open road at something like 60 m.p.h. on the downhill, as these cyclists do, even the hard shell doesn’t guarantee your safety. But it sure improves the odds.

“It doesn’t do much in the ultimate collision,” said Larry Hoffman, a former racer himself and now the owner of a Valley bike shop. “Nothing helps there.

But the hard shell will defuse the shock of a crash over a larger area, rather than concentrating it in one spot.

“In my shop, I hear all the stories about crashes. Some of them are disastrous. People will say, ‘This helmet saved my life.’ I see the results for those who wear the hard shell and those who don’t. There can be serious consequences. If you’re going to wear a helmet, you might as well wear the safest. The message is loud and clear.”

So it would seem. So why hasn’t it gotten through before?

“The better riders often don’t wear the hard shell,” Hoffman said. “They feel they don’t really need it. It’s a trend. And people don’t want to buck the trend.

“By wearing it, they feel they may be sending a subliminal message to other riders that they are not as good. No one wants to feel inferior. They give out that message. You can feel it. You can see it. You put on that hard shell and the other riders will say, ‘Oh, you have to wear a helmet. You’re not as good as the other guys.’ It’s an unwritten code.”

Matt Rayner, 22, races at the velodrome in Encino. He wore a hard shell, but had objections to it.

“When I wore it,” he said, “I was growing and it got to be too tight around my head. It made my hearing go away in my left ear.

“The people who are going to be doing a lot of complaining now are the road riders,” Rayner said. “They are going to be bitching because they take part in these 100-mile races. I can see their point. It can get to be 100 something degrees out there and the hard shell closes in around your head. It can get pretty hot in there.”

Rayner, for one, isn’t particularly hot about the new ruling.

“I’ll be happy to wear it (the hard shell) now that you don’t have any choice,” he said. “I think once people get over the initial shock and everybody has to wear one, they’ll get used to it.”

It may take some getting used to. There have been threats of petitions being circulated against the cycling federation. And the organization, while receiving great support for its ruling from promoters and touring associations, has also gotten some protests from riders.

“It may not be popular with those who have to be on the road a long time,” said Dianne Fritschner, assistant director of programs for the federation, by phone from Colorado Springs. “Those helmets can get very hot and heavy.

“What we are hoping will happen now is that manufacturers will improve the technology to make the helmets more comfortable while still being safe.”

It took action by the federation to make the hard shell standard equipment locally. Ballard’s death wasn’t enough.

“You see something like that,” Rayner said, “and it affects you for awhile. But then you forget about it and go back to your old practices.”

It wasn’t considered “macho” at one time for batters in baseball to wear a sissy piece of head gear such as a batting helmet. But then a major-league hitter was killed by a pitch and now nobody doubts the value of a little protection at home plate. Who knows how many more hitters might have been killed had the rule not gone in?

Deaths in football have also resulted in better equipment for the head and neck.

Maybe the cycling federation ruling was not, as officials maintain, brought about by Ballard’s accident. But maybe, just maybe, it was. After all, the issue had been debated for two years, but was finally settled a week after the Encino accident.

Sometimes, you can talk and talk and talk about safety and nobody seems to listen. The one thing people always seem to hear is the gentle lowering of a coffin into the ground.