Don't Make This Mistake When Traveling with Your Helmet
Last month, I spent a few weeks ripping through a series of escalating bike adventures in British Columbia. From road riding to cross-country trail sessions to a downhill lesson, I was taking more risks on a bike and than I ever had before. Amazingly, I escaped unscathed—but my helmet didn’t.
I didn’t crash (OK, I didn’t crash hard), so it never occurred to me to give my helmet a once-over while unpacking my bags from the flight. In fact—and this is embarrassing to admit—I didn’t notice the massive crack in my helmet’s styrofoam until a few rides later, when it finally started to shift enough to become uncomfortable.
Is my helmet to blame? Nope. The fault lies solely with me: I packed it in my soft bike bag, which went into checked luggage on my flight.
Sure, I stuffed it with clothing and surrounded it with other gear, but on airplanes, you can’t be sure what will happen to your bag once it is wheeled away from you. “The helmet isn’t on your head, so you really don’t know what it’s been through,” says Rob Wesson, senior director of research and development for Giro helmets and goggles.
“Helmets are specifically designed to protect heads,” Wesson says. "Those that are subjected to the unpredictable and sometimes extreme forces in shipping or in checked luggage have significant potential for damage." His recommendation is to always take your helmet with you as a carry on when traveling.
In fact, the best thing you can do when traveling with a bike is to pack your helmet, shoes, pedals, and a couple pieces of riding apparel in your carry-on luggage. That way, if for some reason, your bike ends up in Italy when you just flew to Indiana, you can still rent a bike and go on a ride, rather than sit at the airport in a funk because your personal bike is lost—or your helmet is trashed.
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