My old yellow Giro helmet was in sad shape: the Roc-Loc was held together with a wire tie, the foam pads were falling apart, the visor was attached with electrical tape, and the straps had stretched enough to put the buckle somewhere between my jaw and left ear.

I prefer to have a brightly colored helmet, mostly for visibility and safety. REI and I don’t see eye to eye on the subject as they only had helmets in black, white, black with crappy graphics, and white with crappy graphics.

I bought a Bell Influx because the GPS seems to work better than the current incarnation of Roc-Loc, and it was pretty comfortable. Unfortunately, REI only had the Influx in black with crappy graphics or in white with crappy graphics. I was not deterred. I purchased the helmet, and can of Pactra RC car Lexan paint from the local hobby shop.

I chose a mild “fluorescent green” shade to enhance visibility and offend the eyes of onlookers. This is truly a hideous shade of green, and goes well with the red helmet pads.

After a couple hours, a few thousand feet of painters tape, and two coats of paint, the helmet was done. The result speaks for itself. The photo does not do the helmet justice, it is far more revolting in person. The combination of flat fluorescent green, gloss black, and red is outstanding; much better than I could ever find at REI, or anywhere else.

After a long, long, long weekend of weddings and broken window regulators I went for a ride. I managed to get in a short ride on Monday afternoon, in the rain. Eric and I rode about an hour or so through 90°, 100% humidity, and over-grown thorn bushes. After the rain the temperature dropped, but the standing water was a little rough on the drivetrain. It looks like I’ll have to sacrifice the M2 for my commute tomorrow; the Gunnar does not like sitting outside in thunderstorms.

Anyway, I’ll post progress on the single speed soon, as well as my custom DIY painted helmet.

The two dollar ’93 Diamondback Cross Country is now a two dollar single speed frame and wheel set. I disassembled the bike, stripped the paint and sprayed the base coat. The color scheme will be a very basic satin black with white panels. You will have to wait to see the details… (it won’t be worth the wait)

Update: The white panels, undercoating covered chain stay and checks are done. The paint scheme turned out better than what I was expecting. Perhaps a little too nice, this is supposed to be a beater.