My helmuf

It's -11 degrees Celsius (13F, -4F windchill). It's too dog-gone cold to bike. Having said that, I have this old Yukon hat with rabbit fur lining that I found at St. Vinny's years ago, and have had many happy warm-eared winters with it, thanks to the long-eared bunny friend who must have donated his fur to the hat maker. But it's getting a bit worn, and the lining is splitting/tearing. And I never have occasion to wear it any more because I'm still commuting by bike (I have come to admit that I've crossed the line past "winter biking enthusiast" into the realm of "obsessive" on this).

We've all seen winter bikers who put their stocking caps on, then put their hood up, and strap their helmet on top of it all. And we shake our heads at the lack of protection for anything but a head-on accident (except what the hat and hood offer). But I wanted to use the Yukon hat with my helmet, mostly for the warmth that the ear flaps offer. In order to do so, without the "stacked helmet" problem that we see, I cut the lining out of the top of the Yukon hat.

The result is a rather tough-looking, low profile, wonderfully warm helmet. The top of a biking head really doesn't need a lot of insulation, as the heat is trying to escape, so the outer shell of the Yukon hat, along with the winf protection that the front flap offers, does a fine job of keeping it warm. The tricky part is the ears, and the flaps are a great solution. I can leave the Yukon flaps unlatched and they wave in the wind as I bike past, or if it's really cold, I can strap them down. There's less wind noise than there is with headbands or hats (I think due to the fur), and it's soft and warm. And it uses a much more renewable resource (bunnies) than some petroleum-based Wind-bloc fabric -- although, I don't condone buying new fur (and thereby promoting the kill-bunnies league of evil-doers.