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Martone swaggers in with new fashionable folding helmet for when you dress your best

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Are you too sexy for your helmet? Though necessary and having been accepted as standard fare when riding, many helmets are still considered a tool rather than being fashionable. Martone wants to change that for those that have a more particular fashion sense.

Button up that shirt and venture down the catwalk to see the new “fashion-forward” helmets from Martone….

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The Martone Cycling Coompany has come in marching to the beat of a different drum by finding a place for cycling in the fashion world. Before you scoff at the thought, know that Martone has been selling their goods in some of the world’s leading fashion & design retailers including: Colette, Saks Fifth Avenue, Alchemist, Fred Segal and many more. We’ve covered Martone’s Artist series bikes as well as some of their standard “Fashion-Forward” models and though not everyone’s cup of high brow tea, seeing cycling fall into that segment just further validates its position in the market. Even these guys ride bikes after all!

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To accompany their bikes, Martone unveiled a new (you guessed it), fashion-forward line of helmets. For those of us that value high fashion, similar to how many of us that ogle over old Italian components or…… tire tread, Martone’s new protective “headwear” might fit the bill. Martone worked with french helmet masters chez Overade to make a helmet that was as fashionable as it was functional. To accomplish this, the idea was to have the helmet “disappear” when being worn without sacrificing any of the protection. Also, to make the helmet more convenient, it folds so it can be stowed into a bag satchel or backpack or European handbag so you’re not looking like a fred carrying your helmet around.

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The new Martone helmet consists of an ABS Hardshell exterior with 14 strategically placed vents, for impact resistance & air-flow, and an EPS interior with foam padding for comfort. They are available in black & white with red accents, and come in two sizes: S/M (54/58cm) and M/L (59 -62cm). The helmet weighs just under a pound and fold into a compact size of 8 ¼” x 4 1/3” x 6 ¼,”.

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Each helmet comes with a set of functional yet stylish accessories including: a detachable visor for blocking the sun, a removable helmet “rain cape” that covers the vents to keep the head (most importantly the hair!) dry during storms and a double lined microfiber pouch to protect the helmet when its folded and packed away.

Martone Cycling Co.’s fashion-forward helmet collection is available on their website and in select specialty and bike stores, retailing for approximately $195.

MartoneCycling.com

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22 Comments
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thesteve4761
thesteve4761
8 years ago

Too easy.

mudrock
mudrock
8 years ago

Looks cool, but not cool. A pound is 453 grams, so “just under a pound” is pretty heavy. Does this pass helmet standards?

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

“Necessary”. I only wear my helmet when i’m out riding for riding’s sake. If I am commuting, or running errands, or even out to the bars, i’m not wearing a helment. When i’m riding to ride, i’ll be making hard efforts, and either be on back-roads, high speed roads, or in the forest alone. When I am riding to ride, I am taking chances and pushing the limit. A helment has saved my noggin on multiple occasions in races and spirited rides. The fact is, per capita, you’re more likely to suffer a head injury driving a car than you are riding a bike. In years and years of cycle commuting, the only time i’ve been in danger of injury has been when cars have deliberately struck me, and a plastic hat doesn’t do anything against 4000 pounds of metal, nor does it protect me from injury when I strike the ground at 20 MPH.

Pit
Pit
8 years ago

That is a very dense beard in the main pic. Could double as a cassette brush.

Question
Question
8 years ago

Caption for the first pic: Do you know how fast you were goin’?!

The look reminds me of [equestrian] riding helmets a lot. Doesn’t really seem to compact a lot though, and I wonder how that impact drying out for those days caught out in the elements.

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

Eric, your last sentence doesn’t match your reasons for wearing a helmet when “riding to ride” since you obviously are riding fast when “riding to ride”

Yes, you may be outright killed if struck by a car in some situations. But very often the deciding blow is due to your head smacking the ground after being hit off your bike. And when you fall at 20 MPH, that does not necessarily mean your head is the first thing to hit. Very often you’ll slide or tumble, during which time your head can sustain a very small hit, that can prove fatal. It doesn’t take much if the hit comes from the right direction. Nor does take much to move that hit from being fatal to something that simply hurts or at worst, results in a concussion.

I don’t care what people do, and I don’t always ride with a helmet. But I don’t delude myself into thinking I’m just as safe without one or that it doesn’t matter as I’ll be blown to pieces by a car regardless. That is foolish.

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

I’ve been deliberately hit by cars twice. A week from yesterday, i’m headed to court to put the second dude away for up to 18 months. I’m well aware what happens when bike meets car.

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

Hopefully the third time won’t be a charm.

Seraph
8 years ago

For those who think that you don’t always need to wear a helmet, don’t design stuff like this, because the more often they ride without one, the more likely it is that they’re going to get in a horrible accident and be cleansed from the gene pool. More air for me.

David
David
8 years ago

Wait… Helmets where never designed for a vehicular impact. Not sure why that debate always comes up when someone mentions not wearing one or simply wearing one for serious rides (mtn biking and group rides, where they can be fount to be useful). You can always argue the better safe than sorry line but it has always seemed religiously sheepish to me. I used to have it argued that it helps reduce concussions but even that has been shown to be marginal if at all (see MIPS marketing from Bell/Giro stating that standard helmets don’t work for concussions).

My personal side of things is safety in numbers. If you look at popular cycling cities their vehicular death numbers go way down when more people enter the cycling thing. Not talking percentages but actual raw totals. We also have fun statistics from places that have required helmets that show the total number of cyclists has gone way down and the vehicular deaths go up. Drivers just aren’t as aware of cyclist when there are not as many. Point being helmet use is a hurdle for many people, makes the sport seem more dangerous than it is. Forcing an infrastructure that is safer for cycling in order to remove as much possible vehicle contact as possible is a far safer bet that that 1lb piece of Styrofoam on your head.

joey jojo jr
joey jojo jr
8 years ago

helmets for dudes with beards

BikeHoarder6
BikeHoarder6
8 years ago

David wrote: “Forcing an infrastructure that is safer for cycling in order to remove as much possible vehicle contact as possible is a far safer bet that that 1lb piece of Styrofoam on your head.”

Yes, thank you! Bike lanes with just a painted stripe are by no means ideal to me as a cyclist.
The painted line/bike lane might give you a little more space to ride… Until you get to an intersection. I would love to see widespread protected bike lanes as opposed to just some painted line and city “planners” claiming safer cycling with minimal investment.
Paint is CHEAP! Our lives are not.

Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago

I know of enough cases personally where stupid little falls, no cars involved, resulted in a helmet cracked in half. One has to think what would have been the outcome if no helmet was involved?

Everyone to their own but to me personally riding without one is not an option. Sure I could not wear one have an accident and not die but I’d prefer not to have some lifelong low grade side effect, or worse, be a drooling mess, because I didn’t.

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

Not sure what protection from car impacts have to do with anything. Even if one is hit by a car, hard or soft, there may be secondary impacts with your head to ground/objects, in which a helmet can prevent serious injury or death.

As for infrastructure. Yes. Great idea. And a completely separate one from the use of helmets. One is not dependent on the other.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago

Everyone should be wearing helmets. If you get hurt while not wearing one, your health insurance should be able to opt-out. While we don’t have social medicine in the US, our choices still hurt others. I don’t want someone’s care to get denied due to the accumulated expenses from people not wanting to wear a helmet.

Technician
Technician
8 years ago

> Everyone should be wearing helmets. If you get hurt while not wearing one, your health insurance should be able to opt-out.

How do people who make such claims sleep well at nights? Everyone should receive help no matter wears he/she helmet or not. I do not split up people on the road on smarty asses and stupid idiots, I offer my help to everyone when someone stops at the wayside no matter what or if I see the body, lying on the ground.

Do you know the feeling when you’re lying on the tarmac in the puddle of your blood, fellow cyclists passing by in numbers and nobody cares to stop to help you? I know it.

And why anyone who doesn’t wear a helmet is a persona non grata in the hospital? They’re 3rd grade POS-human beings or what? Ensurance and health care should be applied in any situation for everyone. Period. (deleted)

Edward Reyes
Edward Reyes
8 years ago

“Fashionable” is clearly on the melon of the beholder.

wunnspeed
8 years ago

Is this April 1 when various companies propose absurd things to see who will bite?

AbelF
AbelF
8 years ago

Dense, solid beard on that first pic. Keep that up.

keville
keville
8 years ago

I was a helmet-less “organ-donor-commuter” myself for a while, until another cyclist stacked in some embedded train rails just in front of me one morning a few years back. The arterial spray from his forehead, spurting in time to his pulse, was quite a sight to behold. I’ve put one for every ride since.

Oldmanridley
Oldmanridley
8 years ago

If that beard could be somehow moved to the top of his head there’d be no need for a helmet……or fashion…..

Oli
Oli
8 years ago

“Everyone should be wearing helmets. If you get hurt while not wearing one, your health insurance should be able to opt-out. While we don’t have social medicine in the US, our choices still hurt others. I don’t want someone’s care to get denied due to the accumulated expenses from people not wanting to wear a helmet”

You mean all the time right? Especially high risk activities like getting into and out of the shower? couldn’t agree more.

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