Part of my day job involves building virtual and augmented reality sets for classrooms.  I have built dozens of systems and have tried all sorts of different combinations of hardware, we even build software that uses this tech.  I get virtual and augmented reality and I’m looking forward this fighter pilot technology finding its way into motorcycle helmets.


I saw a tweet today that suggests it’s already here in the Cross Helmet.  360° peripheral awareness is a great idea that will no doubt save lives, and having hands free navigational information is another valuable safety feature, but I have a questions about this revolutionary lid.

Most of the articles I’ve read about the Cross Helmet are by tech websites that have a hard time containing their enthusiasm about disrupting existing industries.  They typically suggest that motorcycle helmets haven’t changed in decades and that they are low tech, unimaginative things created by Luddites.  It’ll take the blinding talents of a technology company to interrupt those conservative curmudgeons in the helmet industry (sorry, sometimes the hyperbole around high-tech companies gets a bit tiresome).


Helmets aren’t supposed to be an infotainment system, they supposed to be a light-weight, effective protective item that operates in incredibly difficult circumstances.  Helmet manufacturers have thrown everything imaginable at this problem, producing carbon fibre helmets and pushing materials engineering to the limit in creating the lightest, most protective lids possible.  They’ve also applied modern aerodynamic analysis to their products, producing quieter, less buffeting protection than ever before.  To call them uninspired and backwards simply isn’t true.

The most concerning thing about the Cross Helmet isn’t the wiz-bang technology in the thing, it’s the thing itself.  That is a massive lid.  When was the last time you needed two hands to hold on to your helmet?  This size is a function of all the technology crammed into it.  A heads up display, rear facing camera, wireless connectivity, communications and the battery needed to power all that stuff weighs down the helmet and makes it big.  The actual weight of it appears to be a mystery.  Modern helmets weigh between one and two kilos, with the heaviest ones being mechanical flip top items with built in sun visors.  I can’t find a weight listed for the Cross Helmet anywhere, not even on their website.

… that’s all you get for technical details.

I’m guessing, based on the size and tech in the thing that it’ll come in at over twice the weight of what an average helmet does, which doesn’t make it a very good helmet.  On top of that, you’re looking at a slab sided thing that looks like it’ll catch cross winds like a sail.  You might be able to see behind you and get navigational details, but you’ll be stopping often because your neck can’t take it any more.

I get that the first prototype of a new design is going to have problems; this is the worst smart helmet you’ll ever see because it’s the first one.  As the tech gets smaller and designs improve, a smart helmet becomes a much more attractive idea, but I’m disinclined to dive into a (very) expensive helmet that is more of a concept than a usable thing.


Here is a list of some helmets currently on the market with their weights:


Arai DT-X 1619 grams (and check out the many technical details shared)
Roof Boxer Helmet 1650 grams (again with many technical details shared)
Roof Boxer Carbon 1550 grams (the lightest transformable/mechanical helmet I can find)
Nexx Carbon 1219 grams (the lightest helmet I can find)
Shark Evoline 1960 grams (the heaviest helmet I could find)


The lightest of them use every materials engineering trick in the book to produce helmets that meet stringent modern safety standards while also being comfortable, aerodynamic and long lasting.  They are anything but an old-school  product, Discovery Channel.


The Roof Carbon is the lightest transformable / mechanical helmet on the market.  It’s 100 grams lighter than the standard Roof Boxer helmet – that’s what you get with carbon, 100 grams.  The helmet industry is playing a game of grams, aerodynamics and safety effectiveness in a state of the art way.


If you put a 2000 gram limit on your smart helmet and required it to retain the aerodynamics and size of current lids, it would be in the vicinity of current helmets in terms of usefulness.  I doubt it’s possible to cram cameras, heads up displays, communications and batteries into a helmet using today’s tech, but someday soon?  Perhaps.

Under those awesome graphics are state of the art materials engineering resulting in unprecedented protection.

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It took me almost a month to slowly work my way through this complex piece of media.  I originally came across an excerpt from it in Bike Magazine and it was so moving that I immediately purchased it.  I’m generally not a fan of coffee table books.  I’ve always thought of them as flash over substance and a decoration for yuppies to strategically place in their perfect living rooms to impress guests.  It took some powerful writing in that excerpt to overpower my prejudice about this format, and I’m glad it did.


Writing is only a small part of this ‘book’, and calling it a book isn’t really fair to it.  This is a piece of art; it feels more like you’re walking through an emotionally powerful art exhibit.  The author, Todd Blubaugh, was a photographer by trade, so this all starts to make sense as you fall into his aesthetic.  Between the pages of powerful and technically complex photography you find short pieces of narrative text that pin down the corners of Todd’s six month quest for meaning after his parent’s unexpected death in a car accident.

If you’ve lost a parent in unexpected circumstances with things left unsaid, Todd’s meditative ride around the continental U.S. will raise a lot of your own ghosts.  This was one of the reasons I savoured it so slowly.  After reading each emotional upper cut, you’re immersed in several pages of photography of life on the road.  Working in black and white on a film camera, Todd’s images tend toward startlingly frank personal portraits of the people that he meets on his travels.  Todd must be a particularly disarming fellow as he’s able to catch people with almost animal like honesty – were I able to do this, I’d be much more interested in human portraiture.  As it is, it’s a joy to see a master like this at work.

As you travel with Todd further into his trajectory away from the things that anchor most people to their lives (job, family), he surprises you with artifacts from his parent’s lives.  At moments like this the book feels more like a scrapbook or family album, with news articles about his Dad’s tour in Vietnam and his mother’s paintings offering you further insight into the scope of his loss.  The letter from his Dad at the end of the book had me in tears.

Todd tells two entwined and complex stories in Too Far Gone.  His disassociation from the habitual, stationary life that most people live reaches a climax in a conversation with an old sailor that will leave you, along with Todd himself, staring into the abyss.  Free from the responsibilities most of us labour under, Todd is able to focus on his loss with such a startling clarity that it will shake you.


This book pressed a lot of buttons for me.  As a photographer I greatly enjoyed Todd’s eye, even (and especially because?) it is so different from my own.  Todd’s relationship with motorcycling (old Harleys and biker culture) is also about as different from mine as can be, yet the sense of brotherhood still felt strong because Todd is never once preachy or superior about his infatuation.  Instead, his honest love of motorbikes comes across loudly, and that is something we share.


As someone who lost a parent and experienced that same phone call out of the blue, Todd’s experience is something that cuts me deep.  In coming to understand Todd’s relationship with his dad I can’t help but reflect on my own difficult and distant relationship with my father.  I lost the parent that I most identified with and have a challenging relationship with the other one, but Todd’s parent’s were still together and he lost both at once.  It’s the things left unsaid that gnaw at you afterwards, and losing both parents together while they are still paragons in your life is something I can only imagine.


We all lose our parents eventually.  If you haven’t yet, this book will give you an emotionally powerful idea of how it feels, and how someone has worked through the scars of that experience.  If they’re already gone, your sympathy will create powerful echoes.


There are a few motorcycling themed books that plumb philosophical depths.  Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Shop Class As Soulcraft in particular have spoken intelligently and deeply about the meditative nature of motorcycling.  Too Far Gone is a multi-media, large format book that takes you to the same place through different mediums, but it does it while also offering an emotional intelligence that is hard to find anywhere else.  Immerse yourself in this book, you won’t be disappointed.

What you need and nothing else.  After six months on the road Todd looks as homeless as he is, and has to make a decision…

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Once again I’m thinking about a Morgan3.  I found out that Ontario is offering a ten year pilot program for three wheeled vehicles, meaning you can drive one here now.  The federal requirements for three wheeled vehicles are just borrowed from other jurisdictions where they are already allowed, so the Morgan should be good to go.


It’s probably the Polaris Slingshot and the like that have forced this to finally happen, but what I really want is that Morgan3.  With a big air cooled twin out front and a super wide stance, the Morgan3 is a silly amount of fun to drive and looks like an instant classic rather than the offspring of the USS Enterprise and a TIE fighter.  If you want to go fast, get an even number of wheels, but if you want something with character, go odd, and the Morgan3 is nothing if not full of character.

Of course Ontario can’t do anything without making it pointlessly political and difficult, so anyone driving a three wheeled vehicle has to act like it’s a motorcycle and is required to wear a helmet.  Like I said, pointlessly officious, it’s the Ontario way.  


At least there are some stylish (though probably illegal) options for piloting the Morgan3.  A couple of World War 2 inspired fighter helmets along with aviator jackets and we’d be ready to roll.


As it happens, the Morgan factory is but one hundred miles north of us when we’re on holiday in the UK and offers rentals.  That might warrant a day trip!  There is another option even closer to where we’re staying.  Berrybrook is in Exeter, just down the road from the cottage we’re at.

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I’m a big fan of Roof Helmets.  It’s the best lid I’ve ever owned, and one of the only ones that offers me full face protection when I want it and the freedom to easily go open.  I’ll often start a ride open faced, flip it down to handle the wind when I’m out on the road at speed and then flip it open again when I slow down, even if it’s just riding through a town.

I saw my first Roof Helmet when Jo Sinnott wore one on her Wild Camping series through Europe.  It took some maneuvering to get one to Canada, but it’s been my go-to helmet since I landed one a couple of seasons ago.

I keep a close eye on Roof these days.  Their newly redesigned Desmo hemlets are on my wish list, and the new Carbon Boxxer is a work of industrial art.

Roof is selling that new Carbon hard, but if you think it’s your typical helmet commercial you’ve forgotten how French they are.  See if you can keep up with the cultural dissonance, make sure to hang in to the end:

I’m wincing at the hooliganism at the beginning, but you start to have faith in the rider and end up letting them ride well outside of sensible because of your increasing faith in their skill.  Then they suddenly get into tiff with a couple at a cafe, and things go from there.  The reveal at the end?  Brilliant!


I don’t think many Bikers for Trump alt-right Harley types will enjoy it, but I suspect that doesn’t bother Roof too much.  It worked on me.

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On Friday, July 13th, while thousands of people lined up to get into Port Dover, I left the cottage early (just before 7am) and headed out on my planned circumnavigation of the Kawartha Highlands Park.  It was already well into the twenties Celsius and humid when I left.  The fire roads into the cottage are a roller coaster rally stage of gravel over muskeg and Canadian Shield with tough, weedy firs and birch trees growing in the cracks.  It’s fun in a car but a bit nerve wracking on a bike.

It’s tourist season in the Haliburton Highlands and on the weekends the roads actually have some traffic (like, a few vehicles: Canadian country traffic), but on this Friday morning it was quiet.  I was lucky to see another vehicle pass me in any five minute span when I set out and the cottage road was just me and the bears.

I was out to Lovesick Lake Restaurant just before 8am for breakfast, only to discover it doesn’t open until 9am… for breakfast… in the middle of the summer.  Having not eaten and already on the road for an hour, I was disinclined to hang around for seventy odd minutes.  Fortunately, a couple of years ago we did a family Thanksgiving at the Viamede Resort just across Upper Stony Lake so I figured I’d give them a try.  

I pulled in just as the breakfast buffet was underway.  It was twenty bucks for breakfast all in, but it was all you can drink quality coffee and real juices along with a buffet all you can eat hot breakfast with fruit and all the other odds and ends you’d expect from a high end resort.  If you’ve got the time and you’re up that way, Viamede is a nice way to start a day of riding, and you’re looked after by a fantastic staff while eating a great breakfast in a beautiful environment.  It’s probably cheaper than a lousy hot dog at Port Dover and no line up.

 

With the slower, technical roads around Stoney Lake behind me, I struck north, deeper into the Shield.  46 and the 504 were both full of fast sweepers that seldom had me on the crown of my tires.  I pulled into Coe Hill Cafe about 10:30am.  After three hours on the bike my knees needed a rest, so it was coffee time.  It was me and four tables of retirees all talking politics and telling ‘in my day’ stories (they’d all owned bikes at some point).

From Tory Hill I was dropping south along the western side of The Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, once again on near empty roads.  The Tiger had burned off most of a tank of gas and was light and eager, and after six hot hours in the saddle, I was looking forward to a swim in the lake.  Like that post breakfast section around the end of Upper Stoney Lake, this road felt weightless and easy.  I get to the end of sections of road like that and realize I’d forgotten where I end and the bike begins.

I did the SMART off road training course a couple of weeks ago and was looking forward to seeing how my usually white knuckle approach to riding on gravel had changed.  I was in and out of the cottage a total of six times over the four days there and never once got a hand cramp.  In most cases I was resting my open hands on the bars and letting the throttle sort out any wobbles.  If you’re anxious about riding on loose surfaces something like the SMART program is a great way to acclimate yourself to it and lose your fear of it.

I was back at the cottage by 2pm and in the lake shortly thereafter.  Once again the Haliburton Highlands had impressed, offering an assortment of interesting roads that are vanishingly rare in the table-top flat South West where I live.  The Tiger was once again a rock star, prompting discussions wherever we went and starting at the touch of a button.  It carried me and two panniers full of tools and rain gear around the Kawartha Highlands while soaking up bumps on some truly awful pavement and feeling like an eager sports bike when the going got smooth and twisty.  Best of all, we managed it on near empty roads with no delays and some spectacular scenery.

Best Friday the thirteenth ride yet!  About three hundred kilometres on near empty roads through picture postcard scenery and not a crowd or line up in sight.  That’s what riding is about for me.

Here are some full 360° images from the ride:

The cottage fire road out of Bass Lake. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

The twists and turns of the Haliburton Highlands. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

Lakes, woods and Canadian Shield. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

The on-bike 360 footage was captured by a Ricoh Theta set to auto shoot every 30 seconds, so you can set and forget it.  The images are screen grabs from out of the 360 panoramas.  You can lean how to do this yourself (it’s easy!) here.

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