adsy Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 I have often wondered for a few years why the TDN team have to wear green helmets? Surely this is the Irish colour? The Spanish, Japs etc have nice helmets incorporating their national flag colours etc. The MX Des nations team had mega union Jack paint jobs on there helmets, do the ACU provide these? If so why does trials have to make do with a lick of green emulsion? Maybe it is in reference to British Racing Green, but that is cars, not bikes. Any thoughts????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
original Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 its is because of british racing green. it just happens that japan and spain flag is the same colour as their racing clolour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adsy Posted October 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 original Posted Today, 09:59 AM its is because of british racing green. it just happens that japan and spain flag is the same colour as their racing clolour. So why do the MX boys get a fancy none green paint job? Both teams are riding for the ACU, so whats the difference? I personally think British Racing Red White and Blue would be preferable, rather than the same colour as a vintage Jag or Aston, which would be more appropriate if they were riding for the RAC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john collins Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 (edited) You are not the first to query this Adsy - many others have - and not least the riders who have not always been impressed with Green. Reason is that colours for hemets for National teams in FIM events are laid down in the Technical rules Art 01.73 - and the colour for GB is Green. Many countries - Spain for example - have Yellow and Red. Poland - White with Red band. But for GB - Green. As someone has stated it is British Racing Green that we are aiming for - and after a few warnings from FIM in past years becuase we tended to have various shades of green - I punched British Racing green into Google a few weeks ago to try to get definitive colour. I also phoned a couple of paint suppliers hoping to get a code of some sort. If you have some time to kill - try the Google experiment - it is quite interesting with quite a lot of debate about what is or is not British Racuing green. This is mainly form specialist car clubs - who of course want their MG's to be correct etc. One site shows pictures of a whole load of fantastic MG cars - but there is Hunter Greens and Forest greens etc and so it goes on. Quite a few sites actually include paint swatches to try to explain it all. When my head started hurting I just sent out a letter to the rider asking them to go for British Racing Green as used on the Rover cars such as the 620 I think it was. The helmets were the closest we had ever had them - and in fact the FIM Technical Official commented on it at the Jury meeting and thanked us for making the effort ( after bollocking me strongly - but quite correctly the previous year) I think we do need to look at a specific paint job - and see if we can somehow brighten the job up - perhaps building in the Union Jack design - but that does mean collecting in helmets a few weks before event etc and getting them all there together etc ( would not have been so difficult for IOM ) We do it for ISDE - and we will look at it for TDN - as like the rest of you I agree it does tend to look like we have a job lot of emulsion somewhere - but I am afraid we will still be stuck with Green Edited October 2, 2007 by John Collins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cota kid Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 Why not just buy some helmets before hand and have a proper custom job carried out. The riders could be given the helmet as a memento for representing their country. The Spanish and the Japanese helmets looked the business. The GB teams looked like they'd found some green paint in the back of the garden shed. Mind you Dib's did make the effort with the green anodised parts on his bike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john collins Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 Yes - Sounds feasable - buy some helmets have them painted etc and rider picks them up. Life is never that simple - riders of the top calibre often have contracts with helmet suppliers etc - sometimes at end of year ( for both ISDE and TDN) the helmet they have is often the proto type for next year etc. As I have said for many years we have been down various roads with ISDE - and it has never been easy. Also remeber that often when TDN is outside UK sometimes riders have already been out of UK for many weeks and arrive at TDN on way home - and would be sticking helmet on head for first time etc - no previous try on. For you or me - perhaps not a problem - but top riders want things as they want them. At the end of the day - they ride the bikes - they must be happy with what is on their head. All the riders had them sprayed - it was not a hand paint job - but as I have previously mentioned the colour is the colour . All this is not rocket science and the riders are consulted - and at present they prefer to handle it themselves - but as stated for 2008 we will look at it for some fair points have been made. I will also speak to Dusty Martin ( ISDE Team manager) - possible we can develop a green corporate design for all British Teams - I did explore this some years ago- but the Enduro boys had a sort of different perspective on what they wanted on helmets. It will be looked into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02-apr Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 All of this ignores the fact that many helmets should not be painted in any case, this is common knowledge (plus see ACU Handbook which presumably reflects FIM documents). Who is liable when someone gets injured because his helmet fails due to him having painted it "under instruction"? Sadly this is the sort of stuff that needs to be considered nowadays. We could ask why is the FIM enforcing such arcane and archaic rules when volunteers' time and everyone's money could be much better spent on other things. The FIM could more profitably address the noise issue than argue about different hues on rider's helmets. Not much seems to have changed in forty years as regards what they see as a priority for the sport. By all means have a team identity but, looking at the photos, no two riders are dressed alike so why worry about helmet colour. You wll never get round the sponsorship problems to have everyone in a team wear the same gear or helmets so should not the number bibs be better used to provide National identities? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ishy Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 I would think an helmet cover would take care of most of the issues above, good enough for horse racing why not trials. Probably less expensive than a fancy paint job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adsy Posted October 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 John Collins Posted Today, 11:16 AM You are not the first to query this Adsy - many others have - and not least the riders who have not always been impressed with Green. Reason is that colours for hemets for National teams in FIM events are laid down in the Technical rules Art 01.73 - and the colour for GB is Green. Many countries - Spain for example - have Yellow and Red. Poland - White with Red band. But for GB - Green. Thanks again John for taking the time to answer a question I have pondered over for a few years. top man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabie Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 putting my MX hat on as i udnerstand it, Tom Fuller did the GB teams helmets for this year's MXDN i did know we were meant to be observing a colour rule but i'm not involved in the MXDN effort as for painting helemts, a lot of MX lads have them done, and i presume that they all know what they are doing. liabilty is definately not the ACU's, organisers/pormoters, etc its down to the rider who got the helmt sprayed, and thus probalby the helmet sprayer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cota kid Posted October 3, 2007 Report Share Posted October 3, 2007 John To overcome the problem of sponsorship. The riders sponsor donates their brand of helmet in the riders size to the company carrying out the custom job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpa3 Posted October 3, 2007 Report Share Posted October 3, 2007 I think the plain 'British Racing' green (or near to it) colour looks really good. As for painting the helmets, almost all road racers have this done and have done for years, so I can't see the problem there. Concerning contracts. Any helmet supplier would surely be delighted to have one of their supported riders riding in a British team and give up an extra lid just for the occasion to be painted. That has to be good publicity for them. I'd like to start a 'keep the green' campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pa. Posted October 4, 2007 Report Share Posted October 4, 2007 It really is not very hard to organize. Try doing it from the other side of the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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