Giro Helmet Pod, Atmos Limited Edition

While over in the "Big City" of Silverdale this weekend, Sweet Pea and I hit the local Goodwill over by Costco. We left with only one treasure. It was a brand new Giro helmet pod! This helmet case is a limited edition version that came with Giro's limited edition helmet, the "Lance Armstrong, Live Strong" Atmos model.

This case looks like it's never been used..... I did brush off a few little dirt spatters, but that's it...... and the price, well let's just say it was "on sale" :)
I'll use the case as a travel bag for my hemet, gloves and riding glasses.

Ergon GP1 Grips for the GT

I finally received the second set of Ergon GP1 grips from R.E.I. over in Seattle and I got them installed on the IDXC GT bike. They're great! If you haven't tried them, DO! You'll never go back to "old" grips again!



Here's a little video-movie from the folks over at Ergon. It features their rider, Irina Kalentiva, several time World Champion and Olympic medalist.................. here's her web page:

http://www.irina-kalentieva.com/irina-kalentieva-2/

Canadian MKII Helmet, WW2

Three Canadian Nurses in their MK II Brodie Helmets

Up for review today is an old helmet that I picked up at a great army surplus store in the San Francisco Bay Area, down in California, back when I was a kid. At the time I bought it, it was sold as a WW2 Canadian helmet. I never took the time to really research the helmet or to pull out the liner and see what exactly I had.......... that is until the other day. After pulling out the liner, I found a 1945 date and the Canadian broad arrow acceptance stamps. So it actually is a "real WW2" Canadian "Brodie" helmet!

Here are the details:

The helmet liner is a size 7 3/4, has a "II" stamp that has been over stamped in white with "MK 1", and has the makers initials of V.M.C., which indicates the liner was made by Viceroy Manufacturing Co. . This company made all of the liners for the Canadian WW2 helmets. The helmet and liner are both marked with the Canadian Broad Arrow: a "C" with the Broad Arrow inside. This Canadian Broad Arrow was discontinued in the late 1940's. The liner is attached to the shell with a single screw and nut and the top pad is the late war "T" type foam pad.

I can not find any manufacturer's markings on the helmet shell, only the Broad Arrow stamp.   I am also not sure about why the liner has a MkI stamped over the imprinted II.  More to research!

The shell is finished in a smooth paint and has no chinstrap. In fact it did not have a chin strap when I originally bought it.

Here are the pictures of my helmet:


It is interesting to note that the nurse in the movie "The English Patient", is a Canadian nurse and she can be seen wearing a helmet just like this one, just like the nurses in the picture at the top of this posting!

Here are a few pictures of some Canadian soldiers during WW2 in their helmets:

Ergon GP1 Grips for the Trance

On our last trip over to Seattle we stopped by REI and I picked up two sets of Ergon GP1 bicycle grips for the Trance and GT bikes. The new grips are now installed on the Trance and are they're ready to roll. Since the Trance sports Gripshift shifters, I used the half-grip style of Ergon grips. These are by far, the best grips made! They are very high quality, ergonomic, German made, and rock solid. The grips are firm, with great grip surface, and they clamp on (this makes them easy to remove or adjust, and they don't slip when riding).

If you are looking for a new set of grips, or want to upgrade your current grips, I would HIGHLY recommend a set of these Ergon grips!

Here's a link to the company website:

http://www.ergon-bike.com/us/en/product/gp1

WW1 Button Grouping

Since I've been going through our jars of old uniform buttons and "re-discovering" some of the treasures I've gathered through the years, I figured I'd post up another unique grouping of vintage uniform buttons. Here are three uniform buttons from the trenches of France, dating back to the Great War of 1914-18 (WW1).

This French button was posted in my previous "French Buttons" posting, but also fits in here...........


This brass button comes from a German "Bavarian" uniform.


This button is a "common" German "Prussian" uniform button.

French Buttons

Since I've been posting up a wide variety of items from my collection, with no particular theme other than they are all things I've collected through the years, I figured I ought to dig out a few more obscure items of interest. So, with that in mind, here is a small grouping of French Military Buttons:

Here is the "breakdown" on the different buttons........

While in Paris in 1981, I bought several small bags of old French Military buttons from a vendor in the Paris Flea Market. They are all made out of two part, stamped metal, no makers marks and finished in a flat green paint and a flat blue-gray paint for the crossed cannons and bomb shells . I have no idea how old they are and have not found any examples to compare them to. I am guessing that they are pre-WW2 and possibly WW1 buttons, but I 'm not certain. The buttons with the crossed cannons appear to be artillery and the anchor buttons are most likely for the French Marines, and the bomb shells infantry.



These two brass buttons came off of a French Air Force uniform jacket that Sweet Pea and I picked up in 1982 at a surplus store on the Northern California coast. The jacket has moved on, but two of the buttons remain.


These aluminum buttons date to the WW1 era. They have the unique "birdcage" type of back posts.



If anyone has more information on any of these buttons I would love to hear from you!

Dienstglas, E.Leitz / Wetzlar 6x30 M H/6400 Binoculars

Here is a set of early WW2 German military binoculars. I picked these up in the 1970's at a very cool, and very funky, junk store up in the little Northern California mountain community of Cohasset. The store was called Voses and was a family run business. The family primarily bought out old estates for the antique furniture, but often ended up with lots of "junk" that went with it. The furniture was refinished and re-sold, and the "junk" ended in the "store" at CHEAP prices. A very fun and funky old store.......... That's where these binoculars came from. As I recall, I paid about $5.00 for them. The leather case came along later. I bought the case here in Port Townsend, at a yard sale, a year or two ago, for a couple of dollars...... another bargain! The case is U.S. Military from an unknown date, but fit the German Binoculars perfectly.

Here's the info on the binoculars:

They were manufactured by E. Leitz / Wetzlar prior to February, 1941. In 1941, Germany started using three letter codes for the manufactures, instead of the complete names, so that the enemy would not be able to tell where the equipment was made and then bomb the factories.

These glasses are standard field binoculars (Dienstglas), that were used widely by German military field soldiers in all theaters of the war. The magnification is 6x30. There is a range reticle-scale in the right hand lens of the binoculars and the barrel cap is marked "H/6400" indicating the range scale and "M" for metric. Each eye piece is calibrated and focus individually.



The U.S. leather case is nearly identical to the correct German issued case that would have come with the binoculars. The case snap is the US type "lift the dot" style, where the German type would be a spring tensioned type latch like the type used on the German Gas Mask Canister in the previous post.