Rapha's model riders don't wear helmets. Their reponse;
Discussion
I was browsing around Rapha's site, and I came across this. Quite an interesting and well put post, I think, and obviously shows that they get some anger towards them about it. But nevertheless, see if the same bit that caught my attention catches yours 
Rapha site said:
Helmets
•Q. Why do the riders in your imagery sometimes not wear helmets?
A. Some imagery on the Rapha website shows riders on bicycles who are not wearing helmets. Rapha does not enforce any helmet policy on the riders in its photoshoots other than they adhere to the law of the land. Writer, Rapha model and former professional rider, Tom Southam, tells it like it is after a sequence shot on the Monte Zoncolan:
OK, for the record. Helmet choice is not Rapha's, it is mine, in line with the laws of the land where the images were shot. I have to say, that while I am pro helmets, and I understand their obvious and indisputable safety benefits, I am also pro choice. The freedom to wake up each day and make intelligent, informed choices in my life is something that I believe in very strongly.
I do not think that getting angry and chastising Rapha over images used in their ad campaigns is really doing anything for anyone. I am not trying to make any statement that not wearing a helmet is cool, but I was riding at (much less than) 10 miles an hour, up a hill, with no traffic, with a film crew hanging out of a Fiat doblo, or whatever it was 6 inches from my face. My choice not to wear a helmet was quite obvious in that scenario. I do understand that there is a risk that kids will see this and potentially think that it is cool to ride without a helmet, but Rapha is as much a cycle safety awareness campaign as Bono is the savior of humanity.
I am a 31 year old man, with 18 years riding experience. I have fallen off countless times, broken bones, skinned my backside, lost all of the skin from both of my hands, and in one quite extraordinary accident lost a nipple. Riding a bicycle is dangerous, period. Life is- like it or not- also a risky business. It is cruel, and hard and mean and even now, in the safest times that humanity has ever existed you, and everyone else around you will have to make choices, every single day of your lives to stay safe. Those choices should never be based on what looks cool. So, yes wear a damn helmet, but know why you wear a helmet, and make your own choice to wear a helmet, and have the intelligence in yourself, and promote the kind of intelligence in others, that allows people to be able to see an image in an advert without being compelled to go and risk your or their own life for the sake of looking cool, in exactly the same way that you can read that story and not be compelled to go and get drunk.
This is my opinion, I am OK that many people will see it as wrong and I appreciate that. But, I personally salute Rapha for allowing me the freedom of choice, and helping to stop the world becoming the sterile kind of environment where no one understands that the obligation for their own safety lies with themselves and the people directly around them, and nowhere else.
•Q. Why do the riders in your imagery sometimes not wear helmets?
A. Some imagery on the Rapha website shows riders on bicycles who are not wearing helmets. Rapha does not enforce any helmet policy on the riders in its photoshoots other than they adhere to the law of the land. Writer, Rapha model and former professional rider, Tom Southam, tells it like it is after a sequence shot on the Monte Zoncolan:
OK, for the record. Helmet choice is not Rapha's, it is mine, in line with the laws of the land where the images were shot. I have to say, that while I am pro helmets, and I understand their obvious and indisputable safety benefits, I am also pro choice. The freedom to wake up each day and make intelligent, informed choices in my life is something that I believe in very strongly.
I do not think that getting angry and chastising Rapha over images used in their ad campaigns is really doing anything for anyone. I am not trying to make any statement that not wearing a helmet is cool, but I was riding at (much less than) 10 miles an hour, up a hill, with no traffic, with a film crew hanging out of a Fiat doblo, or whatever it was 6 inches from my face. My choice not to wear a helmet was quite obvious in that scenario. I do understand that there is a risk that kids will see this and potentially think that it is cool to ride without a helmet, but Rapha is as much a cycle safety awareness campaign as Bono is the savior of humanity.
I am a 31 year old man, with 18 years riding experience. I have fallen off countless times, broken bones, skinned my backside, lost all of the skin from both of my hands, and in one quite extraordinary accident lost a nipple. Riding a bicycle is dangerous, period. Life is- like it or not- also a risky business. It is cruel, and hard and mean and even now, in the safest times that humanity has ever existed you, and everyone else around you will have to make choices, every single day of your lives to stay safe. Those choices should never be based on what looks cool. So, yes wear a damn helmet, but know why you wear a helmet, and make your own choice to wear a helmet, and have the intelligence in yourself, and promote the kind of intelligence in others, that allows people to be able to see an image in an advert without being compelled to go and risk your or their own life for the sake of looking cool, in exactly the same way that you can read that story and not be compelled to go and get drunk.
This is my opinion, I am OK that many people will see it as wrong and I appreciate that. But, I personally salute Rapha for allowing me the freedom of choice, and helping to stop the world becoming the sterile kind of environment where no one understands that the obligation for their own safety lies with themselves and the people directly around them, and nowhere else.
How do you do that?!Tom Southam said:
I have to say, that while I am pro helmets, and I understand their obvious and indisputable safety benefits, I am also pro choice. The freedom to wake up each day and make intelligent, informed choices
So they have "obvious and indisputable saftey benefits", and yet his "intelligent, informed choice" is not to wear one? 
Edited by AyBee on Thursday 11th April 14:35
bakerstreet said:
BOR said:
I will never ever ride without nipple protectors ever again.
He'll never ride with a full compliment of nipples again https://twitter.com/tomsoutham/status/253347353908...
I'd never have guessed that!
TonyHetherington said:
bakerstreet said:
BOR said:
I will never ever ride without nipple protectors ever again.
He'll never ride with a full compliment of nipples again https://twitter.com/tomsoutham/status/253347353908...
I'd never have guessed that!
BOR said:
TonyHetherington said:
bakerstreet said:
BOR said:
I will never ever ride without nipple protectors ever again.
He'll never ride with a full compliment of nipples again https://twitter.com/tomsoutham/status/253347353908...
I'd never have guessed that!
Yet you'll notice ALL the women featured on their site have lids on. But that's just personal choice I guess not a dictate by the marketting people :roleyes:
Rapha are by the far the strangest company I've ever seen in the UK. Complete disinterest in what the customer wants. (People ask for more colours all the time on their FB page and all they ever do is black and pink with an occasional red thrown in. Preposturiousness that's actually beyond parody. Seriously? a £95 coffee Tamper? What the screaming f
k are they thinking? Everything on their site is either out of stock or very near to being. And lets not get into their "limited edition badges" that people try to collect. Pricing that's beyond any of their competitors (Even Assos and Castelli have a cheaper range available) All their "models" look in serious pain or that they don't actually enjoy cycling. And the constant harking back to the old days. Conviently sidestepping the fact they have only been around for 9 years!
And talking of Facebook, they slated multiple contributors the other day because they dared to suggest a bike seat was too high for a young rider. Officlai line was
Clearly they don't even like their loyal fans.
.
(the offending pic. Too high look at how he's stretching to get to the bottom of the pedal stroke!
)
I genuinely don't get their rationale behind how they run it? It's almost the same as Kwik Fit! "fk em they'll be more out there that would eat our st if we told them to"
Rapha are by the far the strangest company I've ever seen in the UK. Complete disinterest in what the customer wants. (People ask for more colours all the time on their FB page and all they ever do is black and pink with an occasional red thrown in. Preposturiousness that's actually beyond parody. Seriously? a £95 coffee Tamper? What the screaming f
k are they thinking? Everything on their site is either out of stock or very near to being. And lets not get into their "limited edition badges" that people try to collect. Pricing that's beyond any of their competitors (Even Assos and Castelli have a cheaper range available) All their "models" look in serious pain or that they don't actually enjoy cycling. And the constant harking back to the old days. Conviently sidestepping the fact they have only been around for 9 years!And talking of Facebook, they slated multiple contributors the other day because they dared to suggest a bike seat was too high for a young rider. Officlai line was
rapha site said:
Love the bike fitters who're offering unsolicited advice
Clearly they don't even like their loyal fans..
(the offending pic. Too high look at how he's stretching to get to the bottom of the pedal stroke!
)I genuinely don't get their rationale behind how they run it? It's almost the same as Kwik Fit! "f
k em they'll be more out there that would eat our st if we told them to" Edited by Rich_W on Thursday 11th April 18:45
I have a scar across my left nipple and it was very nearly ripped clean off from a cycling accident. It was back in the dark old days of bar ends and a 17 year old girl who was driving home from passing her driving test pulled out in front of me, the stem went into my groin and the bar end into my tit. I was in considerable pain, she was very nice and drove me straight to A&E, so I decided to let her live.
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