Whine, bitch, complain... see where it gets me

Monday I complained about the excess articles of clothing being worn by the beach volleyball athletes at the Olympics.

I complain, NBC gets the point, and a couple days later the women are ripping each other's suits off trying to bring the less than titillating sport of water polo to the top of the NBC live coverage sex pile.

Well played.

I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Going down the squeaky wheel road a little further, I wanted to post an open letter to Giro Helmets, but Fatty has the rights to the whole Open Letter™ thing. Bastard.

I'll just straight up complain.

I've been a Giro helmet owner for years. A couple forgettable MTB helmets, but mostly the roadie stuff. All the way back to the green Boreas, straight through to three Pneumos, three Atmos, and two Ionos (or would that be Pneumi, Atmi, and Ioni?). Along the way, I did stray from the path with a few Uvex helmets and one from Bell, but I generally prefer my Giro helmets. I have experienced every form of the Roc Loc retention system since its inception. From the eventual failure of the adhesive that kept the Velcro attached to the interior of the helmet, to the stretched-out elastic bits, to the flaking plastic parts... I've dealt with it all. Those failures usually occurred after the helmet had seen a lot of use. I'm okay with that.

I am a Giro fan. I currently own an Atmos for work, one for MTB, and an Ionos for "road cycling."

But this new Roc Loc 5?



Two years in development, 15 small parts, and a bit of a sore spot for me.

The interlocking nubbins get de-nubbed and the receiving holes get boogered out... within a few months. Even with proper care. I didn't even notice it for awhile the first time it happened. I thought the Spock ear portions were supposed to move all over the place.

So I took the blame for its initial failure, paid $30 for a new Roc Loc 5, and installed it. This time I was ultra-careful in the handling of my helmet. I even used the giant Giro helmet pod to transport it EVERYWHERE. I treated it like a baby, maybe even better than a baby since it never shit in my hand.

A few months later my nubbin was denubbed, hole boogered out.

I tried glue. It failed, so an oh-so glamorous zip-tie got the nod. What really sucks is the mounting for the Roc Loc 5 is different than that of the Roc Loc 4, so I can't even replace it with the slightly less comfortable but way more reliable Roc Loc 4.

So Giro, tell me that the solution is not spending $30 every few months on my $150 helmet. Tell me Roc Loc 6 is on the way. Tell me you fixed Roc Loc 5, or are selling new ones in packs of six for $15. Anything would be better than what I'm experiencing now.

All this sadness piled on top of the fact that I missed SSUSA 2012 last weekend. It didn't look like that much fun anyways.

photo cred: Ryan Thibault and Jake Goss (with rainbows to protect the guilty)