exactly this.
there was a fatality during a professional race in the 80s and the governing body, the UCI, enacted a helmet rule for all sanctioned races. This mentality trickled down. Then as now (though the tide seems to finally be turning) the real money in bicycle sales, the sales that keep a bike shop afloat, stems from the race market. Helmet sales can really boost a sale. All of a sudden, cycling was a dangerous activity. But these riders whom the UCI were trying to protect were dudes with tree trunks for legs who are capable of hitting 40mph on a flat who are aggressively trying to pass each other. “But-but, remember back to the days before helmets were considered mandatory and all those senseless deaths?” Yeah, me neither.
