Euphonious, interesting that you had spotty service at chemizhen; when i was there on saturday they were all lovely to me, particularly the young guy with light brown died hair who seemed to know what he was talking about (well i am a dashingly handsome fellow). I suspect your voice is not as euphonious as mine. I felt a bit bad because i spent an hour in there and i didn't buy the helmet off them, they didn't have the colour i wanted in my size. I did howevere buy a (very nice) pair of gloves from them for 350 kuai which did ease my guilt.

Ultimately i bought it from one of the shitty small shops in the jiaojilu bike city. I'm pretty sure it's a chinese made helmet because it's 'the high end model' that a lot of the smaller shops have amongst all the LS2 and Yohe lids. I do still prefer buying from a real shop rather than online if the price is comparable; it'll be a great loss if online shops one day eradicate local stores. Having said that, i'm with laojiahuo on the laowai price issue here. I rarely buy something without having checked the price on taobao first. When i was trying on the helmet i heard the wife say "给他八百多" at which point all of a sudden i could speak chinese and calmly explained that the going price was 616 kuai and that was what i intended to pay. They gave it to me for 615, even though i normally accept 10% over taobao price for the laowai tax.

Euphonious a white helmet is perfectly acceptable, i would even go as far as saying that it is preferable to hot pink. I wore a white helmet last year and i dare say i looked ravishing in it.