yayforebikes

So first off I have an ebike that goes up to more or less 20-25mph. I want to protect my head in case I go down. Specifically around my jaw area, because bicycle helmets don't cover the jaw portion. I'm wondering if a motorcycle helmet would be too overkill? I average around like 20mph when I'm commuting, but sometimes I can go as fast as 25mph. I was also looking into getting the BMX style helmets but they are all still much larger than a normal bicycle helmet. Any advice?

blue192

I have a scooter style e-bike and also use a motorcycle helmet with it. If it keeps you safe and you are comfortable wearing it then who cares.

General Geoff

A full on motorcycle helmet will cook your head if you exert a lot of effort on your rides. Something like this splits the difference between a regular bicycle helmet and a motorcycle helmet. Has jaw protection but still offers much more airflow and is lighter than even an open face motorcycle helmet.

yayforebikes

Seems that's for children. I will look for something like that, thanks.

CroMo Mike 

I have a moped. A State law that went into effect a year ago requires moped riders to wear a DOT approved motorcycle helmet. I have been very surprised at the bulk (size) and weight of these m/c helmets. Seems the hardcore motorcycle riders prefer thinner non-approved helmets with counterfeit DOT labels.

blue192

Well I would make a comment about law and safety but in another thread several people said nasty stuff about a comment that a bike bell was required by law. So I will remain silent.

StanSeven

As someone already said, motorcycle helmets are heavy and hot. They are made for holding heads uprights going 60 mph. If you ever pedal your ebike you will quickly be sweating.

Your jaw is one of the last things you need to worry about. Besides bumps on the head, hands and collar bones are injury spots. Unless you are riding cross country a regular helmet is fine. Take a look at pro riders crashing at 25 mph. Most times they get up, shake it off, and continue riding.

BlazingPedals

Motorcycle helmets typically have no ventillation to speak of and are way too hot to wear if you're working on a bicycle. They're probably OK if you're just letting the auxiliary motor take you places, though.

TenSpeedV2

I often ride in the 20-25mph range on a 100% human powered bicycle. I wear a regular cycling helmet. A motorcycle helmet is absolute over kill.

Camilo

I think it's overkill. Just buy a bike helmet. Most likely you'll never need that either.

raceboy

As a guy who knocked out two front teeth after a fall while playing racquetball, I have to think it is definitely possible to sustain facial/jaw trauma in a cycling spill. The downhill/BMX helmet does look like a possible solution for protecting your face. I think I would be miserable wearing it the other 99.9% of my riding time that is not spent hurting myself.

I would definitely consider it for an ebike since your physical output is minimized by the boost.

yayforebikes

I will take everyone's input into consideration. Majority of you seem to sway on the "regular bicycle helmet" side.

StanSeven

As far as BMX full face helmets go, they are designed for situations where someone might land on their head. With BMX riders often do jumps and other things getting air including back flips. With road cycling including ebikes, the typical accident involves landing on your side including shoulder and hip.

spdracr39

Hot and heavy but do protect better. It's your call and no one else's. Your already riding an e-bike so if your worried about looking cool it ain't gonna happen anyway

jefnvk

The DOT label is a joke. It is all a self-certification process by the manufacturers that their helmets meet DOT requirements, with little to no oversight on the process at all. I found a nice Arai helmet when I had a motorcycle that technically wasn't street legal, while it was SNELL and ECE certified it didn't have the DOT sticker, hence the state found it less safe than something I could eBay from China for $9.

I laid down said motorcycle once, around 40-45MPH, and was damn glad I had a full face mask on. No doubt in my mind my face would have been destroyed when I faceplanted and then bounced my head a second time into the pavement, instead of just dealing with a swollen nose for a few weeks. That said, I can't imagine wearing such a helmet on a bicycle, even if I occasionally approach those speeds.

All your call in the end, though. No one can make a decision on your safety equipment but you.

jon c. 

I face planted in a motorcycle crash many years ago and wore a full face helmet thereafter. I wouldn't consider it riding a bicycle as the heat and weight would render riding nearly impossible and extremely unpleasant. However, if you're riding an e-bike and effectively using it as a low powered scooter, you're dealing with a different dynamic and it might be viable.

no motor?

Hardcore motorcycle riders like full face DOT approved helmets to protect the most important part of the nervous system, the outside noisy, inside empty types like to show the world they don't have anything worth protecting by wearing a bandana or the NOT helmets.

Marcus_Ti

A few things:

A) The ProTour peloton is overwhelmingly riding on brand new repaved virgin road surfaces. Which means if you go down you're going to slide on it, unlike most road surfaces everyone everywhere has to deal with

B) Speed. Higher speed you tend to get (badly as in need a hospital) injured less, as (due in part to A), you bleed off speed by sliding rather than breaking bones. Days 1-3 of Grand Tours frequently have lots of injuries in stupid slow speed bottleneck peloton induced accidents....and overwhelmingly those slow speed accidents are broken bones, because the rider was going too slow to slide to dissipate energy...and instead dissipated the KE via bone breakage. This year there have been several bad face injuries on curbs and roads come to think of it.

caloso

Wow. 25 miles per hour. That's crazy.

AlexCyclistRoch

Gee, I managed 24 mph the other day with only pedals.........

johndeere

I used to wear a hard shell BMX/skate boarder helmet, a Bell Faction. Due to my own stupidity I did an endo into the pavement at approx 15 mph. The outside of the helmet was gouged about half it's thickness and the liner broke into 3 pieces. I had a face shield on the helmet, don't like getting rain on the glasses and bugs suck, it's the only reason I didn't lose the tip of my nose. I have a 1 x 2 inch scar on the side of my elbow that will never go away.

But what really sucked was growing whiskers through the large thick scab on my chin.

These days I wear a full face down hill helmet. It actually has better ventilation than the Faction had. I regularly hit 20 mph so it does not heat me up that badly.

2702

I ride an ebike and in winter I use this
[HJC CL-33 Open Face Helmet - RevZilla

2702

Or this in summer.
https://www.purehockey.com/bauer-m10...6w0aAusq8P8HAQ

jefnvk

While I suppose it is better than nothing, hockey helmets and bike helmets fulfill two completely different roles. A hockey helmet is mostly protection against fast flying rubber pucks, errant sticks, and falling down at low speeds, and is built to do so over the course of years. It is essentially no different than a glorified hard hat. A bike helmet dissipates the energy of a head impact at high speed one time, and is then junked.