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Is it time to switch to full-face helmets as the standard?

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Is it time to switch to full-face helmets as the standard?

Old 11-02-22, 09:25 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Bald Paul
If I feel the need to protect my teeth while riding, I'll just leave them at home.
Post of the quarter.
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Old 11-02-22, 10:35 AM
  #27  
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No, it's time to switch to full-brim helmets as the standard.

Even the safest bicyclists are susceptible to skin cancer in the current scenario of bicycle helmet offerings. I would start with the proportions of the full-brim hard hat and design it to bicycling standards. I've been requesting this for awhile, now.
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Old 11-02-22, 11:19 AM
  #28  
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I'd rather fight than switch.
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Old 11-02-22, 02:35 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by zandoval
Yes... I have always thought this an excellent idea. Think of it, you have a special helmet approved for specific sports but not interchangeable with other sports. That does not sound right to begin with. Why not use a hockey helmet on a climbing wall, or baseball plate, or spelunking trip, or even a bike ride. The hockey helmets are already set up to be modified for various stages of protection and are proven. I feel pretty strongly about this. Especially with the kids who need four or five different helmets for the different sports they may participate in. The hockey helmets already look similar to bike helmets to begin with.




Next Rant... Multi Sport shoes... Ha... They would never let this happen...

I'd think the face cage is very likely to get snagged on a fall and cause you to break your neck.
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Old 11-02-22, 09:54 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Nyah
No, it's time to switch to full-brim helmets as the standard.
Rather than have a rigid brim that would cantilever one's neck in a fall, how about a soft brim?

https://dabrim.com/collections/cycling-products
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Old 11-02-22, 10:00 PM
  #31  
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Bell Super DH Spherical (ball and socket MIPS) bike helmet.



"Very lightweight with excellent ventilation." - Outdoor Gear Lab

Last edited by tcs; 11-02-22 at 10:07 PM.
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Old 11-02-22, 10:40 PM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by tcs
Rather than have a rigid brim that would cantilever one's neck in a fall, how about a soft brim?

https://dabrim.com/collections/cycling-products
I'm not familiar with that verb in the context of happening to one's neck. Would my suggested design be different, in that context, from existing helmets that have a stiff aero protrusion in the rear and a stiff brim in front? Also know that the full-brim could be made out of the same crushable foam as the helmet itself.

As for DaBrim, it's TOO big. It's overkill for shading one's face.

The full-brim of the hard hat is just enough shade, considering that the bicycle helmet is already about an inch thick. A brim of 2.5" was typical for a fedora, back in the heyday of mens hats.

Last edited by Nyah; 11-02-22 at 10:49 PM.
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Old 11-02-22, 11:36 PM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by DonkeyShow
Or add something like the single piece face protector that ski racers use. Sort of similar to the f1 halo thing.
I would actually consider something like that. A single bar should prevent the face from contacting the ground in most situations while maintaining ventilation.
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Old 11-04-22, 12:46 PM
  #34  
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The ski racer bars are to protect against slalom poles slapping your face. Not sure how effective they would be in a road face plant.

I used to wear a full face helmet for mtb (MET Parachute) but found it very difficult to breathe on hard climbs, even with loads of ventilation. So eventually went back to a standard open face mtb helmet.
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Old 11-05-22, 06:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Polaris OBark
I've found several on-line accounts of alien abduction while cycling as well, but concluded that these incidents are infrequent enough to not warrant special anti-abduction hardware.
Love it!
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Old 11-05-22, 08:34 PM
  #36  
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....

Last edited by Polaris OBark; 11-06-22 at 09:46 AM.
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Old 11-09-22, 05:49 PM
  #37  
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For myself, I'd rather reign in the drivers and their murder machines.
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Old 11-11-22, 03:22 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by PeteHski
The ski racer bars are to protect against slalom poles slapping your face. Not sure how effective they would be in a road face plant.

I used to wear a full face helmet for mtb (MET Parachute) but found it very difficult to breathe on hard climbs, even with loads of ventilation. So eventually went back to a standard open face mtb helmet.

Oh, you with your silly breathing fetish.

There really does have to be a point where the increased risk of heat exhaustion/heat stroke outweighs the possible safety benefit of more coverage.
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Old 11-11-22, 03:31 PM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by Polaris OBark
I've found several on-line accounts of alien abduction while cycling as well, but concluded that these incidents are infrequent enough to not warrant special anti-abduction hardware.
>>> go spill that lie on the families that have lost loved ones to ETs ... ANNNNNNND don't forget that if "they" are in our skies "they" also lurk those dark MUPs
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Old 11-11-22, 03:48 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
Oh, you with your silly breathing fetish.

There really does have to be a point where the increased risk of heat exhaustion/heat stroke outweighs the possible safety benefit of more coverage.
It leads to the spectacle (at least around here) of people biking uphill on a relatively dangerous road, having removed their helmets because of overheating, to get to the downhill trails (where presumably they will use the helmets).
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Old 11-11-22, 06:45 PM
  #41  
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This sounds like a legitimate concern, but I think it depends on the risk of the activity. Do we need to set a good example by wearing helmets as pedestrians and while driving automobiles? Head injuries occur with greater frequency in those activities. While I think the use of helmets by pedestrians would prevent some injuries, it's probably too onerous in practice to adopt it.

I'm aware that cycling without a chin-bar or full-face helmet can result in facial injuries. My childhood friend chipped his two front teeth when he went over the handlebars. But a facial or dental injury is rarely life-threatening. Cycling involves substantial risk of injury to hands, knees, and elbows, but cyclists don't always wear gloves and pads. Again, we often choose to forgo pads because skinning a knee isn't life-threatening. Head injuries are.

The helmet that protects the brain while forgoing protection of the face, jaw, teeth, nose, and sinuses still provides the most critical protection against life-threatening injuries while being the least encumbering. As the risk of more minor injuries goes up with activities like BMX, slope-style courses, or downhill mountain biking, it makes sense to wear additional protection. For a girl riding a cruiser bike on the MUP with streamers on the handlebars? She's better off riding within her ability than being rolled up in bubble-wrap.
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Old 11-11-22, 07:29 PM
  #42  
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I always wore full face helmets on my motorcycle. Not the convertible kind either. Not only were they more comfortable and safer, they were also quieter. I always felt like half helmets were for people who would rather not be wearing a helmet and only did it because the law made them

I’ve been thinking of moving my kids to full face helmets. Their mom keeps buying them these awful Walmart skate helmets that weigh a ton and don’t fit. The girl especially is a daredevil and, to be unfair for a moment, she’s going to need her looks.

I broke my thumb last year when I was commuting. It does make you stop and think that maybe you should be wearing something better.
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Old 11-11-22, 07:36 PM
  #43  
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The idea of getting heat stroke from a bike helmet is pretty ridiculous. It’s not like they have giant cheek pads or a chin skirt or a sealed visor like a moto helmet.
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Old 11-12-22, 06:34 AM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
The idea of getting heat stroke from a bike helmet is pretty ridiculous. It’s not like they have giant cheek pads or a chin skirt or a sealed visor like a moto helmet.
Heat stroke is generally unlikely, but heat exhaustion is always a serious possibility.

A full face helmet by definition covers more of the head than a regular road helmet.
On a hot day on the road, they're definitely going to interfere with sweat evaporation. Just covering the top of the head is a pretty big compromise of heat radiation already, adding even marginally more interference anywhere on the head is a pretty crummy idea.

When I'm going up and down hills in 90+ degrees weather, any helmet is at least an annoyance. I've had times where I've had to stop for a bit to take my helmet off and get into the shade for a few minutes.

Last edited by livedarklions; 11-12-22 at 06:39 AM.
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Old 11-12-22, 06:43 AM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
I always wore full face helmets on my motorcycle. Not the convertible kind either. Not only were they more comfortable and safer, they were also quieter. I always felt like half helmets were for people who would rather not be wearing a helmet and only did it because the law made them

I’ve been thinking of moving my kids to full face helmets. Their mom keeps buying them these awful Walmart skate helmets that weigh a ton and don’t fit. The girl especially is a daredevil and, to be unfair for a moment, she’s going to need her looks.

I broke my thumb last year when I was commuting. It does make you stop and think that maybe you should be wearing something better.

When you ride the motorcycle, you're not the motor burning a bunch of calories.
Parenting tip--the bigger the helmet, the more likely your daughter will ditch it when you're not looking.
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Old 11-12-22, 07:22 AM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
The idea of getting heat stroke from a bike helmet is pretty ridiculous. It’s not like they have giant cheek pads or a chin skirt or a sealed visor like a moto helmet.
What I found wearing a Met Parachute (lightweight full face mtb helmet - lighter and more ventilated than a full-on DH lid) for trail riding is that it really affected my breathing on tough climbs. Sometimes I would literally have to rip it off my head at the top of a climb to gasp in some air. It looked like it had plenty of ventilation, but I think the chin guard must have trapped the CO2 in front of my face or something. But anyway I soon gave up on using the removable chin guard for this reason alone. It wasn't just the Met helmet either. I also tried a Casco lightweight full face helmet and found the same issues. Basically they only work if you are pottering around in Zone 1 or 2, but for me trail riding involves quite a few short, sharp VO2 max efforts. Since those experiments with full face mtb helmets (about 15 years ago now I think about it!) I've just been using regular open-face mtb helmets.
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Old 11-12-22, 10:48 AM
  #47  
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OK, here is what I've learned this morning poking around.

There's an additional standard for downhill bike helmets on top of the minimum CPSC standard all helmets must meet. ASTM F1952. I have not looked it up yet, much less read it with a critical eye.

DH helmets are likely to have the double D ring like a moto helmet. Or a Fidlock, a magnetic clasp, which are familiar to Euro moto riders but against the DOT rules here in the USA

In case anyone doesn't know, all of the full face helmets are intended for use with ski-type goggles. They might or might not interfere with glasses but usually you'd have to slide them in after putting the helmet on.

Enduro racing has been popular for the last few years. In enduro the downhills are timed, and the uphills are not timed but must be done. This also makes for a popular category of bike, with medium-large travel but not awful to pedal. So, there are now lighter duty full face helmets and convertible ones with a removable chin bar. They have better ventilation by far than the DH-only helmets. They mostly still meet the DH helmet standard, which seems like something you should want. I feel as though if I had the removable chin bar, I'd probably leave it home, making it not really useful.

This review article is pretty thorough both for number of lids and how they were evaluated. Some of each style. You can see that the DH helmets are a lot more like dirt bike helmets and the enduro helmets are a lot more like MTB helmets
https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topic...ownhill-helmet
All of the "top pick" helmets here are $300 and points north. Surely suffering from the same bike industry supply chain bla bla bla as well as pure inflation but still, expensive.

For kids I'm finding three categories. DH, BMX racing, and "Dad thinks it would be a good idea." The last category is maybe not up to that DH standard but they cost $100-200. The Kali offering makes the review pages because it's the lightest but stands out for having a token gossamer chin bar that looks like it wouldn't do much in a serious crash. But it might prevent those face injuries from near-0MPH kid crashes
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Old 11-12-22, 10:24 PM
  #48  
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Tried on this Smith at REI today. (Shopping to replace stolen snowboard.) Tight going on but ok once there. it was the only one in the store or I’d have tried a size up to see if it was at all loose. Cheek pads felt Moto but cranium pads felt like a bicycle helmet. Box contained other size cheek pads. Lots of ventilation. The shell was the honeycomb stuff and not styrofoam. Double D ring strap.

Coincidentally this was about same price as a pair of Burton bindings. Neither felt like $300 worth of product


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Old 11-15-22, 11:50 PM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by JW Fas
Aesthetics aside, I think most people would shy away from full-face helmets because of how hot and sweaty they'd get.
And the lack of objective necessity.
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Old 11-23-22, 09:25 PM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by Polaris OBark
I've found several on-line accounts of alien abduction while cycling as well, but concluded that these incidents are infrequent enough to not warrant special anti-abduction hardware.

...sure, you say that now rather flippantly. But wait until you're strapped to the table, in the mother ship, and they bring out the anal probe. Not so funny then.
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