Time for an open faced helmet?
Mar 9th, 2010 by Leo
Here’s my two cents: You need a full faced helmet in NY. If you ride anywhere along the path of fast moving trucks, or at highway speeds, the kinds of road debris that get kicked up will do a number to your pores, and possible your health if you’re wearing an open faced helmet. But…if you’re mainly riding around town, cruising with traffic and enjoying the nice weather, an open faced helmet is more comfortable, looks nicer, and is easier for newbie passengers to fit.
But before you take the plunge into open helmet territory, you should be informed of the risks. Nearly a quarter of accidents where helmets are involved resulted in impact to the front of the helmet. That means that even though you may have a strong reflexive instinct to protect your face – at the speeds in which you will be travelling, your reflexes won’t be enough to protect your face…
But open helmets excel where full faced helmets fall short. Full helmets are great at keeping your head warm in the winter, and cool in the summer as long as you’re moving at a decent pace. But slow down to Manhattan traffic speeds and the full face helmet starts to get stuffy. Also a full faced helmet is great when there’s lots of road debris… I remember once a truck in front of me grazed the top of its load on a metal structure overhead raining down glowing bits of shrapnel onto my face…lucky for me I wear a full faced helmet. But riding a through a park or Riverside Drive on a nice spring day, you get a fuller experience with an open helmet.
So if you ride in a war zone, you need a full face – and much of NY is like a war zone, so you need to own and wear one here… But if you know you’re just making quick trips in town, to the park, somewhere local, at speeds that you won’t have bugs smushed on your face – then by all means, wear the open faced helmet.
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I’m as guilty as the next guy or girl for suffering from vanity and personal style. I pay very close attention–perhaps even too much– to the helmet/jacket/pants combo I use on a given day. Without a doubt, every piece of riding kit I own had “cool factor” playing big into my purchasing decision. Every thing we do, be it riding a motorcycle, bicycle, walking across the street, driving a car, flying in a plane etc. involves risk. Some consequences we can walk away from with a couple bruises and a lesson learned, and others involve more serious injuries or worse.
Going by the statistics you present here, there’s a 1 in 4 chance of a having your face receive serious impact or worse in an accident. I get the “pros” of wearing an open-face helmet you’re submitting, but a 1 in 4 chance of me smashing, disfiguring or losing my face in an accident are really bad odds. VERY bad odds.
I wish I could choose the time and place where danger is most present in my life, but having been hit by a car walking in crosswalk with me in the right of way and being t-boned in a car by a kid making an illegal left turn, I’ve learned my lesson. As it turns out, no one can predict when, where or if danger, big or small, is truly present. So, why risk it? For the sake of looking “cool”?
I’m sure this all sounds absurd coming from someone like me who rides a motocycle or scooter to work, bombs down fire roads on a mountain bike and rides 30 mph criterium races in a pack of cyclists. I recognize that. Still, the way I see it, if life offers you an opportunity to go one step further in getter ensuring you might be just a bit more prepared in case of an accident (i.e. buckling your seatbelt, a full face helmet), then you might as well take it.
I know I’d feel really f’ing stupid if I crashed and smashed my face wearing a open face helmet knowing that I’ve got a full face sitting at home that I chose not to wear that day. The same goes for wearing a t-shirt even though I’ve got a proper jacket with armor, or wearing my Chuck Taylors even though I actually own riding boots. It’s been said a hundred ways, but in the end, I’d rather sweat or get laughed at than bleed.
We all make choices and take risks, this is just how I rationalize mine.
Cheers.
Cool. And I hear ya,
Where I’m riding, I’m going too fast and too far for an open face. But not everyone is… So it requires a bit of judgement and understanding your environment – thinking for oneself sort of thing.
Interestingly…most MSF instructors teach the BRC in open-face helmets (around here). They DO care about safety – and I’m sure many of the wear full face helmets at other times, but standing in the NY heat, riding at 30 mph in a quiet lot with a couple dozen student riders…An open face helmet is safe and practical.
Some neighborhood rides are really low key and probably fine for open helmets… Others aren’t. My rides are mostly the latter – but that doesn’t mean yours has to be.
I’m done with open helmets. Period. I’ve seen the way things can go down, I’m full-face-helmet and full gear all the time. My Ex would call me Robo-Cop when I left the house. Still hate her but I kinda liked the moniker.
It’s odd, my vanity issues dropped the minute I sold my cruiser. I stopped “keeping up” with the “Pirate crowd” and bought a V-Strom and found “my bike”. I’m not saying that you can’t ride a cruiser with a full-face lid… I’m just one of the crowd that didn’t.
When I think about a crash in an open helmet I get the same feeling that I have looking over the edge of a high cliff… the idea of chin and skin and teeth straight to the pavement is not my idea of fun.
Modulars (flip-ups) aren’t that much better either. The chin portion has been known to pop off in many face-down crashes. I tossed my Fulmer Modus Modular Helmet after a year because I found the latches were made of plastic. I even have a tough time justifying my modular Nolan (even if it has metal latches). Modulars and open face will never protect us as well as a full face lid. Hot or not, I’d rather have teeth a face and a nose. But I use the Nolan as a personal option on long trips and for my “guest helmet” situations (I wear the Nolan with a pass. and give them my full face to protect them more than myself.).
90% of the time I ride with a full-face Arai and will protect my face and my brain (as much as possible). I have no problem spending $$ ensuring what safety I can get on the bike here in Brooklyn, or out in the fly-over states. I also ride with a vanson or a mesh armored summer jacket on my Suzuki “wee”-strom and full leathers for long rides…
Stay alive guys! Rubber side down-Shiny side up. Thanks for the great blog and great info
Magma