Thumper Club Forum
Club House => Chatter => Topic started by: Nathan French on May 04, 2007, 06:02:49 PM
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Just how safe are they?
I'm thinking of buying one but Im kinda worried that if i come off i'll loose my face.
Nathan
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Maybe, but at least the chin bar can't catch and snap your neck!
We've all have our preferences and reasons for going one way or 'tother. I had an open face Everoak with goggles for years, but got fed up with a frozen, hail hammered, fly splattered mush. Then a Griffin which was really good, until the lining went slack, the mice nested in it and the smell was over powering. Bought a Caber flip lid, nice and light, good protection, could talk to people, but misted 'orribly, the lining went slack and the NOISE! Now have an Arai full face, why didn't I buy one years ago? Kat said I was daft not too, comfy, quiet, well vented with no drafts, good double D ring strap. Tried an open face Arai with full clear visor on in the shop and really liked it, but didn't ride with it.
See what I mean? Rambling twit with horses for courses syndrom and two pints of Cadbury's Belgian chocolate 'Options' inside.
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, Bill
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I once slid down a road on my face while I was wearing a full faced helmet. The slow motion passage of gravel and broken glass was quite remarkable but made a right mess of the chinguard and my visor. I can't help thinking that would've been my nose in an open faced job. I much prefer open faced helmets for comfort but I'd hate to ruin my youthful good looks.
Dave B
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Stopped to help at an accident outside Oxford once - guy on a C90 had a front wheel blow out and left half his face along the road, could tell he was breathing because of the bubbles through the blood and teeth that used to be the left hand side of his face.
R
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thats harsh rog, id never wear an open face helmet, not a chance, i saw a picture of a guy who had crashed wearing one and he had left his entire jaw on the road.
i have a caberg with a flip up chin thingy, i wear glasses and it makes putting on my helmet a lot easier although it is quite noisy and fogs up like a mofo when its cold out.
Damo
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mmmmmmm thats put me right off.
Fullface all the way i think.
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when I binned my CCM just before Xmas i would have lost half my face if I had been wearing an open face helmet.
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in most cases the full face is the better protection
the risk of breaking ypur neck with a full face helmet are significant low and actually not worth to mention
a open face lid basically helps only if something is falling onto you from above
in other words with a open face lid most of the time your chin is taking the force of the impact
and cause it to break
there is a middle way now from schubert helmets
they fitted a steelbar under the chin so in normal use it still looks like a open face helmet, because you cant see the bar
but with the addition
of chin/face protection
http://www.schuberth.com/
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They're good, aren't they! I'd like one of them. They're about £270 though. I'd have to sell me bike to get one.
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I've got an open-faced Cromwell which I use with goggles designed to wear over my specs and I've also got a Caburg Justissimo flip-up jobby. But I always seem to go back to my trusty FM full-face helmet (complete with cheek pads that keep coming adrift!) because it's so comfy. As far as open-face helmets are concerned I feel they are okay for short trips into town but I certainly would have reservations about fast riding in one.
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I've got an open-faced Cromwell which I use with goggles designed to wear over my specs and I've also got a Caburg Justissimo flip-up jobby. But I always seem to go back to my trusty FM full-face helmet (complete with cheek pads that keep coming adrift!) because it's so comfy. As far as open-face helmets are concerned I feel they are okay for short trips into town but I certainly would have reservations about fast riding in one.
no danger for me! i ride an sr500 lol!!
Damo
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fast riding only ? i`m not sure if my chin is constructed to withstand a impact of even only 20mph
ok we all like to look cool and on a old single it looks abit stupid to wear full leathers and a race replica helmet
and even textile jackets and trousers look a bit silly in summer
i tend to wear shorts and t`shirt when i`m in hollidays in southern europe , not sure if the suntan protects
but my caberg flipup certainly does more then a open face lid, but its damn hot under the helmet in summer
so i`m always tempted to buy a open face lid one of those with these holes in it to let the wind through
i mean they are good nowadays with transplanting skin and they even can fix bones
but it still doesnt work without scars , you can cover then all up apart of scars in your face
ok they have even tryed to transplant the faces of dead people , but even if it does work you will never look the same
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I did the face first down the road early on in my biking career (on a cg125 actually), and indeed its interesting to watch in slowmo as pigfetta mentioned, even more interesting as my glasses fell off and suddenly were covered with vertical lines and jabbed me in the ears a few times too for good measure, thank deity of your choice for laser eye surgery...
I did a faceplant wearing a craft rx5 (the stormtrooper style one) and afterwards the whole of the chinpiece was covered with stress cracks. Would have been a nice dental bill/facial reconstruction in a open faced lid that one...
Besides a open face is bloody cold even with a face scarf on when the bad weather hits...
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Yup, I have to say that I've never been tempted by an open face. I lived in Bermuda for a few years and always wore my FM Force One World - mostly cos it had Union Jacks down the side and it came good when I crashed a 100cc moped (embarrassing, but the sandy roads can do that to you!) and smashed the visor off it - glad I had it on that day (didn't help with the 2" tear in my liver though....)
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Jump back some years and ask - what looked the coolest or most naff, me stood by the pegboards and CNC with a full face lid frozen to my bears or Skid with his piss pot and scarf frozen to his.. thank god for global warming? On the same but different tack - took part in a rescue of a climber on Little Tor on the Gower - he had gone off route and taken a moderate fall and face planted the rock from about 20 feet - when I got to him there was a nice mix of face, teeth and glasses - boy they were naff and he needed new ones anyway - sticking his face to the rock. His climbing helmet did nothing as he face planted not got hit on the head, but at the time I wondered if an old full face helmet was the thing for climbing as it was for canoeing...
Oh such a cheerful chap
R
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to make my point
dont save money when buying a helmet , because your head its the only bodypart they cant replace
and open face lids may protect your brain from splashing on the road , but i like to eat the natural way
instead of getting my food in pre digested liquid form , so no open face lids for me
ok the J1 from schuberth could be a very good idea
(http://www.termaatmotoren.nl/fotos/G1201164706.jpg)
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After Norman Francis went over the handle bars racing a Norton at cadwell, using an open face helmet, which ended his life, after taking the front of his head off. I have never thought an open face helmet as a safety item but more of a fashion statement.
But I never was into fashion anyway, so what do I know.
beeman
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I have never thought an open face helmet as a safety item but more of a fashion statement.
But I never was into fashion anyway, so what do I know.
beeman
Definately not IMHO.
Picture the scene, Mr. "safe cos they race it" with his full spec Shoei, race leathers and and ultra loud exhaust pulls up at the side of me at a junction on the old A-64. I'm wearing an open face FM, 10 year old Gerieke jacket and jeans. I think "what a ****er, wait your turn", just as the *** pulls out on the fire engine coming from our right (The pump has had 5 miles to wind it up to about 75 and isn't going to stop this week). He see's it at the last minute, gives the 4 cylinder Yam full throttle, makes it across the road (right where turning taffic would be) just before he gets DENNIS imprinted on his head and falls off onto the verge. The Brigade don't even see him (or saw him hit the central reservation grass at 35 mph, slide to a halt and forget to put his feet down as the bike low sides).
Having stopped to pick the moron up I actually find the slot in the helmet is so narrow he struggles to look in his own mirrors, he can't hear a two-tone at a hundred yards and he's got a splitting head ache from the lid pushing on his temples. He is of course late for work and thinks riding like a *** in all his gear is the way to sort it out (so not all kits fault). This muppet of course is unlikely to be a repeat customer for the helmet manufacturer (nothing his fault of course).
He might be better off on a race track and he would have been better off if Fireman Sam had actually mashed him into the road face first, but isn't prevention better than cure?
For me, number one priority with a lid is wide vision, comfort and quietness. Open types are great at lower speeds on the first two. Flip fronts work very well (i've a Schuberth and a Roof Boxer), but that old FM is the best city helmet I've every used. It has a visor so sliding on your face isn't as black and white as people make out. The worst helmet I ever tried was also a flip front (BMW), but full face jobs seem to vary massively. I had a cheap JEBS full face that was fine, I tried an FM that was like sitting in a tank vision wise. I really don't think you can say full face good, open face bad until you try each product.
Goggles by the way are the best way to deal with fog. I wish I could have seen the faces of all the sports bikes riders I've passed in bad weather, but their untreated, badly ventilated visors prevent it ;-))
Ride safe & try before you buy.
Andy
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I've got the nice Arai open face with flip up visor. I do a lot of town riding and for me the visibility (it's like you haven't got a lid on) is very important.
I'm sure the visor would manage to withstand a moderate speed scrape, but yes, a full face does make sense. I had a Jawa's engine block bounce off my chinpiece once in a two-bike accident. The worst of it was seeing the bike coming at me as I slid along the ground. My poor old Arai Giga full face was trashed.
GC
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I've got the nice Arai open face with flip up visor. I do a lot of town riding and for me the visibility (it's like you haven't got a lid on) is very important.
I'm sure the visor would manage to withstand a moderate speed scrape, but yes, a full face does make sense. I had a Jawa's engine block bounce off my chinpiece once in a two-bike accident. The worst of it was seeing the bike coming at me as I slid along the ground. My poor old Arai Giga full face was trashed.
GC
I hate crashing.
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Crashing often goes through phases - first there is the Weee I am having fun, folled secondly by the eeeek I am gonna fall off, then third is the thrill of the slide along the road and all the pretty sparks from the bike, then forth the pain of hitting the curb / other traffic and final the embarrasement of getting up in front of others, bowing and trying to pick the bike up.
On the whole I hate it - but it can be real fun off road.
I have never really been bothered by the lack of vision from a full face - never given me cause for concern - guess it is something for me to worry about when I get a bike back on the road. Mind whilst I do not fancy an open face even for pootling about - I do so LOVE riding with out a helmet at all - such a different feeling - and the bike goes so much slower... What is that - risk homeostasis...
R
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I hate crashing, there is always that moment when you go....
Eek - he's gonna knock me off.
but it helps to knock your head a little so you forget the days event, unless the git drives off.
like in my last accident.