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Are open face helmets stupid?

Motech said:
If they're good enough for cops...
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An interesting topic. I read an article in a Euro motorcycle magazine that police don't wear full face helmets for communication purposes, as in, communicating and interacting with the general public.

Apparently to John and Jane Q. Public, a full face helmeted officer is "intimidating" and not a very pleasing "image" for the gentler side of law enforcement (traffic citations and the like)

One European country even experimented with full face helmets with little speakers and mics so they could talk clearly to drivers, but it was met with VERY negative reviews. I guess it must be like talking to Stormtrooper TK1138 especially if they didn;t flip up their dark smoke visors :laughing

Euro moto police wear much more reasonable clothing though than over here. I'm not certain what's up with the polyester short sleeves and tights for motos over here.
 
GAJ said:
How long is your freaking driveway that you can get up to 45! :laughing

Glad you and the pooch are OK.

How's the bike?
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My doggie and I are sore but fine, just embarrassed. My bike is embarrassed by us both but it's fine too. But my helmet definitely saved my face.:thumbup
The driveway is long considering the bike slid 200 feet and we were just at the midway point:)..i edited out the pics as they are copied in the next post.
NoGall said:
No way :laughing
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way. *sigh* the shame. i await the mocking at the next rally:facepalm

Nonsequitur said:
Hope you are alright, sounds like a great endorsement of the full-faced helmet (oh and leashes[?])!
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We live on a 25 acre farm (see next post)a half mile from any road so no need for leashes! The doggie dash is their guilty pleasure. plus vacuum cleaners, leaf blowers, etc:ride
 
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horsepower said:
This long:
IMG_1538.jpg

No wait, that's Hawthorne, my bad.
This long 1/2 mile or so, doggie dash included:

DSC02459-1.jpg



My doggie and I are sore but fine, just embarrassed. My bike is embarrassed by us both but it's fine too. But my helmet definitely saved my face.:thumbup


way. the shame. i await the mocking at the next rally:facepalm


We live on a 25 acre farm a half mile from any road so no need for leashes! The doggie dash is their guilty pleasure. We all have em.:ride
IMGP0118-1.jpg
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Glad you and the Pooch are alright, but just wanted to say that if I lived on a farm that large, I would have 10 dirtbikes and 5 atvs and no street bikes! :laughing I think your farm is bigger than Carnegie or Metcalfe!
 
I ground off a good part of my right cheek part of my ear tore my upper lip up but im hardly any uglier than i was before that crash besides everyone told me chicks love scars! which I guess is a good argument for full face helmets that way the driving public doesnt see my ugly mug. I have always been lucky im areally good crasher I generally come out pretty good compared to other riders practice makes perfect the only way to get good at something is practice practice practice. I was one who always rode to the limit and kept pushing till i found my limit shortly after that it generally gets ugly.
 
rodr said:
Just to clarify, the EXO-200 does have a flip-up face shield that covers the face to protect against bugs, rocks, etc. The lack of a chin bar is mainly what makes it "open face".
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Aha! That is what I thought you were referring to. (Your avitar seems to reflect that.) After reading some of the posts, I thought I had completely missed the boat...
 
Stormdragon said:
You really do live in a different world. Microtexture? Really?
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beginner said:
leather wears away fast or slow depending on surface texture and a few other things. It's worth understanding pavement texture.Motorcycle riding is a lot about traction. Road builders spend a lot of time on texture issues. Sometimes what they do is good for riding, sometimes not so good.
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If we're going to talk about leather abrasion, I'm going to be a lot more interested in the asphalts macrotexture than it's microtexture.
And, since I'm not going to get off the bike and on my knees to examine the surface of the pavement every time it changes, I'll just stick with my usual method of scanning the surface and determining whether there's going to be a traction issue. That method has been working fairly decently for over 25 years now.



Going back to the Original Question... I remember starting with a no name open face when I got my first bike. Moved to a used Bell Star shortly after that, and never had any complaints about the narrower field of view. I guess I was so happy with the reduced wind blast, and the ability to block afternoon sun with the top of the helmet, that I never noticed the other 'issues'. :teeth
I'll also say that while I haven't tried a ¾ face helmet on in years, I've always liked the snug, firm, fit of a full face helmet. No wind-catching visor. No lift or twist at, ahem, certain speeds... :laughing
 
Stormdragon said:
If we're going to talk about leather abrasion, I'm going to be a lot more interested in the asphalts macrotexture than it's microtexture.
And, since I'm not going to get off the bike and on my knees to examine the surface of the pavement every time it changes, I'll just stick with my usual method of scanning the surface and determining whether there's going to be a traction issue. That method has been working fairly decently for over 25 years now.
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In asphalt macrotexture is the size of the aggregate, usually gravel, and how far it sticks out of the asphalt. Microtexture is whether the gravel is polished or sharp edged. A good surface to slide on has a prominent macrotexture but the gravel is polished, smooth. The drawback of a polished microtexture is it's liable to be more slippery when wet. Getting off the bike once in a while to hand check pavement has its place. I notice, as my skill improves, I can feel subtler changes in traction which tells me it's time to ease off or get on the throttle.
 
After 40 years of riding I can not ever imagine not having something covering my eyes. I would have had at least 20 rocks, bees, bird crap, tire parts, burning cigarette butts etc strike my visor right where my eyes are.
I actually worry more about my eyes being injured than I do about sliding on my jaw.
RC
 
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tzrider said:
You make riding seem awfully tedious.
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Don't racers typically walk new tracks before races? My first fall on pavement was in a parking lot where I noticed a suspicious material and didn't check it. I turned over it practicing and went down instantly. It turned out to be a cup of silica beads dumped by a road painting truck during a lunch break. Most of my falls have been traction issues on things I couldn't see or overlooked.
 
beginner said:
Don't racers typically walk new tracks before races? My first fall on pavement was in a parking lot where I noticed a suspicious material and didn't check it. I turned over it practicing and went down instantly. It turned out to be a cup of silica beads dumped by a road painting truck during a lunch break. Most of my falls have been traction issues on things I couldn't see or overlooked.
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There are ways to test the traction w/o getting off the bike.

Would not have helped w/ the silica dump anyway.

Re: texture / leather gloves..... Slid 100' before a guard rail ended all the fun. The road was out of Trona, red / brown and appeared to be made in part out of lava rock. At least that is what my pipes were full of. Held gloves held (pun unintentional) up perfectly.

fwiw, open face "helmet" and still have my face for better or worse. Yeh, 50 stitichs and lucky as hell but still.
 
beginner said:
Don't racers typically walk new tracks before races?
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A few do. Most don't.

I can't imagine taking a cross country ride with the mentality that when in doubt I should get off the bike to inspect the pavement. It's not that hard to figure out available traction on the fly.
 
tzrider said:
A few do. Most don't.

I can't imagine taking a cross country ride with the mentality that when in doubt I should get off the bike to inspect the pavement. It's not that hard to figure out available traction on the fly.
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It's harder if you're a beginner. People who've been riding for many years can feel smaller lean and traction changes than the rest of us and then they have better conditioned responses to what they feel. That ability seems to a big part of 'skill' and it improves for more years than I've been riding.

I can't imagine riding without a helmet that keeps my face off the ground.
 
tzrider said:
A few do. Most don't.

I can't imagine taking a cross country ride with the mentality that when in doubt I should get off the bike to inspect the pavement. It's not that hard to figure out available traction on the fly.
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I know, it's (checking available traction) just an ongoing thing...
do it in the spots, where recovery is drama free..No one has to (except by their own choice), steam into a toss it away, shocking surprise, OMG what happened?
Event.
 
Safety aside, motorcycling groups have become much more pleasant to look at since the popularity of full face helmets and tinted windshields gained ground.

In my case, children have stopped pointing and women no longer turn their faces away.
 
IMO, the two greatest advantages to full-face street helmets are:
  1. Warmth.
  2. Eyewitnesses can't ID you behind that shield, especially enforcement cameras.
 
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