Helmets Anyone Use a Half-helmet...

I don't wear a half helmet, but I do wear an open face helmet. I know that full face helmets are much more popular and offer significantly more protection, but they were rare when I started riding and I've gotten used to the completely unobstructed vision that an open face offers. For me, that unobstructed vision is part of the riding experience.
 
No positives.
Full face only on my head. I kinda like my jaw, teeth, face.
I've seen up close what can happen with anything less than a real helmet..

plus..I'm not real fond of getting hit in the face with stuff, including the cold.
 
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I saw a gal go down on her cruiser, Harley i think. She had some half helmet thing on that didn't protect her face. She did a face plant on the road. Not pretty. For me, full coverage modular style that flips the front up to talk at a gas station etc. and flip down for riding protection. I love this style and will never go back to a fixed full coverage style. Best of both worlds. No up side for not protecting your entire head including your face. Just my opinion. YMMV. Cheers.
 
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DeanR said:
No positives.
Full face only on my head. I kinda like my jaw, teeth, face.
I've seen up close what can happen with anything less than a real helmet..

plus..I'm not real fond of getting hit in the face with stuff, including the cold.
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+1 using full-face helemts. That you did Dean! Least I kept everything, but seriously, I took a hit with that 3/4 helmet!......Never again(HJC full coverage was in tail-trunk:rolleyes:).
 
Might aa well be in my car if I had to wear full face. Part of the "freedom" is feeling some wind in your face. However, I do wear an Arai CT-Z, a three quarter lid that has good chin protection, ventilation system and a flip up shield as well.
 

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I've crashed twice in my riding career! Once at 65 MPH (1987) and the other I got hit at around 25mph (2008). Both times I had fullfaced(last crash I had a modular) helmets. I'm glad both times for the extra protection. In the first crash, having the chinbar saved my hands and neck, I grabbed it after my initial contact with the ground with both hands (left glove had shot off) and kept my hands safe and kept myself from getting whiplash!

It doesn't mean I won't ride once in a while with the chinbar up, since I get motion sickness when I'm in tight curves!
 
I wear a full-face modular Shoei Neotec. It is the best of both worlds, and so much easier with glasses. :cool:

The CHP wore the half helmets not because they wanted to, but because it was policy to make them appear "less threatening" than wearing a full face helmet. Now they are wearing modulars, and raise the chin bar (to be less threatening) when they stop you - not that I would know that, of course... :rolleyes:
 
A half is just useless.. not many crash right on the top of their heads - heck, why protect a brain you aren't using.

A 3/4 is almost useless... a little better.

Full face all the way.
 
ST1300A said:
but because it was policy to make them appear "less threatening"
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That might have been the case "Once upon a time" but to today the police uniforms and vehicle design seems to lean towards intimidating the public maybe even have a sinister look, so I can't imagine that they want to make the motorcycle police look approachable.

Gerhard
 
These discussions are always a great excuse to dig out Dietmar Otte's impact numbers. Put on a half helmet and an unprotected part of your noggin will have an up-close-and-personal date with the pavement in at least 61.7% of impacts.

ConstructCrashPhoto-599x268.jpg


Not that I needed convincing, but a wizened rider passed this on when he sold me my first helmet when I started riding in 1998: "There are very few injuries to your face that are fatal, but there many of them that will make the rest of your life very uncomfortable."

--Mark
 
No offense meant...but, as my bro says, " If you only have half a brain, you only NEED half a helmet."
 
Shark Evo 3....certified to wear as 3/4 or full. I'll put the chin bar up if I need water from msr bladder or if I'm stuck in traffic. Otherwise as others have said.....full face is the only way to go.....probably not the answer you wanted to hear.
 
PFD023 said:
probably not the answer you wanted to hear.
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LOL it's predictable that he'd get grief for mentioning anything less than full-face. But he did mention negative observations as well as positive. And that is probably the least negative of the negative.

Everybody plays odds when leaving the house. I see lots of people riding scooters and wearing half-helmets. In some crashes that might be enough. In others- not. Some wear ATGATT some don't. We might not leave the house if we knew odds were something bad was going to happen.

I wore 3/4 then full-face for years. About four years back I got my first modular a Multitec. Then I got a Neotec. No more full-face for me. Wear it up or down depending on circumstances. I'll never go back to full face except if I got another Darth Vader Simpson helmet.

A half-shell is cooler and quieter than most fuller coverage helmets. In rural areas or the suburbs or a big housing tract maybe I'd give them a go. But I'm used to more helmet and wouldn't feel 'right' with anything less then 3/4. And on the road or in traffic I do feel a little better wearing my modular. In helmet-options MT I rode around town a couple of times without a helmet and it was GREAT. Playing the odds and they were with me. But I wouldn't make it a practice. Traffic being what it is I'd stick with a modular.
 
I'm ATGATT and the last time I wore a 3/4 helmet was in the 70's. Bell helmets came out with the full face Bell Star and I got one in white and got the darkest shield I could find... I was :cool:

Wore full face until 2004-2005 when I went modular. Been modular ever since but refuse to ride with the chin bar up. Fuel stops, bathroom breaks, but if the bike is moving I have it locked in.

I've been down 4 times and twice my helmet saved my life. In either case if the helmet wasn't a full face I would be looking very different at the least and more than likely dead.

Like I said... ATGATT
 
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