Full face helmets may kill you!

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

I guess there is no study on wearing a boxer's mouth piece(unused <_>

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....or a cervical collar! Next will be those silly Dutch airbags and roll cages.

[jrt]

I'd rather croak and leave an exquisite corpse...

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Damn, it's too late for me.

[Ballacraine]

As I understand it, the best scenario you can hope for in terms of protection from any helmet is that of a glancing / skidding blow. A full face will save your face wearing away on the tarmac.. ...An open face may save the side or back of your skull, depending on which part of your body you are using as a brake!

 

Any direct cranial impact of 30+mph is going to either kill or maim. This is not scaremongering...Just calling it how I have seen it.

 

This is not so much from any documented medical study, or any personal medical knowledge, more from my personal observations marshaling for the Isle of Man TT and Manx Grand Prix for many years. ( No part of this is published on behalf of any organisation or authority blah blah! )

 

Wear a helmet by all means, but it can lull you into a false sense of security.

 

Although I do still have a couple of jet style helmets I almost invariably wear a full face, simply because I find them more comfortable, not because I perceive much added safety benefits in wearing any type of helmet at all anyway. Primarily, I wear them for comfort and because they are a legal requirement.

 

Nige.

[dlaing]

Damn, it's too late for me.

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Maybe older geezers are immune:

The article said:

The motorcyclist group (and most victims of judicial hangings) are usually males in the age range of 17 to 25 years. In this age group the spheno-occipital synchondrosis may be a weak zone because it is undergoing ossification and often has heterogeneous morphology.

 

I think one thing to rember is to keep your chin down when crashing.

I suspect that someone with an open-face helmet will naturally keep their chin down more someone with a full-face helmet.

Football(soccer) players head the ball at the top of the forehead.

Those crazy kung fu guys crack blocks of ice with the top of the forehead.

I suspect that the top of the forehead is a better one point landing place than straight into the face.

Also, I was taught not to stick my arms out while crashing, but a broken arm beats a broken skull.

Knowing when to roll is another strategy, but I think we generally get pitched to fast to roll.

Are there advantages to different riding positions?

A motocross position seems to high, so you have further to fall.

What about the laid back cruiser position from the 28" saddle with ape bars and highway pegs compared to the clip-ons and rear-sets crotch rocketing position????

What do you think?

[Guzzirider]

Both times I have had an crash which resulted in an impact I hit my head at the very top.

 

Crash number one- I headbutted a tree when I was 18 after going straight on at a corner- was wearing a full face but it was irrelevant because it was the top of my head that butted the tree- thankfully the fence I had crashed into first slowed me down. I also painfully whacked my bollocks into the front of my tank- no permanent damage done thankfully.

 

Crash number two- I was exiting a roundabout a year later when an elderly couple in a camper van pulled out right in front of me and I bodychecked the cab. I was wearing an open faced lid this time and again the top of my head took the impact.

My speedo stopped dead at 20mph so I guess this was my final speed. The force of my body caused the whole side of the cab to cave in leaving a human shaped dent!

The driver was successfully prosecuted by the police.

 

Crash number three- still aged 19 I failed to negotiate a corner on a country lane, went through a hedge, then a barbed wire fence which ripped my visor off- thank god I was wearing a full face! I ended up in the middle of a field after doing a Dukes Of Hazzard style jump into the field which was about 4 feet lower than the road. God must have been smiling on me because the only injury I sustained was a thorn in my wrist, although my 400/4 was totally wrecked.

 

Helmets saved me three times in a row when I was a stupid kid.

 

I am sensible now having learned the hard way.

 

Guy

[Martin Barrett]

It's all about risk management.

 

A sudden stop against an immovable object or any other sudden absorption of energy will really mess your day up. There's the chance that the chin bar will dig in and rotate twisting the neck and now transfer force directly.

 

I've not used an open face for road riding since I progressed from my Yamaha RS100 nearly 25 years ago. Hail at 50mph used to sting and rain from a little bit faster. It's not bothered me since. Well not facially I did find that hail stung at 80 on the arms through my fabric jacket when only wearing a T shirt underneath.

I can't say I noticed a loss of peripheral vision or hearing from the switch to full face. You could argue that the edge presented by the open part of an open face is more likely to catch and dig in.

 

I crash really well. I learned to relax from falling off my trials bikes. I've been able to put this to good use when falling off road bikes and even end over ending a car, but not for more than 12 years now. But it's always been me and mostly the ground and never any other traffic or roadside fixtures until the speed has been greatly scrubbed off.

 

I wouldn't go back to an open face helmet.

[Guest ratchethack]

I'm waiting for Ratchethack to log on and type a ten thousand word thesis on why full face lids are best!

 

Unlike the multi-dimensional ramifications and scientific basis of geo-political socioeconomics and the meaning of truth, I reckon this topic's simple enough that even a cartoon-based mentality can handle it.

 

But that's just a theory.

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

But that's just a theory. 

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I wish I could make those little smileys say "This theory is useless without data!".

 

Cheers

Jim

 

P.S. Looks like I got caught in the middle of an edit!!

 

P.S.P.S. Maybe not!

[badmotogoozer]

I'm sure even a semi-educated keyboard jockey masquerading as a scientist knows that a study in crash results hardly takes all the parameters into account.

 

 

Rj

[Frenchbob]

....Next will be those silly Dutch airbags

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I thought they were a contraceptive device, but then I've had a sheltered upbringing. Isn't it time we had the Relativist perspective on this issue?

[badmotogoozer]

[Frenchbob]

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Sorted!

[Guest ratchethack]

P.S. Looks like I got caught in the middle of an edit!!

Hey - that's exactly what I thought...

[Guzzirider]

Unlike the multi-dimensional ramifications and scientific basis of geo-political socioeconomics and the meaning of truth, I reckon this topic's simple enough that even a cartoon-based mentality can handle it. 

 

But that's just a theory.

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Nice reply- very pithy.

[bigbikerrick]

Maybe if the helmet manufacturers take this study into consideration they can design a future helmet that is a full face but with a chin bar that is of an energy absorbing design, meant to collapse in a controlled manner, possibly made out of some high tech foam type material, as opposed to rigid composite as we currently have. That way the chin bar can absorb the impact and not have it transmitted to the basal skull/brainstem area ,but still "save face" so to speak. I have worked as an RN in Emergency rooms for 26 years, and from what ive seen, I think personally il stilll take my chances with a full face .