RWYB: Full Face or Open Face Helmet?

.....which is no protection whatsoever if you land on your face/chin:-(

Seriously, go for a full-face. You can get good lids with decent ventilation reasonably priced. FWIW I'd have an even uglier mug now than I already do if I didn't use a full face helment in the days when I used two wheels instead of four. I cracked the lower left front side of my helmet. If it wasn't a full face it would have been my jaw..

Personal preference of course - although I'd be tempted by a full face if I was pottering about town on a moped.

Mike

windscreen...?

All good points - but I'm using a four wheeled vehicle on the strip.

I'm too chicken to use a bike, heh!

So you're going to be crossing the line at over 100mph?

Rules on that one vary! Not our, no; but the last Ka I drove at Santa Pod had a reported speed of just shy of a hundred, so that one is getting close.

Some places insist that you use a helmet anyway... :-/

Get a Simpson like the Stig off Top Gear!!

I think a lot of tintop drivers use an open face helmet. Might as well get a full face though.

I'd sooner go over the pod line at 100+ without a helmet and say "oh i didn't realise it was this fast" ..... than wear a helmet and only reach 82mph. As in factory spec. saxo vts!!!!

I just need to make sure I comply with the rules in my own vehicle, heh, and I'm racing the clock and our last times.

Thanks for your tips; although I would have probably been happy with an open face, I plumbed for a full face jobbie... gotta love eBay, eh? :p

would never buy a second hand helmet!

What never?

LOL! Almost.

windscreen...?

Yup, I see your point. Although they say it's never been dropped...

Don't worry about it. The damage on a helmet which renders it useless is visible.

I did some tests on helmets back at univesity where we dropped steel balls on helmets, measuring impact, deformation, dampening etc. All results were similar. All students used the same helmets and I bet (been off about 15 years) that the same helmets are still used.

It's a fable, invented bij helmet-sales people, that a dropped helmet is unsafe and it's even a bigger tale that the protection of a helmet increases with its price.

The main difference in more expensif helmets is that the inner material is better quality, more fire resistant, easier to clean, etc. The outer shell comes in most cases from the same production unit. Oh yes, stickers and paint are nicer too on the expensif models.

Tom De Moor

If you've got a cheap head buy a cheap used helmet off ebay.

There's absolutely no chance I'd risk my head in an ebay helmet.

Everybody his choice. I wouldn't immediately buy a used helmet but I would have nothing against a new helmet, advertised on Ebay, for use on an occasional trackday.

And yess: I know at which prices helmets are made, which discounts are given at big retailers. My first employer made among other things the shells for 3 mayor makes of helmets. Any helmet, sold in Europe, has to pass certain standards, cheap and expensif ones alike.

You won't risk your head in an Ebay helmet but would you risk your life and your car with low cost aluminium rims? You maybe not, but I see a lot of aluminium rims sold in after market shops which haven't got any testing or certificate on them as I have seen "racing upgrades" which were poorer and less strong than the OEM items they replaced.

My racing car was almost written off when the rear spoiler -curtosy of my sponsor- broke cleanly at the fixations . The "racing" exhaust was never fitter (only the stickers and the tips) because it weighed almost the double of the standard exhaust.

A helmet - any helmet, expensif or cheap- will protect your head, it's a thousand times better than no helmet. But if you drop off a bike at let say 100 km/hr the make and the price of the helmet do not play a big part in your survival.

As to the difference between helmets for motorbikes and for cars: apparantly the only real difference is the degree of fire resistance of the inner shell. The rest is salesman-talk which is needed on an article which selling price is about 5 to 20 times its production price.

Tom De Moor

Of course, another reason for not buying off ebay is that you have absolutely no way of telling if the helmet is going to fit properly.

I have never, and probably never will buy a helmet via the post. The only exception being that I could confidently order another Shoei of the same family as mine as I know the size and shape fits properly.

Remember, a poorly fitting helmet is often worse than no helmet at all.

That's not entirely true - a polycarbonate helmet offers significantly less protection than a composite shell. Hence the ACU 'gold' category for racing lids. Polycarb lids very rarely meet 'gold' standard.

I wouldn't - that's because OEM alloys always look better than the aftermarket tat.

I'd use my bike helmet in the car - it's an ACU Gold approved lid, which, I believe, is good enough for the cagers, too.

If I were driving a single seater, I'd definitely pick a bike helmet as I could be assured the visor would be fully compliant with the shatter-resistance regulations.

rather the expected, "only kicked arround the garden twice last year when I was wrecked".

Or like Schumacher and his "only thrown across the pit garage once" helmet

Most 'bike' helmets don't come with the necessary stickers to qualify them for RACMSA sanctioned motorsport. I'm not saying they're not good enough, but they aren't certified. They often don't have the fireproof lining as well.