Are half helmets really any good?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

Better than nothing, I'm sure, but is it a much bigger risk to wear something like this

as opposed to a 3/4 helmet like this (which I currently have)?


I know I should wear a helmet more often than I do and I'm thinking something lighter, more comfortable, and easier to hear through might encourage that. But if the half helmet isn't going to do much for me... ?

[ceveritt]

1. Please ...

... wear a helmet. And a decent one, not a half-helmet. Look at the difference in coverage area between the half and three-quarter. Hearing is not an issue, believe me. Sight is much more important.

Then again, it's your choice.

[DrDan]

2. I read quite a bit before choosing my present helmet - moving from a 3/4

http://obairlann.net/reaper/motorcycle/beginner/helmets.html

(check out the "crash protection offered" chart)


From info like the above I chose a modular. Obviously not as comfortable, but I do feel safer. Being in Florida, I further made sure there was adequate airflow.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. Some good info there. Thanks.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. In addition to the lack of coverage ...

... half-helmets are LOUD. The wind noise at 60 or 70 mph is deafening.

The full helmets are best for coverage and for noise.

:hi:

[david13]

5. These helmets offer zero, no protection for the face and jaw.

Teeth do not heal or grow back.
A full face gives protection from a board, or rock or anything else that may be thrown up into the face area.
These don't.
Nobody ever plans on crashing, or getting injured. But it does happen.
dc

[sofa king]

6. I have both; haven't worn the half in two years.

My big problem is bugs. I can't stop myself from flinching and ducking every time I take out a bug with my face, and starting now and going to October I hit bugs all the time, everywhere I go. Worse, the bigger, meaner ones have a habit of dropping into my shirt with the half-helmet. Sometimes they're still alive. Sometimes they still bite and sting and tickle and pinch. Not good.

Some of them actually hurt quite a bit at 35 mph, which is as fast as I can go on my moped. You real riders, I just don't know how you do it. Is that what the beards are for?

I have no illusion that any helmet is going to save me from my inevitable fate. In my book, the primary purpose of a helmet is to keep me from getting a ticket (and the majority of helmet makers, who stick with the deadlier DOT ratings instead of the safer Snell ratings, seem to agree with me).

Next most important is to allow me to keep my attention focused on the road, instead of what's flying through the air, and a half-helmet without a screw-in visor can't do that.

A final consideration is riding in winter, which lasted seven months for me this year--in Virginia--and the half helmet takes me to the verge of frostbite within minutes (that's with two balaclavas on), while I can last for hours inside of my beat-ass full-face Shoei. Those of you who are not impoverished enough to rely on a moped as primary transportation in the winter probably don't need to worry about that.

Edit: I should add one last thing: even if you're going with a modular helmet, do yourself a favor and get some clear glasses for riding at night. One bug in the eye and you're through.

[sofa king]

8. Just for fun, I tried the half again the other day.

And no, I still don't like it that much. At this point I am so used to the full helm that I get a discernible and very unsettling feeling of vulnerability. Even on a 50cc moped, it's annoyingly loud, although I do appreciate being able to hear cars and trucks as they hide behind my left shoulder, as they are wont to do.

Yesterday I unwisely tried to outrun a huge storm as I made a 35-mile commute from work to home. It intercepted me along a 10-mile stretch of byway with no cover at all to hide under, not even a bridge, and so I (probably also unwisely) decided to tough it out. It simply wouldn't have been possible without the full-face helmet, and when I looked at the radar (also stupidly, after the fact), I learned that waiting out the storm would have required hours of standing in the rain. So that helmet effectively saved me from a series of stupid and cascading mistakes. (Hey, I'm not just crazy, I am also desperately poor, and poverty is all about risk assessment and management. This kind of tomfoolery is just another day for me.)

It's also worth adding that it's cicada season throughout large swaths of the American South, and while I love them for their strange ways, one of those in the face--especially at highway speeds--could be tragic. I have no doubt that some (hopefully very few) riders on their way to DC this weekend have experienced that exact problem, and I hope those folks are okay.

I have some understanding for the sentiments of the "helmet laws suck" contingent, but my own experience shows me that regular use of a full helmet becomes seamless, routine, almost unnoticeable and even comforting over time. And it doesn't have to be in a crash to save your butt, as I discovered again for the hundredth time.

[sofa king]

9. Well, the issue is settled for good, now.

There you have it. Half-helmets suck.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. I had a feeling a shot like that would drift over here to this thread...

:)

[happyslug]

7. 35% of all accidents involve the "chin-bar" area, wear a full face

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_helmet