If your helmet doesn’t have a chin bar (full or modular)
Modular helmets will not protect your face adequately in a crash. Even with a chin bar, the face part tends to open up when you hit the ground. If you value your face, get a good full-face helmet. I have an AGV K1; it’s good, fairly lightweight, acceptably ventilated, and usually under $200. You don’t need to get a Shoei or an Arai; any full-face helmet sold on e.g. Revzilla is going to be fine, as long as it fits.
The AGV K1 looks like a motorcycle helmet. Would you wear something that heavy duty for commuting on a 20-30mph scooter/e-bike? Or is there something else a little more lightweight?
I would ask yourself what you think hitting the ground face-first at 30mph would feel like, and then use that when you consider whether you want a full-face helmet or not. :)
My wife refused to get a helmet when we got bikes because “I’ve never had an accident on a bicycle and we don’t go fast enough to need it” , so I said “Fine, we’ll have this discussion after the first ride”
I got up to the top speed of the speed-controller ebike, she followed, and when we stopped it old her to imagine a puppy runs out in front of her, she has nowhere to go but straight into a wall and smash her head into the concrete, the trees and smash her head into the wood, or jump off the bike and smash her head into the pavement. Because in a crash, your head is going to hit something, and in this case you could be the most careful person on the planet but you can’t stop a puppy, or child, or DUMP TRUCK from blocking your path and forcing you to make a hard choice in less time than it takes to sneeze.
She decided to pick a helmet.
The hard surface your head will bounce off or grind into will not be nice about you failing to wear a helmet. Neither will I.
Honestly … yes. On a small ebike or scooter, commuting with automobile traffic, an accident where a helmet will help you seems likely to come from a car not seeing you and hitting you at speed - more than 20 or 30 mph. The kind of thing that’s going to put you up on a windshield, or at best send you tumbling in an uncontrollable way (I’m thinking a car making a right turn across your path where you don’t have time to stop).
This applies even more if you’re a cyclist who doesn’t stop for stop signs or red lights. Not saying that you personally are one of those, but you know they exist, and such people would be well-served by a proper helmet helmet instead of a styrofoam skull cap.
To be fair, motorcycle helmets use the same technology as bicycle helmets do: EPS foam that crushes and breaks in a crash, rather than sending the kinetic energy straight into your skull and brain. Motorcycle helmets have a bit more EPS foam, cover more area, and have heavier shells, because you don’t have to worry as much about ventilation on a motorcycle as you do on a bicycle, and weight is really important when you’re on a bicycle. While there are a small handful of full-face bicycle helmets, they aren’t very reasonable for most people that are commuting.
And yeah, if you’re on a bicycle, please stop at red lights, and at least look before rolling through stop signs.
Parent commenter was asking about scooters or ebikes, not pedal-only bicycles. Helmet weight isn’t nearly the same kind of concern there.
Even so, if you’re on an actual pedal bicycle with automobile traffic, sacrificing some weight savings for increased face savings is worth considering. Perhaps a motocross helmet would be more appropriate?
I was assuming that it was bicycle helmets that you were referring to with the comment about a ‘styrofoam [sic] skull cap’.
I used to commute about 28 miles/day in Chicago by bicycle (I lived in the Little Village, Humboldt Park, and then Austin neighborhoods while I was working in Skokie); a heavier, fuller-coverage helmet is miserable outside of late fall/winter. The weight and ventilation difference is far, far bigger than you can imagine, unless you’ve tried it. Overall, I would recommend using a bicycle helmet when you’re on a bicycle, and a motorcycle helmet when you’re on anything with a motor.
Yes. People die bumming around at 20-30mph without a helmet. People wearing a helmet have slid at over 100mph and got up, brushed themselves off, stood the bike back up, and rode away.
Modular helmets are less safe than full-face helmets, period, full stop. That’s absolutely undeniable. Take a look at the SHARP ratings for the very best modular helmet they rated, the Shoei Neotec 3; “93% Percentage of impacts where the face guard remained fully locked”. That means that 7% of the time, in controlled tests, the face guard came unlocked. (BTW, A Shoei Neotec was my first helmet, before I got over my claustrophobia.) That is not something you want to worry about in a crash, especially since real world crashes are not carefully controlled.
There’s a reason that you’re not going to get away with wearing a modular helmet at a track day; they simply are not as safe as a proper full-face helmet.
That’s your very best-case scenario, with a $600 helmet, in controlled impacts. Once you start looking at real-world crashes, those numbers start going up significantly, especially because you don’t hit the ground once. If you hit the ground at speed, you bounce, and you roll.
A friend of mine crashed her motorbike a few years ago and her face bounced off the road. Her chin bar flexed inwards so much that it broke her nose and chipped a front tooth.
She was furious that the helmet didn’t protect her properly, until her husband who was riding behind her pointed out that she essentially landed face first at over 60mph, and that without the helmet, her face would have taken the full force of the landing.
Just remember that ATGATT means helmet, jacket, pants, gloves, and boots, and all of them have to be intended and rated for riding.
Most “riding” jeans are trash, not worth the money you pay; they’ll have a little bit of Kevlar lining, and maybe a hint of padding at the knees, but that’s not going to help you significantly. Do yourself a solid and get some real riding pants that zip to your jacket, like RevIt!, or Dianese.
Leather costs more up front, and less in the long run. Textile apparel is usually destroyed in a crash, but leather is usually good for multiple drops. I’ve had four crashes (none hugely significant; partial tear to a rotator cuff on the last one); my jacket and pants look rough, but they’re still perfectly fine for protection.
Pants and jacket should fit fairly closely; you don’t want them moving around when you crash. Loose is not your friend in a crash. They should have CE1 or CE2 inserts at the knees, hips, coccyx, back, shoulders, and elbows. You may need to buy the inserts separately.
You can get pants and jackets used safely, as long as they’re in good condition.
Get gloves with palm sliders. Replace gloves about annually if you put more than 5000 miles on your bike each year; the palms will wear thin, and protect less as they get used. Gauntlets will protect your wrists; I suggest them over shorties. How much are your hands worth to you? Spend that much on gloves. I’ve burned through multiple pairs of Alpinestars Supertech and Knox Handroid gloves, and I’m currently using Five RFX1; these are daily ride gloves for me. (Supertech gloves are nice, except the palm slider is aramid fabric instead of TPU. Is $500 a lot for gloves? Sure. It’s about $15,000 less than reconstructive hand surgery though.)
Boots should protect your ankles; they should have some kind of armored cup there if they’re leather.
Do not accept anything less than a full-face helmet. Just, don’t. Never, ever, ever buy a used helmet. Never, ever, ever buy a helmet that isn’t from a recognized brand, and from a reputable source. (Amazon is not a reputable source.) If a helmet seems too cheap to be true, do not buy it. Helmets are one-crash only; if your head touches the ground, replace the helmet.
What others did I miss?
Modular helmets will not protect your face adequately in a crash. Even with a chin bar, the face part tends to open up when you hit the ground. If you value your face, get a good full-face helmet. I have an AGV K1; it’s good, fairly lightweight, acceptably ventilated, and usually under $200. You don’t need to get a Shoei or an Arai; any full-face helmet sold on e.g. Revzilla is going to be fine, as long as it fits.
The AGV K1 looks like a motorcycle helmet. Would you wear something that heavy duty for commuting on a 20-30mph scooter/e-bike? Or is there something else a little more lightweight?
I would ask yourself what you think hitting the ground face-first at 30mph would feel like, and then use that when you consider whether you want a full-face helmet or not. :)
My wife refused to get a helmet when we got bikes because “I’ve never had an accident on a bicycle and we don’t go fast enough to need it” , so I said “Fine, we’ll have this discussion after the first ride”
I got up to the top speed of the speed-controller ebike, she followed, and when we stopped it old her to imagine a puppy runs out in front of her, she has nowhere to go but straight into a wall and smash her head into the concrete, the trees and smash her head into the wood, or jump off the bike and smash her head into the pavement. Because in a crash, your head is going to hit something, and in this case you could be the most careful person on the planet but you can’t stop a puppy, or child, or DUMP TRUCK from blocking your path and forcing you to make a hard choice in less time than it takes to sneeze.
She decided to pick a helmet.
The hard surface your head will bounce off or grind into will not be nice about you failing to wear a helmet. Neither will I.
Honestly … yes. On a small ebike or scooter, commuting with automobile traffic, an accident where a helmet will help you seems likely to come from a car not seeing you and hitting you at speed - more than 20 or 30 mph. The kind of thing that’s going to put you up on a windshield, or at best send you tumbling in an uncontrollable way (I’m thinking a car making a right turn across your path where you don’t have time to stop).
This applies even more if you’re a cyclist who doesn’t stop for stop signs or red lights. Not saying that you personally are one of those, but you know they exist, and such people would be well-served by a proper helmet helmet instead of a styrofoam skull cap.
To be fair, motorcycle helmets use the same technology as bicycle helmets do: EPS foam that crushes and breaks in a crash, rather than sending the kinetic energy straight into your skull and brain. Motorcycle helmets have a bit more EPS foam, cover more area, and have heavier shells, because you don’t have to worry as much about ventilation on a motorcycle as you do on a bicycle, and weight is really important when you’re on a bicycle. While there are a small handful of full-face bicycle helmets, they aren’t very reasonable for most people that are commuting.
And yeah, if you’re on a bicycle, please stop at red lights, and at least look before rolling through stop signs.
Parent commenter was asking about scooters or ebikes, not pedal-only bicycles. Helmet weight isn’t nearly the same kind of concern there.
Even so, if you’re on an actual pedal bicycle with automobile traffic, sacrificing some weight savings for increased face savings is worth considering. Perhaps a motocross helmet would be more appropriate?
I was assuming that it was bicycle helmets that you were referring to with the comment about a ‘styrofoam [sic] skull cap’.
I used to commute about 28 miles/day in Chicago by bicycle (I lived in the Little Village, Humboldt Park, and then Austin neighborhoods while I was working in Skokie); a heavier, fuller-coverage helmet is miserable outside of late fall/winter. The weight and ventilation difference is far, far bigger than you can imagine, unless you’ve tried it. Overall, I would recommend using a bicycle helmet when you’re on a bicycle, and a motorcycle helmet when you’re on anything with a motor.
Yes. People die bumming around at 20-30mph without a helmet. People wearing a helmet have slid at over 100mph and got up, brushed themselves off, stood the bike back up, and rode away.
That’s just not true.
Modular helmets are less safe than full-face helmets, period, full stop. That’s absolutely undeniable. Take a look at the SHARP ratings for the very best modular helmet they rated, the Shoei Neotec 3; “93% Percentage of impacts where the face guard remained fully locked”. That means that 7% of the time, in controlled tests, the face guard came unlocked. (BTW, A Shoei Neotec was my first helmet, before I got over my claustrophobia.) That is not something you want to worry about in a crash, especially since real world crashes are not carefully controlled.
There’s a reason that you’re not going to get away with wearing a modular helmet at a track day; they simply are not as safe as a proper full-face helmet.
Good to see that you agree that
isn’t true.
That’s your very best-case scenario, with a $600 helmet, in controlled impacts. Once you start looking at real-world crashes, those numbers start going up significantly, especially because you don’t hit the ground once. If you hit the ground at speed, you bounce, and you roll.
Source?
7% of the time is a tendency
“Tends to” implies that it’s more likely to happen than not.
Nope, it means something has a tendency to happen.
A friend of mine crashed her motorbike a few years ago and her face bounced off the road. Her chin bar flexed inwards so much that it broke her nose and chipped a front tooth.
She was furious that the helmet didn’t protect her properly, until her husband who was riding behind her pointed out that she essentially landed face first at over 60mph, and that without the helmet, her face would have taken the full force of the landing.
Yeah, that was probably a “anything less than a chin bar and you’d be super dead” incident.
More motorcycle specific, but here’s a couple
answer
jeans
I’ve heard that one phrased a lot of ways.
EDIT: took me five tries to get the spoiler right : D
Just remember that ATGATT means helmet, jacket, pants, gloves, and boots, and all of them have to be intended and rated for riding.
Most “riding” jeans are trash, not worth the money you pay; they’ll have a little bit of Kevlar lining, and maybe a hint of padding at the knees, but that’s not going to help you significantly. Do yourself a solid and get some real riding pants that zip to your jacket, like RevIt!, or Dianese.
Leather costs more up front, and less in the long run. Textile apparel is usually destroyed in a crash, but leather is usually good for multiple drops. I’ve had four crashes (none hugely significant; partial tear to a rotator cuff on the last one); my jacket and pants look rough, but they’re still perfectly fine for protection.
Pants and jacket should fit fairly closely; you don’t want them moving around when you crash. Loose is not your friend in a crash. They should have CE1 or CE2 inserts at the knees, hips, coccyx, back, shoulders, and elbows. You may need to buy the inserts separately.
You can get pants and jackets used safely, as long as they’re in good condition.
Get gloves with palm sliders. Replace gloves about annually if you put more than 5000 miles on your bike each year; the palms will wear thin, and protect less as they get used. Gauntlets will protect your wrists; I suggest them over shorties. How much are your hands worth to you? Spend that much on gloves. I’ve burned through multiple pairs of Alpinestars Supertech and Knox Handroid gloves, and I’m currently using Five RFX1; these are daily ride gloves for me. (Supertech gloves are nice, except the palm slider is aramid fabric instead of TPU. Is $500 a lot for gloves? Sure. It’s about $15,000 less than reconstructive hand surgery though.)
Boots should protect your ankles; they should have some kind of armored cup there if they’re leather.
Do not accept anything less than a full-face helmet. Just, don’t. Never, ever, ever buy a used helmet. Never, ever, ever buy a helmet that isn’t from a recognized brand, and from a reputable source. (Amazon is not a reputable source.) If a helmet seems too cheap to be true, do not buy it. Helmets are one-crash only; if your head touches the ground, replace the helmet.