ax0n

Commuting with a BMX helmet?

Actually, I'm kind of serious. I need a new helmet (mine is trashed after the wreck) and I'm thinking a full-face BMX helmet would have saved my ass even better.

Comments? Product suggestions? I'm not getting back on the bike until I get the helmet issue sorted out. I was actually planning on getting a new helmet soon, anyways. I'd been eyeing the Bell Influx and Giro Havoc. Now I'm wondering if a Bell Bellistic or Pro-tec Ace wouldn't be more up my alley.

squegeeboo

Go for it, better stupid looking than damaged. maybe even a ski/snowboard helmet, although I hear those affect your peripheral vision a bit.

Lossy

www.bhsi.org

crtreedude 

A helmet like you are talking makes more sense to me - it is either a protection device or a fashion statement.

HardyWeinberg

I think if you are not feeling safe, go for as much helmet as you can stand. The whole problem w/ bike helmets is they are compromised, relative to motorcycle or football helmets, say, for weight and ventilation. Wear a full-face BMX helmet, might save (some of) your teeth if you do a(nother) face plant over the bars.

I wonder about rock-climbing helmets over standard bike helmets too.

East Hill

I've seen at least one person here on the East Hill bicycle commuting with a full face helmet, and I didn't think that they looked like an idiot. Prepared, yes. An idiot, no.

East Hill

SingingSabre 

Do what you gotta to protect your dendrites, ax0n.

deputyjones

Not full face, but someone recently posted (can't remember where or whom) that they use a snowboarding helmet similar to this one in the winter:



Good idea as I think regular cycling helmets do not protect well enough the back of the head (occipital lobe). It would also provide greater warmth without having to wear a cap underneath further reducing the effectiveness of the normal cycling helmet. I will stick with my regular cycling helmet for the summer because of the better venting, but I expect to buy one of this style for next winter.

jyossarian

You can get full face mtb helmets as well that might be better suited to you.

unkchunk

If you wear a full faced BMX helmet no one could tell that it's you that is wearing a full faced BMX helmet. Therefore you wouldn't look like an idiot as a distinct individual, but possibly in an ambiguous abstract sort of way you could.

ax0n

So you're saying I probably look like an ambiguously idiotic ninja when I've got my balaclava and ski-goggles on with my bike helmet?

banerjek

Actually, I had thought about this as soon as you reported your accident. My wife had her jaw broken in 3 places and shattered some teeth when she broke a fall with her face about 9 years ago. I think there is no doubt that having something in front will be very useful in the type of crash you had.

Right now, you are spooked so are worried about this more than you normally would. With time, you'll be able to ride without worrying about this stuff. However, to answer your question, don't worry about how you look. If you want a BMX helmet, wear one.

The reason I don't wear one is I think the benefits would be outweighed by inevitable issues with overheating, visibility, and comfort. However, if these aren't big issues for you, get the helmet.

tsl

I'll have to re-read the accident report because I thought you'd broken your face, not your ass.

I've thought about the same thing before. Maybe I'll re-think it.

Zero_Enigma

https://www.skullcandy.com and get the Bad Lt. helmet. Looks rad!

Get some fatigues and you'll be rocking cool.


Edit:

Oh wait.. I think that Bad Lt. is from the Giro line. >_<;; Just checked. https://giro.com/main.html

Allen

Ax0n,
Being that your face now has moving parts that it did not have last week, I would think you have earned every right to wear what ever helmet you want.

jcm

Here's what I use. Bought it in '77 when I thought I was going to actually like falling off rock walls. I think bike crashing is a full contact sport - like football, hockey, etc. You don't see those guys wearing little foam bed pans on their heads.
https://i16.tinypic.com/33w7img.jpg

banerjek

Though attaching your glasses mirror may be tricky....

unkchunk

I don't know. With the goggles and balclava it's just too ambiguous to start off with. Add a full face BMX helmet and it's another dimension of ambiguosity. Who knows what could happen in those circumstances. Probably some pretty good filtration of air born particulates. I'm working on a theory that if you become an ambiguousplexed person like this, then you could actually become someone else. In that case you wouldn't look stupid because you would be another person and not you. However the other person, which you being you, could be anyone else and yes, they would look stupid. Therefore everyone else would look stupid, but not you. That is, of course, when you are you and not anyone else.

Now the question arises what happens if you alone in a room, dressed in a balaclava, googles and full faced BMX helmet, looked into a mirror. What would you see? Well, that's very simple if you follow the constructs of the therom. First you, not being you, would refect an image of you, not being you not being you. Since not being you equals someone else and someone else equals not being you, then they would cancel out leaving no one in the room. If no one is in the room, then no one can look stupid in the room. But the person looking into an empty room for for someone who looks stupid... well yes, that person would look very stupid indeed.

So, as long as you don't look into any empty rooms you should be fine. Except when you aren't wearing the balaclava, goggles and full faced BMX helmet. Then you could look into an empty room and not look stupid. Providing of course, you are you at the time.

-=(8)=-

Why would you worry about what anyone thought of you ?

ax0n

I'm not, really. I didn't say I worry about looking like an idiot. After all, I'm riding a bus with a discombobulated face, and I went to the grocery store last night and to work today. Also, if I worried that much, you wouldn't catch me riding bikes that are beaten up, almost a decade old, while I wear jeans and a t-shirt.

So while I am curious if I would look like an idiot with a full face mask, that will not be the determining factor in my final helmet decision. I'll have to go try one on, make sure it won't be too hot, too restrictive of my peripheral vision, or too heavy. Also, being a commuter, the odds of me doing a face plant like this again any time soon are fairly slim. I definitely need to do some more research.

barba

It isn't as if a standard bicycle helmet makes you look particulalry cool. I would make sure that is doesn't reduce your peripheral vision in any unacceptable ways and that you feel like you get enough air (esp. as summer gets nearer).

n4zou

A few years ago everyone one have said the same about wearing any helmet while bicycling. I always used full-face helmets when operating a motorcycle and one of them saved my face once. I would say go for it and ignore the fashion police.

ax0n

I just might. BTW n4zou HackADay 4EVaR!!!

-=(8)=-

Some maniac little kid rides maniacly in and out of traffic in Montpelier
here in Vt. Its crazy to watch him !! He full faces when he terrorizes
traffic. There is a BF member named TRaffic Jammer who claims to use
a full face while he dices with ..........traffic ! Maybe he will read this.
I find whenever you do something out of the ordinary on a bicycle cars
give you more respect or are at least scared(??) enuff to give you room.
If you are a Schwinn Armstrong replica a car is more likely to crowd you
than if you ride an old clunker decorated with leopardskin and pirate flags

atomship47

do you care?

hell, if people think you'd look like an idiot...well that's just one more good reason to do it.