Full Face Mask
 

Anybody ever use a welders face shield while biking to fight the wind and debris? It occurred to me that a bicyclist would benefit from a similar shield that motorcyclists enjoy with a full helmet with face shield. Yeah Yeah I know it would look ridiculous but so much or what we do & wear is ridiculous. Heck if an MBA player can wear one - why not use.

A few points:

• You do not mean a "welder's" face shield, unless the sun is VERY bright where you live (like the sun side of Mercury).
• If your goal is to protect your face from wind, there are good (lighter) solutions.

For example, I use wrap-around glasses, helmet cover, and a neoprene face mask and have complete face protection from the wind.

Oh yeah right. Your setup sounds good and pretty typical. I was just wondering if there were products out there that cam close to what motorized cyclists use, but lighter for us.

I've never seen a full-face helmet for bicyclists that is similar to a motorcycle helmet, but perhaps motocross gear? It seems like a bit of overkill to me, though. I'd just go with one of the many Seirus facemasks.

I don't think a plexi face mask is a good idea. It was cold enough this morning that it would have fogged up instantly. Neoprene mask is a better idea. I just ordered one for $9 shipped on ebay after getting a slight nip of frostbite on the face on the way in this morning.

As somebody with a lot more time on motorized bikes than pedal bikes I still feel silly strapping on a helmet that does not protect my face (or ears).

One of the motocross type but lighter helmets that mtb downhillers use might be good. I cringe when I see the prices though. They are made ventilated so in winter you'd need to tape up the holes.

Probably too much neck strain and heat load for range biking but for a short commute in traffic it seems we should be wearing something like that year round. Face bones break easy and some people care about what their face looks like(me, not so much to worry about)

If that's what you are looking for, why not go to walmart and pick up a cheap (<$100) motorcycle helmet?

Wore this today with my thick balaclava and ski goggles.

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1129/photo7or1.jpg

Al Fullface Helmet from Pryme..980gm of hand laminated fiberglass. ran around 100 bones though they might be cheaper now.
You do not want to ride this in the summer unless you are doing something seriously fun...read: potentially dangerous.
Pro DH helmets I believe are more robust crash wise..and tend to lean towards carbon fiber

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/542/gearedupfi8.jpg
I've never had to cover the vent holes and for the most part never had to wear anything underneath to keep the head warm unless it's frigid out. (-15C and lower)

Eh, do you plan on getting hit with a canon ball? Of course I jest, but I think a helmet + some kind of protective eye wear (ski goggles during the winter, maybe plain old safety glasses other times) would cover you pretty well, save for maybe getting a welt on your cheek. But to each their own.

stuff

Debris only would really affect you if you took it in the face at wicked speeds, vis-a-vis the motorcyclist's 60mph june bug in the face.

Just look at the SixSixOne helmets. Full face. Designed for downhill MTB. That's where most of the gear the OP is listing will be found. Body Armor, full helmets, elbow/knee protection, etc.

http://www.sixsixone.com/sixsixone_bike.aspx

I did see a guy riding a bike with a hockey helmet once. No visor or face guard though.

Ok, the skeletal mask picture made me wonder, does anyone sell balaclava's with wild haloween style decoration?

They do make some funky neoprene motorcycle masks in some fairly wild designs, that's what my mask is above.

Man I would LOVE to see the looks on peoples faces with the skull mask. What the hell do you do that you have that stuff at the office and people still will sit in the adjacent cubes? :lol:

My problem is fogging my glasses.. The baklava's when pulled up over the nose direct your breath right at the back of the lenses. No fun. :(

For a full face to work it would need something that would go below your eyes to direct your breath away from the lens and glasses.
I'm picking up ski or motor X goggles that will fit over my glasses and seeing how that works soon. If you are looking for safety then goggles with a BMX helmet would probably be a good set up.

Having seen me riding around the floor of the building, ...nothing could phase these folks now, I have them all well trained. It's a newspaper..and NOTHING I could ever do would be considered odd.

The mask was purchased for Halloween, that's the MTB helmet, and those were my CF knuckled traffic bumping gloves. I miss those gloves. They've seen me in all my cycling incarnations.

I don't think this would work well for cold weather. My full face motorcycle helmet has a built in (removable) face warmer that deflects the breath away from the visor in cold weather.

For warm weather though, I was thinking of adapting a chainsaw visor from a hard hat to my bike helm, just to cut back on my ingestion of insects riding in the evening.

I wonder if something like this would work ?

http://www.hobuk.co.uk/acatalog/face_shield.jpg

All the other kids would beat the snot outta you at school the next day if anyone saw you.
For the bugs I breath through the nose, then the little *******s have to fight their way down. Try a bandanna, or one of those air filter masks for bug filtering. I see loads of sweat and no air flow with the Shield Of Doom™. you'd look like a member of The Mystery Men.

What if you looked around at speed and it flipped up? I smell comedy gold.

After fighting fogging/frosting glasses this morning at -12, I came home for lunch and fabricated a windscreen out of a paint-tray liner, duct-taped to my helmet. It came down to about my nose, and was a definite improvement. Can't say much for the looks, though.

In the summer I'll nose-breathe through the clouds of gnats, but for the occasional swallowed bug I just let it happen. Just protein, right?

how about ...

http://oakley.ca/pd/2197

I might be able to do something with those tabs and my full face

^^^ I'd just go with crowbars. The double-lens snow ones, not the moto ones. Pretty much any goggle fits nicely into the pryme, even the wisdoms with the crappy old non-helmet strap.

Cool skull mask, that would probably look great when riding at night.

I have gotten bugs in the eye at least twice when riding, not pleasant at all trying to clean bug guts from under your eyelids when you're out in the middle of a trail and have no mirror to work with. Goggles might be nice... if there's something that is comfortable and looks good...

I have thought of using one of those. Would it fog up? It is pretty far away from mouth/nose, and has lots of air movement behind it. And it seems like it would take the brunt of the wind from the front.

jim

that'd fog bad. I think you have trouble with condensation with those when its warm

this might work