I went on my first mountain bike group ride. I got a little... cocky. Hopped over a root and kissed a rotten stump.. with my face. (40 feet from the parking lot.)

I have a nice full face dirt bike helmet that I'd like to use, but I'm not sure if it's taboo or not. I know those helmets are heavy, and I most likely won't wear it on the way up, but it'll prevent me from spending another few hundred dollars on helmets!

(Oh yeah, I destroyed my tiny road biking helmet.)

Opinions?

Short answer is whatever works best for you is fine.

There is some discussion amongst DH riders/racers as to whether a DOT or SNELL certified moto helmet is optimal for the types of impacts normally generated by MTB crashes, but there's no question that a full face will provide better protection if you decide to ram your face into a stump (rotten or otherwise).

At 35 years old I do not care how I look anymore; as my wife can attest too...

But as long as you are being safe who cares if you look silly!

I ended up buying a helmet with a removeable front face part, so it's half way between a full face front DH helmet and a normal non-full face helmet. It LOOKS like a full face, but is probably weaker due to the entire helmet not being one piece.

My reasoning was this: If I buy a full face, I will NOT wear it on the way up. There are often times when trails go up and down for a bit before doing the final climb. Some of those little downhill spurts are fast, and if I crash there without a helmet on, it'd be pretty dangerous. So my plan is to wear only the top part on the way up, then attach the bottom for the ride down (the final "down".)

I have 3 full-face helmets I've worn for rocky trail / all-mountain and lift-assisted gravity.

One thing to consider is that the heavier your helmet and higher the speeds, the more you should be thinking about wearing a neck brace. I do not own one as I don't get going more than 30ish mph on my trail bike. I don't own a DH rig, and I've all but given up dirtbikes these days and never had one for that, either.

Anyway, last weekend I rode a very hilly and rocky trail with a Bell Super 2R and had the chinbar attached the whole time. It was 80F when we wrapped up and other than the sweat soaking the cheek pads it TRULY didn't feel much warmer than an open-face helmet. This trail is too up & down to consider attaching and detaching the chinbar; I just rode it the whole time. I detach the chinbar for XC trails, however - that's my normal setup in fact.

I have done that hilly trail before with a Giro Remedy, which is a DH MTB-specific helmet. It was dramatically different and was hot enough to have an impact on my cardio. I've used the Remedy on lifts in Colorado and if it's all DH, great. If I pedal more than 5 min at a time, that helmet is way too hot.

Last but not least, before I bought the Remedy I did use my Suomy motocross helmet on a trail *once*. Ventilation was terrible and I wasn't even pedaling anywhere near my normal fitness capability.

I expect the Super 2R to be adequate for lift service, at the speeds I ride, this summer in Colorado.