helmets
 

im relatively new to the scene of mountain biking and have decided to take my bike down a few of the local trails and to do this i have been advised to purchase a full face helmet plus they look good and are the best protection

my friend has offered me a good offfer on his fox tracer helmet and oakley goggles as he bought the equipment in the wrong size my only worry is that the helmet maybe too small with it being 53 to 54 cm big or xtra small size so i was just wondering do you go with a tight helmet for this kinda of stuf or one with lots of room

Neither, you don't want it to be either too tight or too loose.

You'd do better to take the money and just go get one that fits properly, too loose and your head rattles around inside it like the marble in a paint can and too tight is just uncomfortable and makes it harder to get on and off.

who advised the full face helmet, and what are these trails like? Visit you're local bike shop & talk to them about the kind of riding you want to do - they'll set you up - at the very least, they'll let you know what you need.

Most cross country trails (xc) do NOT demand a full face helmet - that's more down hill or "free ride" - lots of jumps & such.

full face helmets on cross country trails? sounds like somebody is worried about getting sued. drop the your LBS and tell them what kinda stuff you'll be riding on and your skill level and they'll set you up properly.

I wear a full face all the time, downhill or not, obviously not flat walking trails...but it's not worth bashing my face in on a rock, even if it's a small fall.

Though I don't use full face helmets myself on XC trails, something happened this weekend that made me reconsider. One of the guys I was riding with fell off the side of a trail (going uphill no less!) and rolled down the hill about 15-20 feet. A rock dislodged as he tumbled and hit him in the lower lip. He lost 4 teeth (a bridge) and had to get stitches to sew up his lower lip.

It's kinda like cars. Everyone thinks crashing at 20mph is no big deal, yet people die from it if they don't have their seatbelts on. People don't think biking is dangerous going at slow speeds on seemingly easy terrain, but once you fall, and your head or face digs into a rock, it's tooo late..

By this logic, we should all be outfitted with bullet and fireproof full body armor 24 hours a day, just in case.:)

Yeah, you can never be tooo careful, until your crotch chafes from wearing a cup to go to the grocery store

I've had a couple of wipe-outs that caused road rash, broken sunglasses and black eyes. This made me consider wearing a full facer but weight, air flow, and being able to drink are major concerns that I have.

I'm able to drink but it's with a camelback thing stuck under my helmet. Works well. Weight and air flow, I don't worry about. Seems pretty light to me, but maybe that's because I don't keep weight in mind.