Motorcycle Helmets - There Are Many Different Varieties

There are advantages and disadvantages in the many types of motorcycle helmets offered on the market these days. These are design for safety while try to feel comfy on your head. Examine which feature if not both are for you in a motorcycle helmet. Lets go over what some of the helmets have to offer.

The full-face helmet is very generally used as protection when riding motorcycles. This helmet envelopes the full face and head. Did you know that above 1/3 of the motorcycle accident the riders have mostly facial injuries? It helps to know that this helmet prevents some of these from happening in the first place. Comfort is not at the top of the list of features for this helmet though. The big beef with this helmet is how weighty and not very comfortable to wear it is. A few riders have said that they believe they have helped their necks be hurt because of then weight. No clinical proof available for backing this up though.

There is a helmet that is not up to par as far as safety is concerned that can still be legally used. It is called a half helmet. These helmet are more round shaped and resembles the open face helmets and they only provide some protections for the top of the head and gives none to the base of the head and the neck at the back. The face is not safe in these helmets. They also don’t stay in place and shift on the head this is blamed on the shape.

Take the full-face helmet and remove the face protection and chin guard and you have what is known as the open face helmet. The one plus of this helmet is more range in vision but the minus is no facial security in safety inducing for the chin. Some of these open face helmets have the added capability of letting you add your own visor. Multiple numbers of riders enjoy using these helmets.

A helmet that goes over the not only the chin but over the entire face and head is the flip up helmet. The flip up helmets is as safe to use on a regular basis as the full-face helmet. The unique thing about this helmet is that you can flip up the face and chin guard when you need to access your face. This means if the rider wants to eat in a hurry without lifting his whole helmet off he can so this helmet does add convenience.

Now we come to the helmets for motocross, which are very similar to the full-face helmets. The motocross helmet has a wider chin area and the visor is wider. Also the visor is designed in a special way so that the rider can wear goggle replacing a regular visor. The reason that the chin guard is wider is to better protect the chin area because motorcross rides really whack their faces in all the falls they take.

There is a helmet on the market that has not passed the DOT or Snell standards it is called a beanie helmet. This type of motorcycle helmets makes the rider appear to be wearing an approved helmet. Some riders just absolutely hate the heavier helmets so they wear beanie helmets to keep from getting tickets when riding. These helmets should never be used though because they do not protect the rider. Shop for a motorcycle helmet wisely and purchase one that is functional and safe.

It can be confusing to make a decision when looking at all the styles of motorcycle helmets on which will fit you best. Analyze how and where you use your motorcycle to help you decide on how much you need to be protected. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you don’t need to play it safe with a helmet. Be smart and be safe.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.