Thank you so much. You bloody Brits are the best when it`s about shredding, no boubt about this! Thanks also for the raw sound; no stupid US teenagers punk rock on it. Keep on slashing bikes. Cheers!
And that crash is a good example of why many of us should be riding once of these ultralight, airy FF helmets. We've had little kids life flighted out with broken jaws, my 4yro wrecked his mouth on velo pumptrack going -2mph, our bike coach has a row of fake teeth, other sponsored guy put a stick through his face, younger friend knocked out his front teeth etc etc. None of it was park riding. Some of it was slow. The moto world has it figured out even for slower riding, we might as well with the new helmets.
@Bustacrimes: Bad typing on my part. "*should be riding one of these ultralight, airy FF helmets". Fwiw I think everyone seems to be aware of their existence
I rode full face when I first started, then went to half shells for a couple years. I then had a couple close calls with face plants in to hard objects on totally innocuous trails. Nothing I could do to save myself - came close to losing teeth.
Went back to full face for every ride and almost immediately saved myself from an incredibly bad face first crash into a pile of sharp rocks. Facial reconstruction would have likely been needed. Instead, I walked away with a slightly sprained hand.
With lightweight, breathable full face helmets widely available, it's honestly foolish that we're not all wearing them. There's a lot of tough-guy mentality to this sport, and it's only a matter of time before most of us who ride often and push ourselves are going to get hurt in an entirely preventable way, had we been wearing the proper protection.
I remember years ago reading a study where due to children's skulls/spines not being fully developed there was risk of the jaw piece putting too much stress on the neck during a crash. So it was kind of a catch 22. Smashed teeth or broken neck.
That being said my kid wears full face for BMX. And it has saved some nasty looking face plants.
@alfiej0nes: Brain protection likely the same in full face or half.
Brain protection likely different between DH certified and not. But just because DH certified does not mean it will protect more in all conditions.
For example: Motorcycle road racing helmets have a separate standard than a basic road helmet. The racing helmet is designed to protect from injury at high speed and the basic helmet at road legal speeds. It has been found that using a racing helmet at regular road speeds can actually cause more damage than the basic helmet as it takes higher forces to compress the styrofoam on the race helmet. If the crash is not at high enough speed to activate the styrofoam compression in the race helmet more force is transfered to the skull than would happen with a basic helmet. Now the exact opposite will happen in a high speed crash, where the basic helmet would compress its foam way to easy and then transfer more force to the skull than a race helmet.
@jayacheess: Can confirm that the rocks on the North Shore are just as hard as the rocks out here in the Okanagan. I had a close call with my half face on the shore and have been using a full face or bell super DH ever since.
Thanks also for the raw sound; no stupid US teenagers punk rock on it.
Keep on slashing bikes. Cheers!
That being said my kid wears full face for BMX. And it has saved some nasty looking face plants.
Brain protection likely different between DH certified and not. But just because DH certified does not mean it will protect more in all conditions.
For example: Motorcycle road racing helmets have a separate standard than a basic road helmet. The racing helmet is designed to protect from injury at high speed and the basic helmet at road legal speeds. It has been found that using a racing helmet at regular road speeds can actually cause more damage than the basic helmet as it takes higher forces to compress the styrofoam on the race helmet. If the crash is not at high enough speed to activate the styrofoam compression in the race helmet more force is transfered to the skull than would happen with a basic helmet. Now the exact opposite will happen in a high speed crash, where the basic helmet would compress its foam way to easy and then transfer more force to the skull than a race helmet.
A very long way to say "it depends".
also, I get downvotes for asking where it is?
LOL, ok