Pinkbike Poll: Why Don't We Wear Full-Face Helmets More Often?

Not every ride warrants wearing a full-face helmet. Frequently, I end up riding gnarlier trails than I initially set out for. I’ll often toss two helmet options in the truck because ride plans can quickly escalate from the parking lot. Chill rides can turn into wild ones depending on who tags along. Friends can egg you on to “show them how it’s done” when nearby features can lure you in.

If you like challenging yourself, chances are you’ve taken a biff that either left you with scratches on the jaw piece of your full-face, or spitting blood. We’re always thankful when we do wear the extra coverage and disgruntled at best when we don’t. That begs the question, why don’t we wear full-face helmets all of the time?

Henry Quinney wrote an op-ed last year where he expressed his split devotion to either a half-shell or downhill race worthy full-face. “Why compromise?” was his baseline, suggesting that if your ride warrants wearing a full-face, it should have the most protection possible. That holds some weight, but I’d like to counter that. Yes, I agree with his statement that high-speed downhill racing warrants the most protection possible, but most of the terrain that we ride in the Sea to Sky is slow and steep, in comparison to bike park speeds. Plus, not all puckering steep trails are easy to access. You’ll need to drag your bike and bucket to the top under human power.

Moto track and enduro riders never venture on without them. Motorcycle trials riders opt for an open face because they are going uphill, against gravity. We enjoy the opposite. We point our bikes downhill, face-first and grinning our teeth the faster we go. Mountain bikers ride down hills fighting gravity. You’re GOING to fall forwards at some point. Any bit of jaw protection is better than none.

By increasing the security of the fit with the addition of the jaw piece, the manufacturers can add more volume to the sphere meaning more protection. Take a look at the lightweight full-face helmets out there, like the Fox Proframe RS, which have a multi-layered sandwich of spheres that rotate within one another upon impact. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a half-shell helmet that contains an equal level of technology.


Last spring I took one of the quickest and wildest crashes I’ve ever had - face first. No, I wasn’t wearing one of these helmets I’m rambling on about.

I set out to sneak in a lap before dark, with the doggo in tow, on a trail that I’ve ridden a thousand times. A squall came through that day on the North Shore and knocked a few twigs loose. One of those, void of bark - the slipperiest kind - was sitting across the lip of a bike-length gap. The run in was slow and steep on a soft, unmarked trail. I didn’t think much of the polished branch and it all went wrong in the blink of an eye.

Before I had a chance to lift the front wheel, it slid off the narrow lip and lodged in the backside of the landing. My hands didn’t even have time to come off of grips before my face catapulted into the dirt, the kind of OTB where your feet stayed clipped in. I mean full Scorpion King-style, worthy of making the Friday Fails - the seat even hit me in the back. Thankfully, it was soft and mossy where I face-planted, although I thought my nose was broken. I got really, really lucky.

As I sat there spitting out dirt and picking up the pieces of my glasses I’d broken with my nose, my four-legged friend looking at me, wondering why I decided to roll around in the dirt mid-chase. This wasn’t a race, or a huge send, or even a gnarly trail. A crash like this wasn’t supposed to happen. But accidents aren’t planned.

We wear knee pads (also - a “sometimes” accessory) and helmets to lessen these blows, but why don’t we wear more than a styrofoam hat? I’ve heard it all, “No full-face helmet I’ve tried breathes well,” “It’s too hot,” “I’m claustrophobic,” “You can’t wear a full-face without goggles. That’s bad style,” “I’m only riding that trail.” What’s your excuse? What if you showed up to a moto track looking like Ronnie Mac, sans chin-bar? You’d be kicked and laughed off the track pretty darn quick.

If you ask me, all of those reasons are bologna. Then again, I can be just as guilty as everyone else from time to time. So, what’s the solution? Make them lighter. Yup, that’s a start. Add in some additional ventilation and magnetic strap closure. Now we’re getting somewhere. Fast, light, just the way we all want our mountain bikes to ride.

Detachable chin-bars weren’t a bad thought. But what do you do with the second half of the helmet when it’s not needed, drape it around your bars or wear it as a scarf? There’s still a part of me that doesn’t fully trust that the chin-bar will stay on either, since I’ve seen one or two detach prematurely in crashes.

Goggles and a half lid give a false sense of security. They do offer that breathability on the way up, but possibly at the cost of your teeth on descents. The opposite, and equally kooky opinion of rocking glasses and a full-face again improve ventilation, yet don’t totally lock out mud splats. Plus, they give you an awful headache.

Ok, let’s add the goggles back in, but cut holes in the top of the goggle frames. That’ll reduce the greenhouse effect somewhat, although it’ll bring in the occasional clump of mud or mosquito.

There must be some way to have all three desirable traits; full-face protection, ventilation, and decent eyewear packaged into one elegant solution. One creative enduro motocross rider invented this system that lifted the google frame away from the rider’s face, but that didn’t catch on with the enduro MTB crowd.

What if… the goggles didn’t have a strap at all? Integrating a pivoting lens, something like a street motorcycle helmet, could be one way to achieve that. Too kooky? Too costly to manufacture? With all of the integrated components on bikes these days, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some variation of that in the future.

Does the perfect solution exist? Sure - don’t crash. Never challenge yourself, never take any risks, and never gain that experience of overcoming a trail feature. To each their own though. Mountain biking is inherently dangerous, so if you’re already playing that game, why not double down and buckle up with full-face coverage?