Open face helmets on sport bikes

I usually wear a full-face helmet on my 750 Katana, but during a recent hot spell, I tried my old open-face helmet. I know about safety issues, so no lectures on ATGATT please! I always wear leather a jacket (sometimes jeans, sometimes leather pants) boots and gloves.

The helmet feels better and I believe it gives me better peripheral vision and a better sense of what's going on around me. Plus my head gets nowhere near as hot as when I wear a full helmet. And I do wear earplugs.

I see cruiser and ADV-type riders with both open and full helmets, but I feel like I'm the only guy who has worn an open face helmet on a sport bike. Why is that? I was told the forward leaning sportbike posture causes the helmet to lift but I have not found this to be an issue.

I usually only see black guys wearing open face helmets on sportbikes for some reason. They're usually the German army helmet style and riding a Hyabusa.

I've never worn anything but full face in Southern Louisiana and I've never noticed my head getting hot. I get hot other places but not my head.

I have before but since I got hailed on in January once. Switched to an hjc flip up a couple of years ago, then that got old and broken. Earlier this year I picked up a Nolan n-com, best helmet ever. If you want something versatile that you can still get that wind in your face when it's hot and flip it down when you want to go really fast. Great on the sport bike or the v strom. I would only buy a flip up with all the commuting I do.

Yes, go for a flip up if you need the venting - I had a friend who did a nose dive in an open face and it was not pretty.

I think safety is the primary reason. I prefer an open face helmet - a lot, but I don't even own one anymore. I like the protection afforded by a full face. The lifting argument is BS in my experience unless the helmet is a poor fit.

I once high-sided at 35 mph on a highway exit ramp. No idea what caused it. Slid down the road on my belly. Sanded about 1/8" off the chin bar of my helmet. The thought of what my jaw/face would have looked like without a full-face helmet makes me want to vomit. I would never ride with anything but a full-face helmet, anywhere, on any bike, for any reason whatsoever.

Yup, yah pays yer money and yah takes yer chances

FWIW, I had a friend take a Junebug in the forehead wearing an open face. He was doing about 70 at the time. Left a rather substantial welt on his forehead, which was surrounded by bug splatter. Quite artistic, in a gruesome sort of way.

G

My face is too perty for a half-helmet.

I sympathies w/ the heat, its recently been in the hundreds w/ very high humidity here in Houston, but why not just ride w/ the face shield open and some good coverage sunglasses? I believe givi also made a x10 or something helmet that was super-vented in the front.

My wife once had a patient who's goal was to be able to eat his meals using his mouth again. He'd been using a straw for several months because he thought an open face helmet was "safe enough". The helmet saved his life but his face was ruined. Do you want to be like that guy?

With all due respect to the above posters, I don't believe that almost all sport bike riders where a full-face helmet out of a concern for safety. Look at all the squids you see in flip-flops or sneakers, shorts, T-Shirt, and a full-face helmet.

It's fashion. Somebody somewhere (pro racers) wore full-face helmets on sport bikes, and that's become the standard. Same as why you almost never see a cruiser rider in a full face. It's not the fashion for that style of bike.

Jamie

I wear an open face helmet sometimes. I like it because at 50mph it feels like I'm going really fast and I just like being 'outside'. And it slows me down heaps.

Then I've had safety lectures from guys in full ATGATT mode who travel everywhere at 90mph on the open road.

When it gets hot here in summer (40*c+/110*F+ for weeks) I usually ride with a MX style helmet as they vent better. I can deal with the wind up to about 100kph/60mph, then I'll put on sunglasses if I need.

YMMV

ahaha true point! Though I don't think full-face is the fashion for sports bikes - I think it's just a desire to separate their identity from the open-face cruiser riders - so full-face it is!

In terms of the actual choice of helmet - it always amuses me about safety lectures on bikes. After all, if we wanted to avoid risk, we would drive a car (or walk everywhere). Everybody has a different threshold for risk, and while I would never wear anything except a full-face, if an open-face influences your riding enough to be safer then good for you.

ATGATT is great, and I strongly encourage it, but I maintain a sensible rider naked on a bike is better than an idiot in all the gear in the world.

I think Jamie probably nailed it on the head with that answer.

Guess I'll be the odd man out and kinda disagree

Using that logic, the squids wouldn't be wearing "...flip-flops or sneakers, shorts, T-Shirt,..." either since the "Somebody somewhere (pro racers)" certainly don't dress like that. Why would the squids adopt a full face helmet for fashion and ignore the rest of the gear? They've got the look all wrong!

Guys, I appreciate the responses, but I didn't want to get into a full-face v.s. open-face debate.

I know the pros and cons and in fact I saw the horrific results of a guy who hit the ground face first in an open face helmet right after it happened. He was walking around without a chin or nose!

I was just more curious as to why sport bike riders seem to unanimously prefer full-face helmets over open-face. I thought there would be a specific reason. An open-face helmet just feels so much better from time-to-time.

all modular helmet manufactures warn against riding with the chin bar up. plus that renders the shield useless so extra eye protection would be a must.
Shark is the only one that makes a modular that is designed to be ridden with the chin bar up and the face shield is independent and it comes with a retractable tinted shield. all three components operate independently.

http://www.shark-evoline.com/