Following on from the visibility through fear thread, here's some thoughts on open face vs full face helmets vs other full face lids
I have a girlfriend and a sister who are both radiographers that get to see guys who have skidded down the road on their face in open face lids... I'm assured it's messy.
My point is that a full face helmet probably offers twice the protection in your average accident than a half face lid and doesn't have the potential to break in two around the chin bar like a flip up lid might.
To my knowledge the Snell safety tests only deal with impacts from above. I did a bit of a research project on helmet chin bars during my degree and discovered that this area is not one that is covered by any of the existing standards, so its up to helmet manufacturers to decide what to build. While all lids may be equal from above, there could well be some dramatic differences in the frontal impact performance.
When I did my research in 2000, the only helmet manufacturer that was obviously taking frontal impact seriously was Lazer who typically incorporate a steel core through the chin bar. I'm sure the other manufacturers consider it but I wonder how they gauge what is enough if no standard tells them?
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