Riding with the visor up always is it a no-no?

[Mom]

I come from the age of the protests against being made to wear helmets...

Used to wear open face helmet with goggles, or goggles/face mask, or sunnies/scarf combos, or just a helmet and my eye balls against the wind

Then a friend (wearing an open face helmet with a duckbill peak) removed his chin after taking a flying lesson over a car that was driven by a blind woman.

He thanked his lucky stars he had the peak on or he would have been sans his nose...

These days I wear the very best full face helmet I can afford, complete with pinlock visor. I get claustrophobic in my helmet at slow speeds. Generally I wear sunnies in summer, or clear safety glasses in winter, and leave my visor open up to 80kph. My eyes have turned all "soft cock watery" as I have aged. I now tint the lashes as opposed to mascara

Like anyone that has ridden a few kms on a bike, I have experienced the stinging bug in the helmet scenario, I have never been stung, but have made a few very fast stops/helmet offs when said stinging beasts will not go away with a head turn or 5.

I have been known to open my visor just to get the full benefit of the freshly mown grass or what have you, regardless of my speed.

[Daffyd]

a bee was travelling in the same direction as him with his visor up.

I've never seen a bee travelling with his visor up.

[Daffyd]

Over here most riders who are wearing helmets have the visors up. (This is in the city.) It's compulsory to have a helmet, but most riders carry them on their arms. Bloody useful! Funnily enough the poor wife/girlfriend on the pillion has none. She has to look out for herself.

I think of all the bikes I've seen, and there are millions, I've seen ONE where both rider and pillion are both wearing atgatt.

This, of course is in the city. Out on the open road the percentage may be a little higher. I saw a group of about a dozen obviously leaving town on a group ride the other day and they were all kitted out. Funny to see a group ride with everyone riding underbones. (Stepthrus.)

Apologies if a little off topic.

[swbarnett]

3) It gets kinda hard to breathe when you are on the motorway with it up!

Funny, I find the exact opposite. I almost always ride with the visor completely up (unless the weather dictates otherwise) because I often find it hard to breathe with it completely down. Even when I have it closed it's almoist always open a crask to let more air in.

Like anyone that has ridden a few kms on a bike, I have experienced the stinging bug in the helmet scenario, I have never been stung, but have made a few very fast stops/helmet offs when said stinging beasts will not go away with a head turn or 5.

I've been stung on the cheek while riding with visor up, had a rather large bug spill it's guts all over my cheek (nearly in my mouth ). I've also had a bruise on my fingers from a flying rock (through gloves) so I have a fair idea of what the impact would be like on the face. After all this I still haven't felt the need to have my visor down all the time.

I have been known to open my visor just to get the full benefit of the freshly mown grass or what have you, regardless of my speed.

Exactly. Afterall, connection to one's environment is among the major advantages of a bike over a cage.

[Banditbandit]

I've got photos of riders in full face helmets that have not worked in a crash.

Also got photos of riders in open face helmets having no problems at all.

Yeah ... seen both senarios myself ...

Over here most riders who are wearing helmets have the visors up. (This is in the city.) It's compulsory to have a helmet, but most riders carry them on their arms. Bloody useful!

Great elbow protection ..

[Maha]

Like Anne said, up till about 80kph I am happy with, I have the drop down/retract internal sun visor which is a great help. 90% of the time I have it one click open anyway.
Had it all the open one time during heavy rain because it kept fogging up (slow riding in Devonport ) and when I went to close it, I had rain on the inside of the visor as well!

[Botany Honda]

Full face, visor down, open face cheap sunnies, each has good and bad points but I allow myself to decide

[The Reibz]

My eyeballs are good up to about 140kph - around 160ish if I get below the screen. After that I just turn my head down and the visor slams shut automatically.
Bugs and stones don't really worry me, dust coming off the back of trucks is arsehole for the eyes though

[kevinator9]

I enjoy riding with the visor up around 50km areas. My eyes dry out after a few days and get all itchy because they are constantly getting little pieces of crap in them as I ride along. Have started wearing sunglasses now and seems to work much better. Still put the visor down over 50km areas as the amount of crap on the visor after a ride up the country tells me I should.
I assume the type of bike ridden would make a fair amount of difference here?

[imdying]

Shit, I should have stretched it to reach the sarc threshold.

Just read it again, still awesome.

[DamianW]

Similar to Xsannz and NordieBoy, I wear clear safety glasses ($25 from my dentist). Optically sound, I wear 'em under a tinted visor and leave the visor up at night.

[ensapp]

I was coming home late one night on the Indian going about 50mph when something stuck me right between the eyes. I was temporarily distracted but kept control of the bike. A knot big enough that I could see it with both eyes rose from my forehead. I thought someone had thrown a rock. I turned around and road back about 25 yards to find a big horned beetle dead in the road.
Another time I was coming down a hill near home and was going about 60 mph, I wasn't flying low when something flew up my nose. I tried to blow it out but was unsuccessful it kept crawling further up so I took my finger and squashed it, that's when it stung me inside my nose. within seconds I couldn't see anything. I knew the road and tried to hear if I was going off the pavement. It didn't work, I crashed and rolled. It was about 15 minutes before my sight returned and I could walk the bike the rest of the way home.
I wear a full face today with the visor down, I'm too old for wrecks.

[G4L4XY]

I got stung by a bee in a 50kmp/h zone, visor was down n all but the bastard got me up behind my left ear. I dunno how he got in there, pulled over up onto the footpath for a good looksie to see wtf just happened..

Usually have the visor up one notch within town limits and down anything faster than that.

[SMOKEU]

I only ride with the visor up at slow speeds around town, and only when I'm wearing sunglasses. On the open road I always ride with the visor down. It's not worth the risk of getting hit in the face, as most rides I go on the visor gets hit by flying debris.

[EJK]

I only ride with the visor up at slow speeds around town, and only when I'm wearing sunglasses. On the open road I always ride with the visor down. It's not worth the risk of getting hit in the face, as most rides I go on the visor gets hit by flying debris.

Wot e sed



Cool tip: I accidentally WD40'ed the screws on the side of the helmet and now it automatically shuts when I speed over 60kph. How convenient is that?!