TRF Forums

Many years ago I had an open face helmet and crashed riding a motocross bike at relatively low speed.

The result was a broken tooth, 30 stitches in my lip and a hole through my chin!

I still wear an open face helmet, but for trials riding. I will always wear a full face helmet for trail riding.

I don't care how I look, I care about how safe I am.

My full face doesn't stop me from talking to other users. My bike stops me being loved by the haters though.

Maybe we shouldn't just look at helmets, perhaps we should look at the whole attire.

Can I suggest walking boots, trousers, rain jacket, flat cap, a map, ramblers hand book, no motor bike, no helmet!

What about a full face helmet, with mutton chops pasted on the jaw , a false beard on the 'chin' and a pipe glued into the mouthpiece...?... Could be changed for a white beard Seasonally...

If you want the safety with style...

No need for a camelback !....

That's it for me

Trials riding in a competition - I wear an open face, but still get whacked by branches sometimes & it hurts even at slow speed

Trail riding - Arai Tour X (with iridium visor for extra stealth )

It's safer, it's more comfy in rain & as a glasses wearer the visor is easier

Nothing will sway me, full face is by far the best option

I use an open face helmet for horse trials as its better for comfort and doesn't scare the horses so much, not that I have had any real problems.
I decided to ride to to a local horse trial as it was only about 4 miles away and I felt so vulnerable. Also got a mouthful of grit and flies.
I take the trailer now.

On our India trip, a guy fell off in loose gravel in front of me and watching him trying to keep his face off the road was truly scary. He was so lucky.

Only wear open face for horse events
Once crashed on Derbyshire trail and hit rock hard enough to snap chin piece off one side and flatten side of helmet and this was a good quality Premier MX full face. An open face would of resulted in serious injury I am sure. The roads between trails also would feel very vulnerable. Recently changed to visor type from goggles and as a specs wearer find is much better. Safety should come 1st if there is a need to converse with another user you could always take your helmet off. I don't believe we would have a different impact on other users because we were wearing an open face helmet it got more to do with how we ride surely.

The majority of access was lost in 1930 when the road traffic act of that year made it a criminal offence to ride on paths - some 35 years before helmets became compulsory.

Shortly after helmets became compulsory, Bell introduced the full face lid in 1968. This was the year of the Countryside Act which introduced the classification of BOAT and sparked the formation of the TRF. The Countryside Act was very detrimental to access.

It's unclear as to when full face lids became the norm for trailriding. Still plenty of open face lids being used for competition in the early 2000's. By that that stage the CROW act had been passed in the open face lid era of trail riding.

The only major piece of anti access legislation to be passed in the full face era is NERC. Relatively speaking this Act is less detrimental than CROW, Countryside Act and the Road Traffic Act 1930.


Full face lids are not responsible for loss of access! Most of the access has been lost in the no helmet/open face era.

It's been a while since I stopped by this forum but I thought I'd drop in and see how things were going.

I had to laugh

I wont add to your misery by offering my opinion but it is both amusing and in a perverse way reassuring to me to see that the open face/full face helmet debate can still generate so much discussion among TRF members!

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose!

As the French might say.

Keep up the good work guys.

Cheers

Richard

Happy christmas Richard!

Your inputs are much missed...by me at least!


All the best


the other Richard