Does anyone one use a full face lid

[Celtic Dragon]

Following a recce of my local bike park and visiting the LBS toddy, I get the impression a full face is highly recommended. Everyone there when i was, were using them, and looking around at some of the vids on youtube of the crashes i dont think my very xc lid is up to the job. I was wondering if anyone had any experiences of them.

[722Adam]

I have both and alternate depending on the riding I'm doing. Full face is a 661 Strike from 07/08. Only thing I'll say is that in the summer your head will melt. They do get rather hot!

[Jimbo.]

Celtic Dragon said:

Following a recce of my local bike park and visiting the LBS toddy, I get the impression a full face is highly recommended. Everyone there when i was, were using them, and looking around at some of the vids on youtube of the crashes i dont think my very xc lid is up to the job. I was wondering if anyone had any experiences of them.

Horrible for anything other than DH'ing.

[P-Jay]

Jimbo. said:

Horrible for anything other than DH'ing.

+1 I wouldn't bother, I've tried it, it's a nightmare, most people who try end up strapping them to their packs for the climbs and it's never that clear-cut, even the most manmade of trail centres so you'll end up doing some downs without a lid.

A good 'AM' type helmet offers lots of protection, even to your face due to the way it overhangs.

If you do want one, I've had a Troy Lee D2 for an absolute age now and it's great - expensive though, not sure if they still make them, but the newer D3 is even more pricy.

[Kawasicki]

Messing about on dirt jumps on my bmx, yes. I'm crap and I need it.

[Smartboy]

A couple of my mates have got lids with removable 'full-face-bits' so they can unscrew the piece that goes around your jaw and just use it as a standard-ish looking XC lid for the tamer stuff and put the extra bit back on when things get more extreme.

I don't know the make or model of them though, but might be made by Giro perhaps?

Both complain about how hot it gets though. Main reason being that your hot breath can't escape as well when the gradient goes uphill and you start breathing hard at slower speeds.

[supersport]

There is a dad at my son's school who does the school ride in a full face, since we live in an almost flat city I thought it was a little OTT and looks a bit

[MrTrilby]

I have a Casco Viper MX which is a semi full face helmet. I wear it pretty much all the time in preference to my conventional helmet - even on the school run - and on longer road rides averaging 19MPH it doesn't seem any hotter or sweatier than a conventional helmet. The only real downside is the visor blocks your view a bit on a proper road bike when you go down on the drops - I keep meaning to work out if I can detach the visor.

There are other minor issues such as people making ignorant and snobby comments about you looking daft in it, but (a) I'm often wearing high vis and lycra so the helmet is the least of my worries and (b) if it saves another episode of looking like Frankenstein for a month or two once my chin has been sewn back up after emulating superman across the road then I'm happy.

http://www.velodromeshop.net/index.php?p=product&a...

[Not Ideal]

Trilby - thanks for that.

I was just looking for a full face helmet for Passporte Du Soleil this year after cutting my face open twice last year with a couple of crashes. Your solution looks perfect to me as I remember previously looking sympathetically at everyone else boiling in their full facers in the heat of the summer!

Edited to add: Ordered !!

Edited by Not Ideal on Thursday 6th June 10:06