Helmets - do they kill the fun?

[Mac]

I used to ride LA traffic without a helmet the freedom it afforded me was worth the risk at that time (Dumb kid). I couldn’t understand why you’d wear a helmet paragliding, if you crash you land on your ass. I never wore a helmet boarding or skiing. I always wore a helmet motor-x racing, flying hang gliders, and never even considered why the difference. 

They changed the laws in California requiring helmets, and I’ve been riding the road with a helmet since then. 5 or 6 years ago a guy pulled out from the left turn lane and I broadsided him. I flew over the car and landed on my head and back. I’d probably be much stupider than I am now or dead. 

Anyway I don’t always completely gear up but I always wear wrist guards, and a full face moto-x helmet now. I have a rear view mirror mounted on it. I also have a moto sport helmet like duf for the rain and snow. Works great in the winter, but the moto-x works much better in the summer. It has great ventilation and keeps your head cool. 

[Flying W]

I didn't start wearing a helmet until I was having a kid. I had my son on my 40th birthday so I had a good long childhood but I wear one now. In 17 more yrs when he's 18 I can take it off again 

I wear gear when doing fun things so I can get back to them quickly after it's goes wrong. 

I always wore good gear on the dirt bikes and I still have plates and screws. 

For me if I'm riding an EUC in a tennis court practicing reverse figure 8s I will wear wrist guards only. Going to the store on sidewalks gets a bicycle non full face helmet added. Slow technical mnt bike trails adds knee and elbow protection. Long ride where anything from walking speed off road climbed to sustained 30+mph speeds in the same ride gets a motorcycle jacket with back protection, full face helmet knee/shin and hip protection. 

If an EUC fails on the trips to the store it's going to suck but no more so than a bicycle crash, but going down at 40mph would be like a slow motorcycle crash and I'll be happy to be wear appropriate gear. 

I'm happy that any time if come off an EUC it was my mistake, I have not had one fail on me yet. I know it can happen though, but I still ride to the store in minimal gear. I know there is a chance I could fall practicing going backwards and hit my head but I like practicing slow speed balance related things without gear on.

I don't have much of a safety mindset, but I also don't like to be without the fun outlets so the amount of gear has gone up with age. 

[Gasmantle]

On 12/16/2020 at 2:25 PM, GoGeorgeGo said:

Just my 2 cents about helmet wearing.

I find that on nice days the helmet feels restrictive.  I want to catch the fresh air on my whole head. 

That's exactly the point I was making, I appreciate riding without a helmet isn't the most sensible thing to do but the risk of injury needs to be offset against the added pleasure of riding without.

Isn't any sport simply a case of evaluating risk against pleasure? 

[redsnapper]

risk management is on a continuum that comes down to personal preference - I fell at speed on a trail without a helmet and although the arc traced by my missile like flight should have resulted in a head injury, I was lucky enough to xfer most of the impact to my shldr girdle. So I could very well cogitate about my shldr pain while I waited in the ER! I was riding with a very high tolerance for risk due to my belief that there was a low probability of falling. After this crash my risk dial moved considerably towards higher probability of injury on falling and I have thus become more apt to wear a helmet and ride more conservatively. But occasionally (or perhaps even more often), I will ride without a helmet even at speed. That's hubris for ya! If I fall and crack my skull, I will surely regret not wearing a helmet ( if my brain works well enough to think that straight ). Riding without a helmet is a kind of thrilling Russian roulette - fun until you spin the barrel to the loaded chamber... Maybe this barrel has 20000 chambers? Or maybe only 6... So helmets may kill your EUC fun but fall and kill your brain? Well that's really no fun at all... 

Edited December 17, 2020 by amelanso

[UniGrad]

6 hours ago, amelanso said:

Riding without a helmet is a kind of thrilling Russian roulette - fun until you spin the barrel to the loaded chamber... Maybe this barrel has 20000 chambers? Or maybe only 6...

Nice metaphor. Makes me think differently about not wearing a helmet. If I was in a game of Russian roulette and the gun had 20000 barrels, I'd probably still bail.

Okay so something very interesting happened on my ride yesterday with the Sherman. A couple of things actually. I'll mention the less interesting one first.

I was on my looooong ride to the beach. Not far into my journey. Had all my usual gear on. Knee pads, elbow pads (had a moto jacket on for the cold weather this time actually), wrist guards and full face downhill MTB helmet.
I was riding on a bike path by the river, saw a bunch of cyclists ahead of me taking up all the lanes, so I veered off into the dirt, accelerated to pass the cyclists, hit a huge hole in the ground that was hidden, and before I could even blink I was sliding on my chest and my face at 40km/h. It was a really hard impact but the moto jacket and the full face helmet allowed me to get right back up, give a thumbs up to the cyclists that were looking at me with worried faces, and cruise right off. And there's a good chance that the wrist guards saved me from breaking one of my wrists. A very good chance. Oh my god do I love wearing protection these days. For years I used to ride escoots and eskates with no gear at all and an accident like this could stop me from being able to ride for months.
I was wearing jeans with top quality downhill skating knee pads over them (Triple 8 flagship model), and I still did some damage to my left knee and tore open my jeans. Those pads don't protect the shins so my left shin bone got smacked by the Sherman as it tumbled which cut open the skin in that area (can see blood on the jeans below the knee on the pic below).
I received some MotoX knee/shin pads that I was wating for in the mail and I'll use these in future rather than the skating knee pads. This would've prevented the shin blow but luckily it wasn't serious. Just a little pain that quickly vanished as I continued on my journey toward the beach.
But what really has me thinking is, imagine how bad my left knee would look if I wasn't wearing those chunky downhill knee pads. Thanks to the pads it's just a little graze and my knee is perfectly fine. Not one little bit of pain aside from the grazed skin if it rubs on something. But that's nothing.

Here's a photo of my left leg after the fall.

Okay so as I continued with my journey to the beach on my Sherman I had to pass through the centre of the city (CBD or central business district).
This was during the day so there were some people around but not many since Adelaide is not a busy place.
I was riding on the footpath at 20km/h with my helmet in my hand. As I mentioned several times this is what I always do. Whenever I slow down to around this speed I will take my helmet off and enjoy the fresh air. It's one of my favourite parts of riding.

So I was riding along an empty foot path or sidewalk as people also call it. Note that we have tons of rental scooters that are allowed on these foot paths and it's normal to ride at around 20 km/h. But I always slow down to around 10 km/h when I am near any pedestrians.
So I was cruising along and I decided to quickly check behind me. I turned my head to the left for about 1.5 seconds, and in that short moment I saw something moving quickly in my peripheral vision (towards my right which was directly in front of me since my head was turned facing almost backward). Since this alerted me I rapidly turned me head forward to see what it was and before I could do anything my face collided with the side of a lady's head. She went flying about 3m (10 feet) and was laying on the floor. The Sherman didn't make contact with her though. It went tumbling away, and the helmet that was in my hand at the time also went flying. I landed on my knees but was fine. Although I was certain I must have lost some teeth. Since the front of my face took the brunt of the impact. But I was lucky and just had a bloody nose and a bloody mouth.

In this moment I was super worried. I was certain that she would need an ambulance or at least some medical care. But to my surprise she got up and said she was okay, then apologized and asked if I was okay. It turned out that she came running out of a shop and ran straight into me during that short moment when I did my head check. It was totally unavoidable. At the instant that it happened I was in disbelief. I was like "Oh my god how on earth am I crashing into something?". It felt like something just appeared out of nowhere. Like she teleported directly into my path. Now I'm going to ride very differently on foot paths. Pedestrians can be extremely unpredictable.

But here's the really interesting part that relates to this thread. Just look at my helmet. Look at that pointed protrusion that goes over the chin.
If that helmet was on my head during this collision she would most certainly have been seriously injured. That hard and sharp protrusion would have guaranteed to be the first thing to make contact with the side of her head and it could have easily broken her skull 💀

As a mechanical engineer I am aware of the massive difference in terms of the shock forces involved in an impact when you change the elasticity or the hardness of the contact area. And there an even more massive difference when you change the size of the contact area.
Both of these effects are greatly amplified by this type of helmet. Not only is that sharp protrusion as hard as nails, but it's as sharp as nails too meaning it has a tiny contact area. Smaller contact area means greater pressure upon impact.

The consequence of the impact in comparison impacting with the front of my face like she did, could have been as much as 100 fold 

And I'm not exaggerating when I say 100 fold. I am happy to demonstrate some of the math if anyone's interested. But I can tell you that changing the contact area even a little bit is enough to amplify it tremendously. A good example is a blunt knife vs a sharp knife. The sharp knife will do far more damage if its blade collides with you compared to the blunt one. Because a sharp knife has a smaller contact area it applies a much greater pressure upon impact.

That helmet, if it didn't break her skull, it would have at the very least cut her head wide open like a heavy spear crashing into soft flesh. It would have been messy.

Boy am I glad that I wasn't wearing my helmet on my head. I had never thought about this possibility but this has been a very valuable lesson. Not only will I be overly careful on foot paths from now on, but I will NEVER wear my helmet on them either. Not that I ever did much before, but sometimes I did. Also you get lots of bad looks with that helmet on. And I think rightfully so it makes you look like a hazard.
This event was totally unavoidable and out of my control. I was riding sensibly and carefully. So this could happen to anybody.
This lady practically sprinted right into me at the perfect moment to cause a guaranteed crash.

I'm also glad to report that despite these 2 events I made it to the beach and ended up having a great ride. Then when I got home I found the motoX knee/shin pads in the mail.
How ironic is that. But I'm super happy with them. I only paid like $25 for them and they're better than my $80 downhill knee pads. More comfortable and much better protection. I'm certain that my leg and my jeans wouldn't have a scratch on them if I had these new pads on at the time. I'm really pleasantly surprised with these pads. You don't always get what you pay for.

Here's the link to them if anyone's interested. Not sure if they ship outside of Australia though.

Below is the link to the elbow and knee/shin guard combo which I bought. But the elbow pads aren't that great. The knee/shin guard is excellent though and super cheap.

https://www.mxstore.com.au/p/Fly-Racing-Barricade-Elbow-Knee-Shin-Guard-Bundle/7104688-b

Below is the link to another elbow guard which I also bought.

https://www.mxstore.com.au/p/Answer-Apex-Adult-Elbow-Guards/018248

This one is absolutely fantastic and also very cheap (about $20).
It's cheap but it's better than any other elbow pad I've ever tried. And they look to be great quality too. Like they will last a very long time. I'm not understanding the economics here. Made me think. Is this real life? I bought these cheap pads fully expecting to get something cheap. I just wanted to test them out because the photos of them look awesome. But I honestly thought I'd end up having to get some more expensive ones.
But I certainly won't be needing to do that. These pads are like twice as good quality as my Triple 8 flagship pads.

Edited December 18, 2020 by UniGrad

[mrelwood]

3 hours ago, UniGrad said:

This event was totally unavoidable and out of my control. I was riding sensibly and carefully. So this could happen to anybody.
This lady practically sprinted right into me at the perfect moment to cause a guaranteed crash.

I’ll have to disagree with the part in bold. As you said, pedestrians are unpredictable, especially if there are shop windows around, or blind corners such as the shop door. She definitely shouldn’t have run out from the shop like that. But that’s what pedestrians do, and knowing that fact we can avoid crashing to them with great probability.

Of course there are large differences in city planning all over the world, but generally I would expect that riding in front of shop doors and windows can be, and should be avoided for this exact reason.

But I’m definitely happy to hear that both of you are relatively ok!

[UniGrad]

51 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

I’ll have to disagree with the part in bold. As you said, pedestrians are unpredictable, especially if there are shop windows around, or blind corners such as the shop door. She definitely shouldn’t have run out from the shop like that. But that’s what pedestrians do, and knowing that fact we can avoid crashing to them with great probability.

Of course there are large differences in city planning all over the world, but generally I would expect that riding in front of shop doors and windows can be, and should be avoided for this exact reason.

But I’m definitely happy to hear that both of you are relatively ok!

If I was riding riding in front of the shop door......

1. She would not have needed to sprint at me to cause the accident.
2. I would not be surprised at all that this happened
3. She probably wouldn't have apologized but rather would be wanting to sue me

I was well away from the shop door. I'd say at least 10 feet. I always ride as far away from shop doors as the path allows. This also applies to anywhere that people may appear from unexpectedly. Such as entrances to the beach for example. I'm a very careful person in anything I do including driving a car.

Merely riding past a shop door would unnerve me even if I thought the shop was closed. Since you just never know.

I do agree with you that I should still be more careful in future. And I did already mention that I would do just that. I will no longer ride on any foot paths at this speed and I will be overly careful from now on.

But here's the thing to realize. I will be "overly" careful from now on. I was still being very careful. And certainly much more careful than your average escooter rider. My careful riding was completely negated by her extreme actions that caused this. She knew this and accepted this. Only by being extremely careful could this have been avoided. Which is exactly what I'll be doing from now on.

What I'm saying is that even careful and safe riders can have this happen to them. I will certainly not be wearing my helmet on foot paths. But I already had that habit which is why this lady is not in the hospital right now.

  

51 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

But I’m definitely happy to hear that both of you are relatively ok!

Yes I think we're both fine. My face had a little blood on it when it happened but now I'm not feeling any pain at all.

With that helmet on I'd be perfectly fine, and she'd be on the ground with a broken head.

Edited December 18, 2020 by UniGrad

[Zopper]

5 hours ago, UniGrad said:

Just look at my helmet. Look at that pointed protrusion that goes over the chin.
If that helmet was on my head during this collision she would most certainly have been seriously injured. That hard and sharp protrusion would have guaranteed to be the first thing to make contact with the side of her head and it could have easily broken her skull 💀

 

That’s an interesting point. A street round motorcycle helmet is better in this regards.

5 hours ago, UniGrad said:

Also you get lots of bad looks with that helmet on. And I think rightfully so it makes you look like a hazard.

And with a flip-over chin, you can fully uncover your face for a good eye2eye contact, while keeping the helmet on. It adds some hard edges around, though. Like this one.

You could have hit your head against something else during the fall, and a helmet would be important again... I still consider my head hitting a hard stuff as a more probable accident rather than a head-bang with a pedestrian, even at a slow speed, but it’s good you pointed this out.

[Planemo]

6 hours ago, UniGrad said:

But what really has me thinking is, imagine how bad my left knee would look if I wasn't wearing those chunky downhill knee pads. 

Looking at the torn jeans and grazing, one can only assume that the knee pad either moved or wore through? Are they hard-shell? do they fit properly?

This is one of the reasons I have moved to tight-fitting (against the skin) knee pads with plastic sliders. They aren't moving anywhere, and because they have sliders the friction abrasion won't (shouldn't) pull them up or down. I have seen too many injuries on people where the pad has been moved up or down the limb, exposing fragile flesh.

Most MTB/cycle padding isn't fit for EUC purpose on tarmac. You really have to go to MX or in fact anything with sliders. And of course it has to fit well.

6 hours ago, UniGrad said:

This event was totally unavoidable and out of my control. I was riding sensibly and carefully. So this could happen to anybody.

I would have to agree with @mrelwood on this, it was totally in your control. Bar a deer running out of nowhere without any possibility of predicting it, or involuntary reflex (sneeze/bee sting) there aren't many reasons that a collision is totally out of your control.

Not picking on you at all, I'm no saint either. I try my best, but unless we ride everywhere at walking speed whenever pedestrians are within our intercept trajectories, it will always be our fault if we are on the pavement/pedestrian area. We are the ones motorized. I am not so good at dropping to the walking speed, so I take the option of giving the biggest berth, usually enough that even if the pedestrian walking directly sideways I still wouldn't collide. Children are a different matter, they can RUN sideways without notice, so it's walking speed unless I am a LONG way from them.

[Darrell Wesh]

7 hours ago, UniGrad said:

Boy am I glad that I wasn't wearing my helmet on my head. I had never thought about this possibility but this has been a very valuable lesson. Not only will I be overly careful on foot paths from now on, but I will NEVER wear my helmet on them either

So let’s just say you lost some teeth in the process. Let’s also say you’re in America and your medical bill is astronomical because of this. Would you still not wear a helmet merely for the sake of a pedestrian whose at fault? 

Your safety and well being trumps any one else’s. If I’m on the road and I have to swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid getting hit by someone changing into my lane; and the oncoming driver swerves and crashes into a tree, then so be it. I did what I had to do to survive. 

 

[Planemo]

On 12/15/2020 at 1:51 AM, Gasmantle said:

What's your opinion on helmets?

I have a full face Steelbird helmet that I really like and wear probably 90% of my riding time but I still do think it kinda kills the freedom feeling of riding an EUC and chose not to wear sometimes.

Clearly helmets are an important feature of safe riding and potentially protect you from a serious injury but isn't life sometimes about taking a calculated risk and just hoping nothing goes wrong?

Do you sometimes take a risk in the pursuit of extra riding enjoyment?

I guess I should actually reply to the original post as well!

I hate helmets with a passion, particularly as I am mainly a fair weather rider so I don't need the warmth or rain protection. Unfortunately for me, it's a necessary evil. If I was on a scooter I might not, but the fear of a faceplant at anything over 10mph terrifies me. But yes, having to wear a full face helmet, even a vented MTB one, in the middle of a UK summer is a royal PITA and does hinder the experience for me somewhat.

The only time I can remember not wearing one was when I was learning in my grassed back garden. Ironically enough, and on a side note, the back garden was the location where my daughter had her one and only fall - and the ONE occasion when she wasn't wearing wrist guards (she had got on the wheel to practice without me knowing). She fell at just about zero mph (I managed to see it thought the patio door), her hand landed on the patio slabs and pushed her wrist back. We thought she broke it. She didn't, but was in pain for about 2 weeks. Just goes to show.

[UniGrad]

6 hours ago, Zopper said:

I still consider my head hitting a hard stuff as a more probable accident rather than a head-bang with a pedestrian

😂😂😂😂😂 That made me lol and it's so true

Yeah you're right it's a pretty rare thing to happen. I can't believe it actually happened. But since it did happen I'm very glad I wasn't wearing it.
But in future I'll just be going 10 km/h on the foot paths so I won't use the helmet for that.
Plus, don't wanna be that guy driving a mystery scooter at walking speed with full motorcycle gear and full face helmet on.
That's sure to get lots of funny looks. Maybe I'll do it just for that if I get bored.

  

6 hours ago, Planemo said:

Bar a deer running out of nowhere without any possibility of predicting it

Well that is almost exactly what happened. But it wasn't a deer. The lady even apologized. She literally sprinted all the way from the shop door over to me in the 1.5 seconds it took me to do a head check. Before I started the head check there was nobody in sight. I wasn't riding close to the shop door either. I never do that because it's scary. I stay as far away as possible. I was at least 10 feet from the door as I went by and she must have covered that 10 feet in about 1.5 seconds. Pretty bizarre stuff.

Edited December 18, 2020 by UniGrad

[UniGrad]

6 hours ago, Planemo said:

Looking at the torn jeans and grazing, one can only assume that the knee pad either moved or wore through? Are they hard-shell? do they fit properly?

This is one of the reasons I have moved to tight-fitting (against the skin) knee pads with plastic sliders. They aren't moving anywhere, and because they have sliders the friction abrasion won't (shouldn't) pull them up or down. I have seen too many injuries on people where the pad has been moved up or down the limb, exposing fragile flesh.

Most MTB/cycle padding isn't fit for EUC purpose on tarmac. You really have to go to MX or in fact anything with sliders. And of course it has to fit well.

Yeah they were hard shell downhill skating knee pads. They are meant for sliding on road surfaces but the straps really suck. Yeah you're right they slid off and allowed the grazing to occur but thank god they REALLY did their job upon impact. I could really feel that my knees had taken a large blow as I hit the ground really hard and fast. Who knows what that would've done to my bare knees. I'm certain I'd be limping right now at least.

I've since bought some MX pads just like you said. Oddly enough they were very cheap and they're much better than my expensive downhill skating pads. They fit better. They're more comfortable. They protect better and protect the shin and forearms unlike the downhill pads.
And to top it all off, they are much easier to put on and remove. And they were like 4x cheaper????? I put up a link to where I bought them from earlier in this thread.

Edited December 18, 2020 by UniGrad

[UniGrad]

5 hours ago, Darrell Wesh said:

So let’s just say you lost some teeth in the process. Let’s also say you’re in America and your medical bill is astronomical because of this. Would you still not wear a helmet merely for the sake of a pedestrian whose at fault? 

Your safety and well being trumps any one else’s. If I’m on the road and I have to swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid getting hit by someone changing into my lane; and the oncoming driver swerves and crashes into a tree, then so be it. I did what I had to do to survive. 

 

I totally feel you and you're right. I was actually worried I had lost teeth when it happened.
But my answer to this is not to keep riding at 20 km/h on footpaths, plus add the dangerous helmet to that equation.

As @Planemo had suggested, the only way to avoid these things is to go at walking speed. Or I believe at the very most 10 km/h which is 6 mph. This is what I'll be doing if I ride on the foot path. And I won't have the helmet on for that. And I don't need to ride on the foot path that often. Plenty of good roads and bike paths around.

It may have been completely her fault but god forbid should I have to find out what happens when you break someones head open because you were riding some mystery vehicle on the foot path with full motorcycle armor and spiked helmet on.

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by UniGrad

[Finn Bjerke]

Wear helmet if you ride fast its not a sextoy ppl. Get a grip. protect brain if U have one 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Finn Bjerke

[Mac]

The lessons learned in any single interaction are individual albeit personal reflections with a specific outcome. The overall odds speak to the average outcome.

Where and when you or I ever become a statistic is a major portion of the equation. When looking at all reported crashes regardless of injuries the fatality rate for EUC riders to date is pretty low. 

The point that I'm making here is that it is important to give up fatalistic notions and to recognize that most collisions are avoidable, and that the odds of us even becoming a static are small. The EUC rider has an excellent machine for avoiding collisions, we have a 180° of unobstructed vision at all times, and we can easily scan another 45° on either side without much problem. We have unobstructed hearing (even with a helmet), so we're aware of how far away the approaching car is, we have an even faster turning capability.

What are the odds? On a personal level is it worth the risk? That is and should be a personal decision. 

Because I’m an old guy I’ve been ridiculed as an inappropriate risk taker for even riding my EUC when visiting with some of my friends at the old folks home. On the other hand when I pull up to the pub to down a cool one I’m revered. 

I spend more time at the pub...

[Flying W]

Well said @Mac

[EUC AZ]

@Gasmantle have you tried other helmets?  I have the trigger ff and I honestly forget im wearing it.  It does not have a visor, has a super big field of view, and only weighs 600g.   Maybe a helmet with the wind in your face will give you that same helmet less feel.

[Mac]

Since I ride Moto-x I’m used to the extra weight of the helmets. Plus when I went looking for an additional helmet to add to my collection as and EUC helmet. I did a lot of reading about the bike helmets and their certifications. One of the guys was bragging about a helmet he and his buddy used. A synopsis of the article was that when his buddy wrecked and was airlifted out the only thing that was of any consequences was his concussion... 

So I reverted back to using my standard Moto-x helmets. I did add a Sedici Sistema II Helmet for winter riding after trying just about everything else on in the Cycle Gear store. I liked that Duf could drink his Dunkin Donuts coffee while riding back home, still wearing his helmet. 1500g is quite a bit when compared to 600g of your ride and even heavy compared to my other Moto-x helmets, but it also works for me in the rain and on my S-18 and Yamaha FZ1. On top of that it was relatively inexpensive. 

Still there isn’t anything like flying down the road with the wind in your face and luck in your hand...

 

[.....]

If anyone could design protection gear and it be exactly like not wearing any, Trojan would have found it by now and we wouldnt have a population problem...  just sayin'.

[Mac]

28 minutes ago, ShanesPlanet said:

If anyone could design protection gear and it be exactly like not wearing any, Trojan would have found it by now and we wouldnt have a population problem...  just sayin'.

I hate to use the LOL but in this case LOL!

 

[Rawnei]

7 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

If anyone could design protection gear and it be exactly like not wearing any, Trojan would have found it by now and we wouldnt have a population problem...  just sayin'.

My IXS Trigger FF helmet is more or less like that, it's very light and doesn't obstruct your view so you don't think about that you're wearing it, same with motorcycle clothes with protection built in you just put them on and their like normal pants and a jacket and don't think more about it.

[MikieSWE]

"Helmets - do they kill the fun?"

No, they do not. Just adapt or be without them. Period.

I use all gear I have possess of, and Im ok with that. It gives a bit overconfidence
that I know and experienced of, but to have the gear, just go with it. I do, and feel
pretty much fine with it. People tell in various places it constrain me, cant do this,
cant do that. Wth. Adapt and get stuff that comply to what you are doing.
Could it be more simple? Where to get the info? If none to get, make the info!
 

Merry Xmas to you all and keep safe out there! Ride your wheel as no tomorrow.

.
 

[Planemo]

On 12/19/2020 at 9:19 AM, Rawnei said:

My IXS Trigger FF helmet is more or less like that, it's very light and doesn't obstruct your view so you don't think about that you're wearing it, same with motorcycle clothes with protection built in you just put them on and their like normal pants and a jacket and don't think more about it.

The Trigger is a nice lid no doubt. I've been to-ing and fro-ing between that and the Proframe for months.

And you're absolutely right with the MC gear, theres a plethora of 'casual' looking jackets and trousers which give you lots of protection without the power ranger look of MTB body armour or MC leathers. And often being cordura, it slides well without getting torn to pieces or losing chunks of armour like some of the non-shelled MTB stuff can.

[David Reeves]

On 12/17/2020 at 3:19 AM, Mac said:

I couldn’t understand why you’d wear a helmet paragliding, if you crash you land on your ass.

 

LOL not even close to true,  generally you try and land on your feet, but if you screw up the approach speed it is much like coming off The front of an EUC, there is a limited speed you can run off after which you end up on your face

and that is before you consider the odd messed up take off that can see you rolling down a steep rocky hill side, 

I paraglided for 12 years and my helmet saved my life more than once