Flip up helmets ?? Do you like your face??

[beemer boy]

I have meant to put this up a while ago, but was tied up with other things. Yes, I too was lured by the sweet siren song of flip up helmets. Yeah baby, sip water while rolling down the road.... Talk to people with your helmet on and sound normal... Perfect for touring I thought. Until I had my first major accident with it. Helmet was a top of the line 500 $ Schuberth Concept.
Here is what the helmet looked afterwards.


Detailed close up of the weak plastic chin bar that snapped like a toothpick.


Other side that broke as well.


What my face looked like after I woke up from being knocked unconscious in a ditch by the side of the road. I felt afterwards I was lucky to have a face after seeing the front chin piece of my helmet 10 feet away.

Lessons learned ?? Ride my KTM 950 a bit slower, and never, ever, use an flip up helmet. I now use an Arai XD for all my riding. In all fairness I contacted Schuberth in Germany. They seemed very interested in the failure of the helmet, and asked me to send it back to them which I did. After about a month they contacted me with their analysis of the helmet. They felt the helmet had done its job by failing , thereby reducing some of the stress. I say bullshit. The job of the helmet is to stay intact , and continue to protect my head through the ongoing forces of the accident. Its job is not to crack like an egg and expose my face to harm in the middle of the accident. I fully realize everyone will have a different opinion on this matter, but my experience was direct and painful, so the path to me is very clear.

[wjpjump]

yikes.... might rethink my plans. seemed like a good idea at the time.

[bongodave]

Word to the wise...

Glad you're ok.

[NorCalTA]

Exactly why I decided NOT to consider a flip-up. I don't care what anyone says in defense of them - that rotating chin piece is a weak spot in the structure of a helmet.

[Rushfan]

Your making me rethink my Nolan N102 . Sheesh .
Glad to see you made it through that one ! Looks rough...

Heal fast Dude !

Safe Riding..... Rushfan

" We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That's the way that Lady Luck dances
Roll The Bones "

[jbim]

Thanks for posting this...not for me as I wear only full face...but others who need convincing to do same.

I feel a lot of the gear being sold is just for show not for the eventual accident/incident. I'm sure some people crash and think to themselves how silly I was to just wear this. Until then, it is perceived as a calculated risk and a personal decision. I say wear the best gear you can buy for all body parts. If something happens and you get injured, at least you won't regret having the wrong gear.

[fallzboater]

How fast do you reckon you were going? What did you hit? That damage doesn't seem typical of the type of street bike accidents I've been in, but maybe I've just been lucky.

You're fortunate that you had the chin bar down at the time.

[beemer boy]

Originally Posted by fallzboater

How fast do you reckon you were going? What did you hit? That damage doesn't seem typical of the type of street bike accidents I've been in, but maybe I've just been lucky.

You're fortunate that you had the chin bar down at the time.

Riding too fast at night , I went into cement road side markers at about 100 KPH..........In Thailand they are used to mark the outside portion of turns. So they are like teeth waiting to eat you if you blow the turn wide. The ones in the foreground I knocked down. I sure wish they would use flexible wands.......

[4wheeldog]

Be thankful that it held up as well as it did, and you are in a condition to recover. If you had been wearing an open face, you would probably not be posting this at all.
I talked to a guy this morning in the medical profession......he had attended a lecture by a facial reconstuction specialist. That doctor's statement was that he had never done resconstructive surgery on anyone that was wearing a full face helmet. Quite a few open faced helmet accidents required his work. He had never done any work on anyone that had a MC accident while not wearing a helmet at all........Dead people don't need reconstructive surgery.

[mjg]

It sounds like a pretty bad get off: glad you're not hurt worse.

I'm not suggesting flip ups are as structurally sound as full faces but it would be interesting to know the statistics on what percentage of flip ups successfully protect the face of the rider. I bet it's the majority.

[HappyRiding]

I was wearing a Nolan X-Lite flip up when I crashed last week. The damage was mostly to the back and top of the helmet and it held up really well.

BUT

I am not positive but I think the chin bar unlatched during my tumble down the embankment. I couldn't swear that I didn't flip it up myself but there is a big enough doubt that I will go to a full face helmet from now on.

[sas]

This is a bit old, 2003. But they tested the top 7 flip-ups. Looks like no foregone conclusion either way.

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/acc...son/index.html

It looks like you took the grunt of the impact on the right. It snapped on the left. Where did it fail on the right? At the hinge?

[Motociclista]

Originally Posted by beemer boy

They felt the helmet had done its job by failing , thereby reducing some of the stress.

I say horse-poop


Sorry about your accident. And THANK you for the warning. I just bought a flip ... now you got me thinking.

[wibby]

Looks like the helmet did its job, youre still alive to ride again

[E-man]

First off, very glad you are ok. And that you will heal and all that.

Second- you hit a CONCRETE marker at 100KPHs, so thats like 62 mph?

Concrete at 50 is bound to smash almost anything, right?

Not to bash you and it is a risk we take to begin with in riding, and 55 or so is not unreasonable or stupid so it did hold up well.

BUT I might re-think my soon to be purchase of a Sy-Max II

Glad you're ok