Should you wear a half shell or full face? | MTB Helmets Explained | Ep. 5 | Stupid Simple Bike Chat

Are we recording? Do you see a red light? Good. I gotta stop fidgeting. We're the same color now. Fidgetings. This is mad. I'm not normal. What's up everyone? Jimmy here from Mountain Bike Travel Review. We are back for another episode of Stupid Simple Bike Chat. I am here with Matt, one of the owners of Buchlager Bikes up here in the mountains of Jeffersonville, Vermont. Vermont. Maple syrup capital. Matt is a shop owner, engineer, self-proclaimed bike nerd. I am a self-proclaimed enduro bro. I like riding bikes more than tinkering with my bikes. So we make a good team and we're going to talk about bike stuff to make it simpler for you guys. Today, we are going to talk about arguably the most important part of mountain biking and that is a mountain bike helmet. Now I don't know if you know this, but mountain biking is dangerous and you only get one brain. If you didn't know that, Google it. It's a fact. One thing that is key to any mountain biker, any cyclist, you should always have a helmet on. I don't care how cool you are, what you're doing, even if you're just rolling around on the sidewalk. If you fall and crack your skull, it's a bad day. So first things first, always wear a helmet. Agreed? Always. Yeah, always. Matt agrees. When you're on a bike. Yeah. You can wear a helmet at all times, but we're talking about just on cycling occasions. So when it comes to helmets, there are basically two types of helmets, specifically when we're talking about mountain biking. We're going to stick to mountain biking. It can cross all different bikes, but generally speaking, you have a half shell, which is as it sounds. If you picture this as a full shell, this is half of the shell. I'm going to try it on. How's my hair? We're good. Okay. Good. So half shell literally covers the top of my head. If this was a full shell, this would be half or a third or whatever. Basically this protects my dome piece, my brain, but as you can see, I'm still pretty exposed. Right? So then we have the full face and it is, as it sounds, they should have called it a full shell. Why didn't they call it a full shell? Anyway. Well, it's not. It's a three quarter shell. So there's no full shell. Otherwise, how would you get it on? Now the full face, same general idea. As you can see, it still covers the top portion of my head, but it also has added protection. So now it's covering my ears, my chin, my jawline. This is giving me a lot more protection. So that leads me to the first difference between these two helmets. The full face is meant for more extreme riding, downhill, extreme, downhill, enduro racing. That said, it's not only for extreme riding. If you're a person that really just cares a lot about your head, the most important part of your body, then a full face can be used anytime, but it is that added protection when it comes to downhill racing. If I'm ever racing a bike in general, usually I'm going to be in a full face. I'd rather protect my chin. A cracked jaw is not fun. You also usually have goggles here, so your eyes are protected and it gives you this full protective shield around your head. It's great. The half shell, I'm just going to keep putting on helmets. The half shell is more of your everyday riding, right? This is generally what you see on a road bike, on a CX bike, on a mountain bike, when I'm on my local trails, when I'm not racing, not going crazy. You still want that protection, but maybe you don't want something as coversome as a full face. Rail trail. Bike path. Driveway. Unicycle. All good places for helmets. Let's not get overboard. Strider. Little kids, little helmets. Do it. So let's talk about the pros and cons between both. Obviously, depending on what you're riding, it's pretty straightforward which helmet you're going to use, right? Downhill, enduro, or if you just want added protection on a local trail because you're doing some gnarlier stuff, full face is the move. So let's talk pros and cons of full face first. Pro, you're more protected. You're- Without a doubt. Yeah. There's less room to hurt yourself. That's key, right? One of the cons that I've noticed with a full face is it is cumbersome. It's bigger. It's heavier. It's warmer. I think that's the kind of nail in the coffin for me, but yes, there's a lot of helmets out there. This is the Troy Lee Stage. This has a lot of air vents and helmets are getting better, but every time you put an air vent in this, it takes something out of the structure, right? So it's not as safe with every air vent you put. So yeah, the biggest con with a full face is it's heavy, it's hot. It's a lot to roll around with. Another con for the full face is just general line of sight and visibility, right? It is a big helmet. It does cover some of your line of sight. Sometimes that can be a pain. Usually it's worth the extra protection to have some limited visibility, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And a lot of the cons with the full face have come a long way. Like I talked about, the ventilation is getting better. The helmets are getting lighter. They're starting to use carbon fiber. So a lot of those flaws with these helmets are starting to go away. The other thing with the full face, I think, is just transporting it. Flying around with a full face, traveling with a full face, you have to have a separate bag. It's always in the way. But yeah, that's kind of a plain excuse. Pros and cons with a half shell. Let's see. A con is it doesn't have as much protection. Yes. At the end of the day, I do love this sharp jaw line. I do prefer a little added protection. So at the end of the day, obviously the biggest con is it's not enough, not as much protection as a full face. A pro, obviously it has more ventilation. So it's not as cumbersome. It's not as heavy. It's not in the way. Cooler. Easier. More visibility. Definitely more visibility. Easier to take on and off. Yeah. But again, less protection. So it depends on what you're going for. But they each have their benefit. Now one thing, as far as the quality of helmets and an overall protection, helmets have come a long way. These aren't just the styrofoam balls that you used to see 10 years ago. The technology in these is pretty advanced. And I say that because you can't really go wrong with many helmets these days. There are certain guidelines that have to be followed for a helmet to be out on the market. So generally speaking, no matter what the helmet is, wearing a helmet is the important part. Most of the helmets today and what you're really looking for when you buy a helmet is a MIPS certification. So MIPS is, please hold, Multidirectional Impact Protection System. Write that down because I already forgot. Remember it. So basically what MIPS is, is it's a system inside the helmet that is supposed to dull the rotational forces of an impact. So when I crash, let's put my helmet down. When I crash, I get an impact. You want the helmet to not stay stiff and hold your head. In order to absorb that impact, you want the helmet to actually be able to rotate slightly and shift. So there's basically a small shell inside this helmet, and on every helmet it's kind of different, but there's these little panels that hold it in. You just broke my helmet! There's these little panels inside. This whole system inside basically shifts a little bit. So when that impact happens, it allows that slight shift and it takes away some of that rotational impact, basically helping you avoid a concussion. Correct? Absolutely. So what you're looking for these days is that MIPS certification. Very important. Pretty much all helmets are going to have it now. Yeah, it used to be an option just a few years ago. Some helmets, you could buy them without MIPS, they may be a few bucks cheaper, or you could buy the same thing with MIPS and it was a few bucks more. But pretty much everybody across the board is working towards only producing helmets with the MIPS system. Now there are some newer helmets coming out as well. So because it's been primarily either full-face or half-shell, companies are starting to think outside of the box. The first thing that companies are doing is you'll find what are called convertible helmets. I don't have one here. This is not convertible, but basically what a convertible helmet means is that you can remove the chin bar. So if I'm doing a long uphill and then a big downhill, I can take my chin bar off, wear my helmet on the way up, keeps me cooler, it takes away all that lack of visibility and such when I get to the top, take my chin bar out of my pack, snap it onto the helmet with either magnets or clips, and now I have a full-face helmet with that extra chin protection. For me, I don't prefer a convertible helmet because if it's something that's supposed to be held together structurally and there's a system to take a piece of it off, I just don't feel as safe. But convertibles do have their place and they do work, right? They do. So, and we find folks interested in those that, you know, it's the quiver killer concept. I want one helmet, I want it to be able to go out and ride in my trail system every day, but I also want to go to the park on Saturday and ride lift serve and I want some more protection so I put the chin bar on. Yeah, that makes sense. If you're not into mountain biking as heavily as people like us are, it's good to have a helmet that can kind of do multiple things. There's also what's called, I don't know what the actual term is, a three-quarter helmet? I've heard it called a squid lid. It's basically a full-face without the chin bar at all. So it has some extra protection on the back, it's going to have some protection around your ears, but it's not going to have the chin. There's no chin at all, it's not removable, it's just not there. And that's one of the newer styles of helmets, just to give you a little more protection around the head. One thing we forgot to mention, and one of the great benefits of wearing a full-face is if you have a full-face, normally you can find a compatible neck brace. So in a lot of the more gravity-oriented, gnarlier riding, one of the big concerns of course is your neck. Your neck is only supposed to bend so far, and upon impact, you can do some serious damage. So you'll actually find full-face helmets, you slap your helmet on, and then you will have a neck brace that's basically integrated into this, right, to protect my head from snapping. Like a neck roller. Like a football neck roller, right? Yeah, pretty much. Like an airplane. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like a neck roller. Same idea. Yeah, so another benefit to the full-face is you can add on that and use the neck brace. Helmets have also come even further now, where some of the new helmets, I think POC has a helmet where you can put like a medical chip in it. So if someone finds you on the ground and you're unconscious, a medical person could just scan this chip, I believe it's called a NFC chip, for the win. So NFC chips basically weigh nothing, store your medical information, I think they use them on some bracelets and stuff now. Kind of a cool advancement, I don't have one yet, but something that will probably be in all helmets at some point. Now that leads us to our final point, as always, is what is the damage to the bank account to protect the dome piece? Now again, I don't think there's any real, I mean our brains are priceless, maybe not maths, but generally speaking, brains are priceless. So let's talk about the cost of one helmet versus the other. Half-shell, walk me through the basic pricing. I mean, a half-shell or a traditional mountain biking helmet like this, you can find anywhere between $100 and $200, you know, certainly south and north of that, there's always outliers. And of course, this Mambo Jumbo, where do these start, $350? Yeah, full-face, you're starting over $200, that's for sure, and the one, I'd say $250 to $400 is probably your range for a full-face. That said, if you're going to invest in anything on a bike, don't be a cheapskate about a helmet. You can get cheap tires, you can get cheap friends, you can get anything else you want, but a helmet, it's worth the money. I'd say at least stick to that mid-level, make sure it has MIPS, and make sure it's well-suited for what you're doing. If you're going to ride a big bike park and you don't think it's going to look cool to have a full-face, then you're dumb. Get a full-face, it's safer. If you're just going to ride with your buddies and you feel safe on a local trail system in a half-shell, that's fine. Also, don't bash the guy in a full-face on your local trail system. If he wants to protect his head or he has some underlying injury with his neck or whatever, there's nothing wrong with wearing a full-face on a local trail. Whatever makes you more comfortable is what you should use. At the end of the day, the most important part is wear a helmet. The only other thing to touch on, and maybe this is a point for later, but a single impact can warrant replacement of your helmet. Some people get into the nitty-gritty and they'll inspect it and flex it and touch it and feel it to see if it's cracked, but generally some helmet manufacturers are going to recommend replacement after a single impact. That's one thing I learned early on. I remember I bought my first Fox Pro Frame full-face and I was super excited, went to a race, did a front flip, cracked my helmet, helmet was done. I couldn't understand why, but basically what happens is if you crack this structure, it basically takes away the structural integrity. The good news is if you paid $350 for a helmet, normally if you go to a helmet manufacturer's website, they will have a crack replacement policy. Because it is so important to have a helmet, a lot of the manufacturers are willing to work with you. If you cracked your helmet, sometimes they'll give you a discount. It varies by company, but normally they're going to support you in some way to help you get a new helmet. They're not just going to leave you high and dry. It's cheap insurance. It is. Where can you get insurance for $300? For the most important part of your body. Not many places. So that wraps up our helmet episode. As always, we appreciate you guys jumping in and watching the video. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, whatever you want, Matt's phone number, leave a comment down below. If you have any ideas for future videos, anything that you want to learn about, just leave it in the comments. Let us know. Thanks for following along. Keep riding, guys. Peace. You said thanks this time. I said thanks. I'm trying. You really get in there. Which is what. Yeah.