What helmet do you wear? and why?

30 years ago, I had a 3/4 or "open faced" helmet that I liked...
and a brand new full-face BELL helmet that fit me perfectly --that I didn't like. I only bought it because my parents insisted on it, although I didn't realize how much I would dislike it after some use.

Why not?

Fogging of the lens, the clear plastic face shield!!

I recall that I would usually ride around with the shield wide-open as high as it could go at any speed under 55 mph (because I was always wearing prescription eyeglasses anyway).

Only at Interstate highway speeds would I flip the visor down to give my face better protection and to stop the wind from shaking my eyeglasses so much.


NOW AFTER A 25+ year PAUSE IN MY RIDING, I recently acquired a motorcycle and went out to get some helmets I did my shopping at Goodwill and found a couple of used ones for about 15 bucks each. They're probably 10 years old but they'll do until I decide what my ideal helmet should be.

Well, once again the full face helmet is constantly giving me trouble with the face shield fogging up from my own breath or just the perspiration coming off of my skin and my eyeballs.
I'm always riding it partially cracked open-- I think there are 3 positions where it can be partially open and I'm usually using one or two of those settings. This causes a lot of wind noise but the circulating air keeps the glass clean.

I strongly prefer my three-quarter helmet for any speed under 50 miles an hour, but at 55 or more that's when I would prefer the full face helmet with the front shield down
(or at least fully down for as long as I can have it down until it starts fogging over and then I have to partially open it. Depending on the humidity that day that could be 10 seconds or 45 seconds before I have to lift it up a fraction of an inch to let in some fresh air.)




P.S. I know these helmets have sliding air vents or ports. And yes, on both of them, every air vent cover is slid to the "open" position to maximize airflow.

You might consider a modular design ideal for yourself. I've been using Shoei modular helmets for years but recently bought a new HJC i100 modular. About half the cost of the Shoei. And it has a neat feature where you can raise the chin bar and move it all the way to the rear of the helmet so that it does not catch the wind as it would with most modulars. Shark makes a model that does the same as well. With the windscreen on my bike I find that I use this modular in the fully open position almost all the time, but could lower the chin bar and get full coverage if the temp dropped or rain started. Another suggestion is that you get a full face helmet with a pinlock insert for the face shield, which would prevent the fogging that you find so annoying.

FWIW, you have no idea what happened with those $15 helmets from Goodwill and they might be providing a far less than acceptable level of protection in the case of a crash. But its your head and brain, so of course its your decision. Personally I think a low cost, i.e., under $100 DOT approved ull face helmet from Walmart or someplace similar is a far safer choice until you decide on your ideal helmet.

I have a few different ones to suit the weather occasion or my mood