Helmet Advice - Street vs Dual Sport

I

ImRiding

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I started riding about a year ago, I've mostly been and currently am on low-power bikes, ~125cc

I used this guide when picking a helmet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8v4qzB5HLY

The advice seemed very solid and I picked one that fit absolutely perfectly.

I tested the part about pushing on it on the front to make sure it didn't touch my chin or lip and it still had about a 1 inch gap, so I thought it was great (regular street helmet)

However, a few days ago, I crashed and although I don't remember the impact, the marks on my helmet show that I landed face-first.

Consequently, I bit through the skin under my lip and busted my chin open. All cosmetic, thankfully, but surprising due to the fact I thought the helmet fit properly. To clarify: since the bite is on the under side of my lip (so it is likely that my lower teeth went through it rather than my biting it in the same way you bite your tongue, unless I pulled my lip all the way into my mouth simultaneously while crashing) and my chin was busted open yet it's a full helmet, I can only assume that my mouth area came into contact some way or another with the front of the helmet.

I'm in a developing country, and they don't have name brands like SHOEI, etc, here, almost everything is domestic and almost none of it is DOT approved.

My reason for posting this is to find out whether the next helmet I buy should be a regular street helmet, or a dual sport? I am worried about getting a regular street helmet again beacuse even though this one fit perfectly, it still smashed up against my mouth in a face-first collision. I think that the dual sport will offer superior front-of-face protection, but I am worried because I have read that the shape of the helmet may cause potentially worse injuries to the neck and collarbone due to the uneven angles. The one I am thinking of getting (as there is limited stock here) looks like this, in that it is pretty much the exact dimensions as a dirtbike helmet just with a visor: http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/images/prod/275/a/afx_12_hel_fx-39_dua_spo-fla_blk.jpg

I tried searching the forums but the results of my search were a bunch of mixed opinions, and so I hope that by posting this, I can get some consistent recommendations based on my situation.
 
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Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

I am a bit confused . Was your previous helmet damaged to the point your chin was exposed? If you bit your lip i dont think its the helmets fault much like biting your tongue when u go over a bump
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

Ymax said:
I am a bit confused . Was your previous helmet damaged to the point your chin was exposed? If you bit your lip i dont think its the helmets fault much like biting your tongue when u go over a bump
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Im guessing when he/she fell on their face it shifted. I would imagine that if you push hard enough you could knock pretty much any helmet out of place...
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

^^ Exactly

Helmet saved your life and you're bitching here about what most people wouldnt even notice while thanking whoever they believe in for being alive.

You said it yourself, you fitted it best to your knowledge, you educated yourself as much as you could. What makes you think even a top of the line helmet wouldnt have done the exact same thing?
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

based on the type of crash you're describing, I don't think you would avoid injuring your face/chin in some way, even if you were wearing top of the line helmets from brand manufacturers.... A helmet is still a helmet, and would be subject to shifting and movement given enough force... The helmet still did its job in protecting your noggin from serious injury.. unless the shell fails (and if that was the case you wouldn't be posting about it), you can't ask a whole lot more from your lid....

No helmet would stop you from biting your tongue off or putting a hole in your lip.... I would assume only an athletic mouth guard would help there.... does any one actually ride with one of those in?
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

Thanks for your quick responses already, but I think they're missing my question.

I am well aware that I am lucky to have the low amount of damage that I do from a face-first crash, and I am not saying that I wish I didn't wear a helmet or that I had a more expensive helmet or anything even close to that.

My helmet is still in tact but I am getting a new one because I am worried about its structural integrity after a crash.

Whatever happened though, since the bite is on the under side of my lip (so it is likely that my lower teeth went through it rather than my biting it in the same way you bite your tongue, unless I pulled my lip all the way into my mouth simultaneously while crashing) and my chin was busted open yet it's a full helmet, I can only assume that my mouth area came into contact some way or another with the front of the helmet.

Thus, my question is, is it worth it to get a dual sport helmet? On the positive it has a much better clearance on the mouth, but on the negative has odd angles which (like a football), I worry may potentially make my head bounce in a way that would cause a neck or collar bone injury.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

I have a Shark RSX that I smashed my face off the ground hard enough to damage the helmet and I didn't have any facial injuries...
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

Doctors / medics can confirm, but I believe it's not uncommon for people to bite through their lip all on their own in a crash without ever hitting anything on their chin.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

Imagine if you were wearing an open face helmet. :P

If you don't remember the crash you might have gotten a nice little concussion. Concussions are often linked with shots to the chin. I don't know if there is anything else you could have done. I suspect you hit the ground in a weird way with your chin taking a fair bit of the impact.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

Sigh, you think a better helmet is needed because your garbage helmet didnt save you from biting your lip. Should just ride around in bubble wrap from now on.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

itinkle said:
Sigh, you think a better helmet is needed because your garbage helmet didnt save you from biting your lip. Should just ride around in bubble wrap from now on.
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Maybe you should read through the question again?

OP one other thing to remember is many dual sport helmets don't play well with speed if that is an issue for you. The peak on the helmet has something to do with it.

Also, do you do the chin strap up snugly? If you do then like someone above posted it's entirely possible you bit through your lip and the helmet isn't at fault.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

jc100 said:
Maybe you should read through the question again?

OP one other thing to remember is many dual sport helmets don't play well with speed if that is an issue for you. The peak on the helmet has something to do with it.

Also, do you do the chin strap up snugly? If you do then like someone above posted it's entirely possible you bit through your lip and the helmet isn't at fault.
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Thanks jc100, I don't think most of the people who posted read my question, as I just want to know if Dual Sport helmets are safer in terms of a crash due to their odd angles and potential for thus bouncing my head off randomly like a football, or other potential issues. I'm not worried about the peak, as if it really is an issue I can just break it off, my main concern about them is the extra mouth room.

I suppose it was my mistake to include the back story of why I wanted the information, but I didn't expect "i crashed and I want to know if there's a better helmet I can buy" to be interpreted as "**** god **** life I cant believe I crashed and i have a ****ing hole in my lip this is BS i should be in perfect condition after landing face-first why is life so cruel", since I don't think I said anything that even implied that's my attitude towards the situation - or anything about my attitude towards the situation really, I just said what happened and asked if there's a helmet that can prevent my face from hitting up next to it.

Regarding your commend in particular, yes I do the chin strap snugly, I thought that's the way it was supposed to be. As tight as I can get it without it being noticeable at any point during my ride. It usually sits 1-2 inches back from my chin, and in this crash my chin (in the front) was also busted open, and after crashing my helmet and chin strap were still in place so I don't think it was the chin strap that ripped through my skin, I can only presume my chin hit up against the helmet. Thus after 10 replies I still would like to know if anybody has experience with dual sport helmets being potentially dangerous in a crash.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

The problem you have is that you can only get non DOT approved helmets. How protective are they in the first place? What country are you in that you can't get a half decent helmet? A cheap quality helmet is just that, cheap quality and low protection capability.

Think of it this way...for higher speed you want a helmet that flows thru the air easier, so rounded street style. If higher speed is not a factor, the adventure style you posted would be fine. Keep in mind those adventure style ones can be fine even at highway speeds we run here. But those are half decent quality ones. If you don't have quality, it won't matter which you get. Though the rounded style won't catch as easily when you hit something, so a cheap rounded may be safer than a cheap adventure style. Got pics of the ones you can actually get?
 
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Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

You dont mention what kind of bike you ride and that would help narrow down your choice. I have a dual sport motorcycle and have a dual sport helment with the shield. Yes, there is a bigger chin space, but that means much more wind gets up there at any speed. The peak will cause some lifting at speed but you can get around that by keeping your head at a certain angle. Removing it isnt the best option because a dual-sport shield is not as high tech as the shield on a full-face because its not really designed for speed. It doesnt fit near as flush against the helmet so its going to be noisier and I cant ride with mine part way open. Mine is the AFX-39 DOT and Euro approved but definitely not a high end helmet so more expensive ones might have a better shield. If I know my ride on a particular day is going to be all on pavement, I wear a regular full face. I understand the fear of your type of injury happening again after it's happened once, but I think unless you crash again [just dont crash!] and you land the same way you arent likely to repeat the same injury. If you are that worried, I'd stick with the full face and glue some dense foam to the inside of the chin guard.
 
Re: Crashed & Bit Through My Lip - Helmet Advice Please?

socially distorted said:
You dont mention what kind of bike you ride and that would help narrow down your choice. I have a dual sport motorcycle and have a dual sport helment with the shield. Yes, there is a bigger chin space, but that means much more wind gets up there at any speed. The peak will cause some lifting at speed but you can get around that by keeping your head at a certain angle. Removing it isnt the best option because a dual-sport shield is not as high tech as the shield on a full-face because its not really designed for speed. It doesnt fit near as flush against the helmet so its going to be noisier and I cant ride with mine part way open. Mine is the AFX-39 DOT and Euro approved but definitely not a high end helmet so more expensive ones might have a better shield. If I know my ride on a particular day is going to be all on pavement, I wear a regular full face. I understand the fear of your type of injury happening again after it's happened once, but I think unless you crash again [just dont crash!] and you land the same way you arent likely to repeat the same injury. If you are that worried, I'd stick with the full face and glue some dense foam to the inside of the chin guard.
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I also have a afx 39, which as you know is a dual sport helmet. Initially, I was going to buy a dual sport bike (wr250), but ended up buying a cm250. Because the cm 250 is not a dual sport bike I took the hood off of my helmet to make it look like a regular helmet and it's been working out perfectly for me. Ivent been in any crashes but I think it looks awesome without the hood and feels comfortable too. It's really your call which helmet you want to get as long as it's safe. Personally for me as a new rider I'd sacrifice safety over looks any day.

From my limited experience the thing that really sets aside a dual sport helmet from a regular full face helmet is the little extended roof that the former has (I call the hood) which I think is removable in most helmets. If you like it keep the hood or just remove it... Like I did. If you are interested I'll post a picture of how my helmet looks.
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