Joined
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909 Posts
Hello!
I've been going back and forth on whether or not to post about this here; I finally decided to go ahead, expecially since I've mentioned the difficulty before in other threads.
I have a really big head, and have been unable to find a satisfactory full-face helmet. While in a 1/2 or 3/4 helmet I wear a 2XL, in full face I wear a 3XL and even then only certain makes fit. (In Shoei and Arai helmets, my chin is pinned up against the area under the visor, to the point of making speech or anything resembling comfort impossible.) My first full-face helmet was a Fulmer Flip-Up that a small local dealer miraculously had in stock; it remains the only full-facer I've ever worn that was truly comfortable. It rode hard on my cheeks, though, to the point where it was difficult to close, and it leaked badly in the rain. I also had a lot of wind noise with it, so much that I finally gave it to Bill Meek of this forum in the hope that it might be quieter for him, if my cheeks were wedging it open as I suspected they might have been. (With his bike in the shop, we still don't know.)
I replaced this helmet with a non-flip full-face, a 3XL HJC. My chin rides hard up against the inside of this helmet as well, though not so badly that I can't tolerate it. Because I like my HJC 3/4 helmet, I bought this one with the intent of maybe taking a Dremel to the inside chin area and cutting some helmet material away, then recovering the machined area with a soft liner. It would have been worth the effort...
...save that the HJC has found all-new ways of driving me nuts! First, it fogs up at 65 degrees F in the sunshine despite having all vents all the way open; if I don't leave the visor cracked, I can't see a thing. This simply won't be practical when it's colder out, and makes a terrible noise to boot, even worse than the Fulmer at any kind of speed. I also suspect that this indicates poor ventilation; I notice almost no cooling from the vents whatsoever, which will be bad news indeed in the Southern summer. Does anyone by chance know a good way to try and fix bad vents? Should I try and poke a wire through, maybe? Would it hurt anything if I tried? The vents on my 3/4 HJC look to be of the same design, and seem to work well. They are part of why I bought another helmet of that same brand. What gives?
Plus, I installed an inexpensive quick-release on the strap that's pinching my neck and proving very difficult to connect and disconnect. On my Fulmer, I simply left the strap closed all the time and pulled it over my face, then snugged it up tight for riding. If I can't get the quick-release to work, I'll be stuck trying to "do up" the straps the old-fashioned way, which takes me _forever_ as clumsy as I am. What I'd really like is a good old-fashioned buckle- anyone out there still make helmets with those? Or are there any other good solutions out there that I simply do not know about?
<sigh>
The worst news is twofold. One, of course I can't take the helmet back. There are no local dealers to my knowledge that allow test-rides, so to properly evaluate a helmet I have to buy it. Two, the new helmet is at least half as loud as the old, even with the visor closed.
<sigh again>
Thanks for any help!
I've been going back and forth on whether or not to post about this here; I finally decided to go ahead, expecially since I've mentioned the difficulty before in other threads.
I have a really big head, and have been unable to find a satisfactory full-face helmet. While in a 1/2 or 3/4 helmet I wear a 2XL, in full face I wear a 3XL and even then only certain makes fit. (In Shoei and Arai helmets, my chin is pinned up against the area under the visor, to the point of making speech or anything resembling comfort impossible.) My first full-face helmet was a Fulmer Flip-Up that a small local dealer miraculously had in stock; it remains the only full-facer I've ever worn that was truly comfortable. It rode hard on my cheeks, though, to the point where it was difficult to close, and it leaked badly in the rain. I also had a lot of wind noise with it, so much that I finally gave it to Bill Meek of this forum in the hope that it might be quieter for him, if my cheeks were wedging it open as I suspected they might have been. (With his bike in the shop, we still don't know.)
I replaced this helmet with a non-flip full-face, a 3XL HJC. My chin rides hard up against the inside of this helmet as well, though not so badly that I can't tolerate it. Because I like my HJC 3/4 helmet, I bought this one with the intent of maybe taking a Dremel to the inside chin area and cutting some helmet material away, then recovering the machined area with a soft liner. It would have been worth the effort...
...save that the HJC has found all-new ways of driving me nuts! First, it fogs up at 65 degrees F in the sunshine despite having all vents all the way open; if I don't leave the visor cracked, I can't see a thing. This simply won't be practical when it's colder out, and makes a terrible noise to boot, even worse than the Fulmer at any kind of speed. I also suspect that this indicates poor ventilation; I notice almost no cooling from the vents whatsoever, which will be bad news indeed in the Southern summer. Does anyone by chance know a good way to try and fix bad vents? Should I try and poke a wire through, maybe? Would it hurt anything if I tried? The vents on my 3/4 HJC look to be of the same design, and seem to work well. They are part of why I bought another helmet of that same brand. What gives?
Plus, I installed an inexpensive quick-release on the strap that's pinching my neck and proving very difficult to connect and disconnect. On my Fulmer, I simply left the strap closed all the time and pulled it over my face, then snugged it up tight for riding. If I can't get the quick-release to work, I'll be stuck trying to "do up" the straps the old-fashioned way, which takes me _forever_ as clumsy as I am. What I'd really like is a good old-fashioned buckle- anyone out there still make helmets with those? Or are there any other good solutions out there that I simply do not know about?
<sigh>
The worst news is twofold. One, of course I can't take the helmet back. There are no local dealers to my knowledge that allow test-rides, so to properly evaluate a helmet I have to buy it. Two, the new helmet is at least half as loud as the old, even with the visor closed.
<sigh again>
Thanks for any help!