Beginner’s Guide to Types of Motorcycle Helmets

The helmet is the most important protective gear where you must wear a helmet to save yourself from the crash. Every rider must know the types of motorcycle helmets to wear and their coverage of head protection. In general, you must wear a helmet before hitting on the road. When it comes to head protection and road safety, it is important to know the types of motorcycles, helmets to find suitable head coverage for your ride.

What are the Different Types of Motorcycle Helmets?

When deciding the suitable types of motorcycle helmets, you need to know the six kinds of motorcycle helmets. They are full face, modular, half face, open face, off-road and dual-sport helmets. How you want, the helmet depends on the head coverage needed and for a certain riding purpose. To find the right type of motorcycle helmets, you need to consider their pros and cons, as no helmet type is 100% perfect.

Full-Face

The full-face helmet offers full coverage protection that covers the face, head, neck, and eyes. With the full coverage, protection considers the safest type of motorcycle helmet that helps to save your head from a crash.

The full-face headgear offers a versatile option that is suitable for all types of riders and various kinds of bikes. Full face helmets offer an aerodynamic construction that does not lift at high speeds and offers quiet protection that saves you from distractions.

The benefits of full-face gears are that it offers safe and quiet protection where no wind or noise will get in your way. Full face headwear works great for different riders of different kinds of bikes. The drawbacks of full-face headgears are that it can cause suffocation if not worn the right head size and is difficult to hear those noises where you need to hear on the road. If the full face gear lacks ventilation, then this can bring headaches and dizziness on the road.

Modular (Flip-Up)

Modular helmets have known for flip-up helmets as the chin bar or the visor flips up into the open face mode. Since modular helmets are the mixture of a full face and a three-quarter helmet, modular helmets are versatile for different kinds of riders of various kinds of motorcycles.

Modular helmets have a chin bar mechanism, which allows you to open the chin bar for eating, drinking, and speaking. This helps to save from suffocation and gives you a break during stops. The flip-up helmets offer the same head protection as the full face gear due to the added chin protection. This will help to save your chin and the head from impacts. The greatest thing about modular headgears is that they provide a built-in Bluetooth or a space to add the headset to keep in touch or enjoy your favorite music on the go. This makes a great Bluetooth motorcycle helmet to stay connected on the road.

The drawbacks of flip-up helmets are that they are heavy due to the added hinges and extra features and might cause the chin bar mechanism to stop working if not open or shut properly. Another pitfall of wearing a modular helmet that is that it can cause less safety and head protection when opening the chin bar. To add to this, the opening of the chin bar does not add the purpose for motorcycle riding.

Half Face (Skull Cap or Dome)

Half face helmets have known as skullcap or dome helmets as these type of motorcycle helmets covers only the top part of your head. This leaves your ears, back of your head and your face exposed. A half helmet provides excellent natural ventilation to save your head from suffocation and headaches. This makes a great helmet type for riding in summers or mild conditions.

Although half face helmets provide natural ventilation, they offer less protection than full-face or modular helmets. This can risk a severe road crash. This type of helmet secures with a chinstrap and offers a pair of goggles or dropdown visors for added protection. Half-face helmets are very lightweight due to the absence of the chin bar and do not offer extra features.

Open Face (Three-Quarter)

Open face helmets are known as three-quarter helmets as this type of headgear covers the top, back and sides of the head leaving the face and eyes exposed. This type of helmet offers versatile use and is great for different riders for different kinds of bikes to wear vintage helmets on the go.

Three-quarter gears have the absence of the chin bar, which makes great ventilation and is a lightweight helmet type. This helps to enjoy the feeling of natural air and saves you from suffocation. Open face gears leave the face and eyes exposed which does not protect you from different weather conditions. This causes a greater risk of causing the crash due to the lack of chin and jaw protection.

Open face helmets provide the least safety out of the six types of motorcycle helmets where it requires a pair of goggles or visors for added eye protection. Most open face gears have Snap-on bubble visors or a face visor to save your face from the crash.

Off-Road (Dirt Bike, Motocross or MX)

Off-road helmets have various names that are dirt bike, motocross or MX headgears. As the name suggests, these types of motorcycles helmets are great to ride off the street terrains and on muddy tracks.

Dirt bike helmets do not offer eye protection but must wear a pair of goggles to protect any debris from entering the eyes. To talk about the helmet construction, the off-road helmet is the combination of the full face and open face helmets where the gear has a wide eye view for visibility. This helps to ensure safe eye protection by wearing goggles and has an elongated chin bar for greater airflow.

The great thing about dirt bike helmets is that they are lightweight, easy to clean and provide massive ventilation during warm seasons. This type of helmet has made in Kevlar, fibreglass and carbon fiber to ensure durability and strength to save from head and neck fatigue in long rides.

Dual Sport (ADV, Hybrid or Enduro)

Dual Sport has also known for ADV, Hybrid or Enduro helmets. This helmet type is a combination of dirt bike and full face headgear. Dual sport helmets have large eye protection and are wearable with a pair of goggles.

With their versatile use, ADV helmets are great for riding on and off the street terrains. This makes great types of motorcycle helmets where you can wear this helmet for different terrains. Dual sport headgears have a Snap-on bubble visor where you can snap down the visor for trail riding and snap it up for airflow.

Wrap Up

Here are the guides about the different styles of motorcycle helmets where each type of headgear offers different coverage for safe head protection. Since wearing, the helmet is the most important gear; you should find the suitable types of motorcycle helmets to find you the safest head protection. To know what to gear up, you must refer to this guide above to find you the suitable helmet type.

So read the guides and enjoy the ride!

References

https://www.motorcyclelegalfoundation.com/types-of-motorcycle-helmets/