[dhgeyer]

There are so many factors in selecting a helmet. How far do you normally ride, how fast, and for how long? What kind of windshield do you have on your bike, if any? And there is personal preference.

A few data points:

1. A very significant percentage of injuries occur to areas of the head that are not covered by anything other than a full face helmet, according to one European study.

2. A full face helmet protects you from a lot more than just crashes. The wind in your face is great at moderate speeds for a short time, but after a while the wind protection of a full face helmet is welcome. A FF helmet also keeps bugs and other flying objects off your face, and out of your eyes. I remember being temporarily blinded by a sand truck that passed me on the highway when I was wearing goggles. The same type of thing has happened a number of times when I was wearing a FF helmet, and it prevented the problem.

3. A FF helmet needs ventilation, especially when it's very hot, raining, or very cold (fogging). If you have a big windshield, big enough that you're just looking a couple of inches over the top of it, the air current set up by the windshield keeps the wind from ventilating your helmet. It also blows most of the bugs up and away from your face. So a FF helmet works best with a low windshield, or no windshield.

4. A well designed FF helmet will not impose any practical restriction on your vision. In fact, by protecting your eyes from the wind blast, it will allow you to see better over a longer period of time.

5. A good indication of quality in a helmet is the Snell Memorial Foundation sticker. They are a non-profit organization that set standards and do testing of helmet models. This is voluntary on the part of the helmet manufacturers, but the better ones do it to get the Snell certification. Their standards are more stringent than those of the DOT. Look for the Snell sticker. You don't have pay huge dollars for a Snell certified helmet. Most of the HJC models are Snell certified, except for the half helmets. Snell will not test or certify a half helmet.

6. I also use an HJC FF helmet - model CL-15. I find it to be very quiet right from the box, and the face shield swap is easy and fast. I like to ride with a clear and a smoked face shield along so that I don't have to wear sunglasses under my helmet. I used to ride with the much more expensive Arai helmets. I found that they are much noisier than the one I have now, and the face shield swap was harder. Arai does offer some nice features with adjustments and interiors that can be removed for washing, but I don't think they are any safer. If it's Snell certified, it's about as safe as you're going to get.

7. Whatever you buy, walk around the store with it on for a while. If it starts to hurt in certain spots, keep looking. A helmet should be tight enough that when you move it around a little bit your skin moves with the helmet, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable. It will loosen with time a bit, but I once fell into the trap of buying too small (on the advise of the sales person) on the theory that it would loosen up more than it did. I had headaches all the time with it on. Had to replace it.

A really good motorcycle jacket is, in my opinion, about as important a safety device as a helmet. About as many motorcyclists die from chest injuries as from head injuries, according to the Hurt Report, and other studies. You want foam armor in the elbows, shoulders, and on some of the newer ones, the back to protect the spine. I think ballistic nylon is better than leather, but some disagree. You want your jacket to have several vents that can be opened or closed. Waterproof is good. The jacket I currently have is more waterproof than any rain suit I ever had. Mine is also HI VIZ color, and I think that might help avoid trouble as well. I'm seeing more of those around now.

I also have a mesh motorcycle jacket for when it's just too hot for the regular one. It doesn't offer nearly the protection of my regular jacket, but if you allow yourself to get too hot, that's dangerous too, so sometimes you have to compromise. At least I do.

Last point: if you buy a leather motorcycle jacket, please buy it at a motorcycle shop and not Wilson's Leather or someplace like that. The leather stores sell some very stylish motorcycle jackets, but they're not made of the same kind of leather as a real motorcycle jacket, and will not give the same protection.

Good luck!