The interesting thing about the relative safety of fullface vs open face is that, to quite a degree, it's a roll of the dice. As I said in my earlier post above, I frequently wear an open face helmet riding my FJR or GL1200, altho I wear a fullface helmet of course on my GSXR and sometimes on my FJR if it's cold or rainy. Just before Christmas of 1995, I t-boned a 200 pound buck in the cold morning dark while a mile from my house riding on a narrow two lane twisty mountain road. It was a 55 mph zone but I was only doing 45 mph because it was dark, low level ground fog and I know that deer are often out at that time. The deer was being chased by dogs and came out on a dead run from behind some bushes, I didn't even see the deer until it was at centerline and never had a chance to even hit the brakes. I hit him dead on, then he disappeared, the bike went into a death wobble from the impact, I was a split second late getting the clutch in and twisting the throttle wide open or I might have pulled out of it, but the impact killed the engine and I ended up laying it down, sliding on the pavement towards a deep drainage ditch. I pushed off the bike, rolled 3-4 times and banged the back of my half shell open face helmet but did not hit my face. I walked away from the mishap with only a sprained finger, torn glove, elbow tear in my ski parka and sweat shirt underneath and hole in the knee of my Levis. Cost the insurance company almost $6000 to repair but I still have the bike. Was I lucky in not hitting my face?? Absolutely.

About two months ago, a Beemer riding buddy of mine who also wears an open face 3/4 shell helmet was rear ended on his bike in Sacramento by a 79 year old man who hit him at 30 mph while my friend was stopped behind traffic. My friend was flipped onto the top of the old man's car, slid off onto the car trunk and onto the pavement. He walked away with no broken bones or serious injuries, chipped a front tooth, was VERY sore for a couple of weeks but otherwise OK. BTW, the old guy stopped after the accident, pulled my friend's BMW out from under the front of his car and drove off. Witnesses got his license plate number and the cops went over and arrested him. My friend just purchased a new BMW from the insurance proceeds and plans to keep riding (and wearing an open face helmet). Was he lucky that he didn't hit his face?? Absolutely.

On the other hand, another buddy of mine who rides a HD Fat Boy and wears a fullface helmet was leaving his house one morning riding only 20 mph when a large dog belonging to a neighbor ran out in front of him. He hit the dog while braking hard and pitched over the bars landing chin first on the pavement. I saw his helmet later, the chin portion of the helmet looked like it had been put on a grinder, about half an inch of the helmet was sanded off. Was he lucky that he was wearing a fullface helmet?? Absolutely, he would have lost a good portion of his chin had he not been.

The point is that a lot of it is just plain old luck if you happen to have the misfortune of bailing off of your bike and onto the pavement. Wearing a fullface helmet absolutely gives you better protection and reduces your risk, but because you opt to wear an openface helmet doesn't necessarily mean that you will lose your face if you go down. My Beemer buddy and I will continue to wear open face helmets at times, depending on the bike we're riding, the weather, etc. etc.
May not have to worry about which helmet to wear here in California if it doesn't stop raining and snowing soon. We may not be doing any riding at all. We're setting records for the number of rainy days. Major PMS problems out here.
Lee in the Mountains of Northern California
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