The Enduro "Craze" and Safety

When Richie rude races his new Giro hybrid helmet at Ireland I'm sure that will solve this thread debate. A detachable jaw piece helmet that actually looks acceptable

I think a lot of it has to do with the "coolness" factor of hearing the 1/2. It's similar to what was we saw when the Aussies showed up in DH and went padless, all of a sudden no on was wearing knee pads at the local race.

If you look at the last two EWS races that were hot and had lots of climbing almost everyone wore a straight up DH helmet. Very few enduro FF helmets, and only a couple even carried open face helmets to climb in, even during practice.

The answer is pretty easy in my opinion. If you're riding uphill in your granny gear for an extended amount of time then once at the top you bomb it down. Strap that full face on your pack or bars and send it when it's time. If you need a helmet on when climbing at a snails pace you probably have no business riding such a technical trail on the way down. I was riding with a full face on my old GT i-drive years ago because I knew we would be going all out on the way down. I got plenty of looks from the xc crowd on the way up(helmet on my pack hair in the wind sweating bullets as I suffered to the top) then we would smoke them on the way down. Now years later after owning dh bikes and trail bikes the answer is still the same. If I know it's going to be a balls out dh decent doesn't matter which bike I'm on the full face is the appropriate choice for me. If it's an up and down type of climb with some fast sections in between i prefer the half dome and I try and keep myself in check when descending. Our sport is inherently dangerous and we should all be aware of our capabilities . Don't leave your common sense at home just to look cool and follow fashion trends. Riding another day and eating are great things. Have fun and go shred!

Personally I don't usually ride as aggressively when I'm on a 6 inch bike, hence open face helmet. But I do wear full face when I want to push it. I think how dangerous a trail can be depends how you ride it.

Well summed Sir.

I chopped the front off an old D2. I find it much more bearable in 90 degree heat while still offering a lot more coverage than a standard all-mountain helmet. Since I can also fit a full sized DSLR camera to my eye in this helmet I think I might be using it for a few of the EWS rounds this year as well. Those tracks are gnarly even at media squid pace.

Would love to see Troy Lee revive this concept again. Stik, you reading this?

y'know...after commenting on this thread I rode to work using a bell super 2r.

I commute in the dirt ... and it actually made a lot of sense. I've got a dh track on my way to work, so I hit that with kneepads and this version of a ff, and I rode my slack 6-inch hardtail. Used the chinbar to work, used the halfshell on the way home. It was a great compromise. Probably do it again today. It was no biggie.

The Bell has become VERY popular in my riding circles. Where i stick out like a huge sore spot.

I come from the other side, i used to race XC and then i got an AM bike (meta 5.5) 8 years ago. And i finally swapped it out for a Reign last year. I'm no pro, i'm no crazy ripper, but i'm definitely not slow, even more so on the trails that i know. Yet i wear NO protection, i used to ride in an XC helmet, that i swapped out for a bit burlier MET Kaos a few years ago. The next helmet will be a MIPS equiped half shell.

I don't feel a need for protection, mainly because i grew up riding lycra and since i have this uncanny ability (that will surely bite me in the ass, HARD!) of not falling (says the guy that crashed 4 times in the last 4 rides, twice in one of them, on an uphil in another one).

Another point, if you look at the i think Chile EWS training sweeps, many pros rode no kneepads and wore half shell helmets.