A friend of mine of mine is fairly new to mountain bikes and noticed that when using the chin guard on his R2 that it helped him look ahead. That can only be a good thing.

It probably does add to ones (over)confidence though.

That aviva article is shit. Amrrican football players suffer higher head injury rates than rugby players as the rules allow all sorts of tackles that are illegal in rugby and the game itself encourages these types of tackles.

If tisk compensation had the significant public health effect that tj has in the past implied, car fatalities would have gone up as everyone would be driving like Colin McRae McCrash.

They found in wind tunnels that once you are going faster than about 20mph then you are more likely to hit your head because of the extra weight and force from the air pushing on your head because your neck isnt strong enough to hold it out of the way so you hit your shoulders instead.

How did the study factor in the greater speed of impact so less time to react?

Tom – check your facts – after seatbelts were made compulsory, pedestrians deaths went up because of risk compensation. Also cars who have ABS are driven faster in the rain with less of a gap to the car infront. NO more car drivers were killed but more cyclists and pedestrians

Its a theory with detractors but generally accepted as the hypothesis fits the facts.

Because you don’t understand the theory as your posts shows does not mean it is wrong.

They found in wind tunnels that once you are going faster than about 20mph then you are more likely to hit your head because of the extra weight and force from the air pushing on your head because your neck isnt strong enough to hold it out of the way so you hit your shoulders instead.

How did the study factor in the greater speed of impact so less time to react?

It didnt. It was looking at the mechanics of the extra weight on your head and how the body was able to manage that extra weight when it turned into the forces involved in a crash

Fair point, would be an interesting point to consider. Given most MTB crashes will be below 35mph was there a steady ramp up or a sudden jump at 20mph?

Tom – check your facts – after seatbelts were made compulsory, pedestrians deaths went up because of risk compensation. Also cars who have ABS are driven faster in the rain with less of a gap to the car infront. NO more car drivers were killed but more cyclists and pedestrians

But total deaths have still gone down? If not – from a purely utilitarian “don’t give a **** about anything but the stats” public health perspective – safer cars are good.

The trick now, is to make them intelligent enough to take the human error out completely so as to improve pedestrian safety.

If safety and situational awareness were impeded by improved technology, pilots wouldn’t be flying with bitching betties, radar warning receivers, ejection seats, flares, chaff, parachutes, life jackets etc etc – and we’d still be treating pilots like they were WW1 Camel pilots.

Most of my offs are through things that could catch me out at any speed, mostly me not expecting an object to be where it is. The only time that I catch my speed judgement being subtley impaired is if I wear a windproof jacket, my full face does nothing to make me feel more detached from the reality of hitting a tree at 20mph. I’m not subconciously thinking, “oh yeah that tree looks so much less painful because I have a cm more EPS and a chinbar between me and a major TBI” – neither do I not ride certain tracks because I’m wearing a half lid – if a nice tasty black run or DH track is there and all I have is a half lid on, I’ll ride it.

What the full face does though, is give me a little more protection from all those crashes that I’ve had where the front has been swept from underneath me when I’ve been least expecting it – by an out of place root – and these more often than not seem to occur when I’m bumbling along at maybe 50/60 percent focus/situational awareness – not really giving a **** – with a half lid on.

Ride without any helmet on a regular basis – heightens the sense, lovely sense of freedom, a more zen-like experience; imporved risk consciousness. Highly recommended.