I’m thinking of a full face for Enduro racing but I’m wondering how people manage with it strapped to their pack on the transition stages?

I don’t fancy wearing one for the whole race, anyone do this and if so, does it impeded your riding at all?

Cheers

Doing my first enduro tomorrow. I can only imagine it being a total pain both on the transitions and the longer stages.

I guess if you’ve got a bag designed to carry a full face it’d be managable, but chopping and changing seems a faff.

That’s my sticking point, I only have a Camelbak Mule which isn’t designed to carry a full face lid.

ive done it at the dyfi round of ukge a couple of years ago

certainly great having a bit more confidence on the techy stages and racing stages with a trail lid on my dakine its well secured and you never noticed

negatives, – carrying over a kilo is a pita and it does move around a bit on the transitions -im not convinced any backpack will hold it that securely and gets a bit hot on the pedally stages

if they do go full face compulsory at all ukge in 2015 ill prob get one of these and just ride all day in it

I think it would put a lot of people off if they made full-facers compulsory.

I hate it- I’ve hurt myself badly enough crashing on my back without strapping bigger and lumpier things to it. Not to mention catching it on things- at the bluegrass enduro last year I got snagged on bloomin trees. Oh and it gets really irritating if it’s raining. I’ll just avoid races like that in future unless the terrain really demands it.

The helmet-all-the-time rule rankles a bit, when most enduro transitions are just “trundle up a fire road” with occasional pushing. I saw a commisaire telling a rider off for pushing without a helmet on, “helmets must be worn at all times on the transition”, felt like asking him where his helmet was since we were all walking up the same highly dangerous fireroad. That’s got to be counterproductive- I bet people are put off wearing a fullface at all because of the 2-helmets thing so end up racing in an openface.

im sure ukge would still sell out months in advance and quite a few people do wear them already
helmet on transitions at UKGE, anyway, is an insurance thing

I got one of those packs with the helmet carrying doodah last year but seem to have gone with one or the other so far. I’m quite tempted to go full-face for my next race, so I think I’ll give the carrying/swapping thing a whirl next ride and see how annoying it is…

It’ll probably happen at some point for all enduro racing I’d imagine once the health and safety brigade, insurance companies etc. get in on them.

Aren’t the enduro races on the continent all full face compulsory anyway?

I’m under the impression that as of next year all British cycling events full face helmets will be compulsory on all the stages. An open face will be allowed during the transitions.

I am going to look like a massive idiot doing the dual helmet thing around my local singletrack so I expect some thanks! 😉

All European races are compulsory FF. Have done quite a few Superenduro and a couple of EWS rounds experimenting with both carrying a FF and wearing it all day like lots of the Europeans do – now working to get used to all day in the FF as there’s definitely a confidence boost wearing one.

If you use a proper full face capable backpack, its actually pretty secure.

🙂

Quick question – Can that MET be classed as a proper full face helmet? It looks like a good idea but not convinced about how much protection it would offer as the chin/cheek guard looks like it’d break pretty easily

Justin Leov has been running it at European EWS rounds so it must meet the criteria I guess…..

the Met guy at the mega was saying the new parachute was being certified for something or other, not sure

I tried one on, was really light- 600g?, felt airy and fit my large head well!

im not sure itd be as robust as a proper full face but definately offer more than protection than a trail lid

http://m.pinkbike.com/news/victory-within-sight-justin-leov-2014.html

New parachute definitely interesting… See, I think every enduro I’ve ever done has had at least one stage where I would have hated to be in a full face. I’ve got an Urge down-o-matic which is pretty well vented but it’s still like having your head in an oven when it comes to big pedals on hot days. Maybe that’s less the case on the continent, never tried.

So yeah, pretty glad BC backed off from mandating it, really hope they don’t go there again- terrible news for anything but the biggest of races, but bad news for riders too I think. If you don’t think full facers are bad to race in, and you want to, then by all means do but who wants to wear a full face for, say, fort william xc or the ciaran path, or the Glentress EWS rounds?

Seems like there’s a market for a flip front helmet like in motorcycle helmets

With the pop-down sunglasses like in a Caberg, too. Proper airwolf.

Just to clarify, in French enduro races you only need to wear a fullface on timed stages for the lift acessed rounds. The races you pedal up the hill you can use a 1/2 face or full face for the specials. And you don’t need wear a lid on the chairlift or pushing either!