Spent last night in A&E after my 6 year old knocked out two teeth and had stitches to his lip, when doing 'jumps' went wrong. Not an experience I want to go through again in a hurry! So I'm thinking of getting him a full face helmet if he wants to carry on (I don't want to discourage him and I know these thing will happen).
What do you recommend?
Cheers,
Dan.
Hey Daniel, not a nice thing to go through!
Fit is everything! At that age if you want some proper protection then look at Carbon helmets- expensive but its the weight issue for such a young child, their head is already heavy compared to the rest of their body, so any added weight up there makes them work much harder.
I kitted my girl up with a Giro Remedy. I increased the cheek and forehead padding by putting extra pads under the original padding. It now fits like a dream and so far no issues. You will need to take her around shops and try them for size. bring extra padding 🙂 and your credit card- but having gone through a+E already how can you not justify some money for your childs safety
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Coulthard-Saver-Childrens-Helmet/dp/B000N3T3XO ]coulthard face saver[/url]
Ok - its not cool but it is a properly designed FF for kids. EPS chinbar so its light and will aborb impact. adult type helmets are not good for kids due to the weight of the hard shell.
Fit as ever is the most important thing. Giro do a nice lightweight FF kids helmet, but my (then 7 yr old) son ended up with a KBC motocross helmet as the Giro was too loose. There was also an Airoh one we looked at that was also pretty light but not as good a fit.
MX helmets tend to have a lot more internal padding though so get warmer - but as his was for BMX it wasn't so much of an issue.
Im not a fan of chinbars and the like, or "cheap" / non approved FF helmets. I know someone who hit the chinguard on her FF helmet and it shattered in to her face - not nice.
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🙂
moments before in all went wrong...
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I looked into this a couple of months ago for my 6 year old. I ended up getting him a DB helmet from my LBS (distributed by Raleigh IIRC).
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/diamondback-full-face-helmet-id30303.html
It fits well and isn't too heavy. We've also tarted it up with some free stickers I picked up at Fort William.
This was the second one I bought. The first was a Viper MX helmet from JE James, but it was too small and too heavy.
I have no recommendation for a kids full face (I actually prefer an open face helmet for any kind of jumping as it doesn't restrict view when spotting your landing like a full face does) but can see why you'd want a full-face for him. but can I offer a wee bit of advice for learning to jump? fit a seat QR to his bike and get him into the habit of slamming his saddle as low as it'll go the reason I say this is when jumping goes wrong a high saddle will often hinder a rider rolling out or jumping clear and can actually catapult you into a face plant. I'd actually try and spend some time teaching him how to bail too if you can.
Tj - how on earth do you have experience of kids full face helmets? 😕
<EDIT> I do have a little advice on helmet choice, you need to try a few on him and you want the tightest fit without being uncomfortable that you can get. fit the helmet, do up the buckle and hold the chinguard and move it up down side to side, you want the one that moves the least. a full face that rotates up easily when you hit the chinguard might as well not have one.
GW - looking into helmet design I found that one which answers the criticisms of many cycle helmets. Smooth outer shell and EPS chinbar. More protection and less risk of rotation. A chinbar without EPS will p3erform less well at absorbing impact
No direct experience but I thought it worth mentioning
Good advice on fit from you
Your kid looks like a ripper 🙂 I hope he continues!!
Same issue here too, ended up with a 661 after trying many, many helmets/sizes, although he still managed to 'chip' his chin wearing the full face when he came down hard on his stem/bars...
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blimey b r! 🙂
how old is your lad, and what bike is that?
Just bought one of these for my 5yr old before he loses any more teeth, seems fairly sturdy and is well padded.
Only thing now is that he thinks he can do more "even dangerous stunts" as he is protected 🙁
Just had a look at the JE James helmet posted above and it is exacly the same as the one I have just posted except under a different name.