Motorcycle helmets, how to stop your visor from fogging up…

by ppodbodd on July 21, 2010

All riders have to wear motorcycle helmets and this article is for you. If you are one of the lucky few who do all your riding cruising the freeways of Southern California during the daylight hours, wearing an openface lid and a pair of wire-rimmed sunglasses; then you’re probably thinking ‘fogging’ what’s that?

This article is not for you. The rest of us read on…
If you have ever have to go out when it’s cold and wet you will soon experience how easy it is for motorcycle helmets to steam up.
Suddenly your vision is completely obscured; more than an inconvenience, it can obviously be lethal. This is a result of the warm air you breathe out condensing on the cold inside of your visor. It can be prevented however and I will mention a few ways that can be done, but they all have a common thread. They all take a bit of forethought and preparation which I know can sometimes seem to be more of a nuisance than it is worth. Take it  from me that the consequences of not bothering can be total.
Yes, it can be a pain having to go through all the effort of putting your protective gear on, but don’t forget to spend a couple of minutes making sure you will be able to see where you are going. It’s pretty fundamental!

These are the ways I have stopped my various motorcycle helmets from clouding up. I’ll tell you my favourite at the end.

  1. Sprays -  there are various sprays on the market that claim to keep your view clear. I’m not sure what the science is behind these and I expect that they all work fine in laboratory conditions,.but in my experience I don’t ride around in laboratories too much. They seem to work okay for a day or so but then a small area starts to mist up again, then this area gradually starts to grow. Apart from usually appearing just where you need to look the presence of the ‘splodge’, just outside your vision can also be intensely annoying.
  2. Inserts – plastic inner layers for your visor to give, in effect, double glazing. Fantastic idea, and maybe these do work, although I don’t see too many motorcycle helmets with them on. Confession time; I have never actually used one in ‘anger’. I discovered a flaw in their operation. A bit like sticky tape, they are tricky to manoeuvre  and you have to avoid them sticking to themselves. Whilst I was carefully trying to align the visor and the insert with my one pair of hands,  I managed to drop the insert on to my legs. They are sticky! Wearing shorts meant I dropped the insert onto my hairy legs. To get it off again. I literally had to tear it off. Result; one ‘Brazilian ‘ leg with strange hairless section and one seriously visually compromised lid. Like looking through a tangled hairy forest. I’ve never bothered since.
  3. Wipe it – this is okay in an emergency, but it’s not ideal. It does has the advantage of actually working, a gloved finger will remove the mist, but has a larger number of disadvantages. You are not in control of the bike while you are doing it as inevitably you will be doing it while moving. By not in control, I mean you won’t have both hands on the handlebars, and you also won’t have full vision. Also like the inside of a car windscreen all your wipes will leave streaks. When the moisture dries, later on, when it goes on dark these can be a real problem in streetlights or car headlights. Probably worse than the original fogging.
  4. Open the visor a little bit – again has the advantage of actually working but has the disadvantage of letting the rain and the wind in. This is not how the visor was designed to operate and can also have the effect of making you damp and miserable. Also doesn’t always clear those hard to reach spots near the top either.
  5. Wear a mask to cover your nose – this works by stopping your moist breath from even contacting the visor in the first place. The breath is trapped by the mask. The  mask doesn’t have to be specially designed for the job it could just as easily be a neckerchief or bandanna. Or my favourite, the ‘Buff’. The disadvantage is that you can get a seriously sweaty face, but the added advantage is that you can look a little bit like a Pirate, which all adds to the mystique…(is that sad or what?)

Those are all methods of stopping visors on motorcycle helmets from steaming up. I have tried them all with varying degrees of success.

My favourite and my top tip, is a combination of 4 and 5. I like wearing the Buff because it solves the problem and also covers your exposed neck. I don’t like getting a sweaty face, so opening the visor a crack solves that. It also has the benefit of connecting you to the real world; having the sensation of the wind hitting your face can help you realise just how fast you are going.

That pirate thing helps as well….

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Motorcycle Helmets – five things not to do!

by ppodbodd on July 14, 2010

I should start by saying that this is not an article for experienced bike riders. Unfortunately, I can pretty much guarantee that they will have done at least three of these things already. This article is more along the lines of  ‘things I wish I had known before I started’. It’s my attempt to save your motorcycle helmets, by learning from mine and others’ mistakes.

As you have probably already discovered, now it’s become a leisure pursuit, motorcycling is an expensive business. Starting with the bike and then going on to all the other gear you need to ride it with at  least a chance of protecting yourself, should you be unlucky enough to have a mishap.

The most vulnerable piece of your gear, surprisingly, is your helmet. Surprisingly in the sense that although it is amazingly strong when needed, It doesn’t take too kindly to day-to-day rough treatment. To keep it looking as immaculate as the day you bought it, please consider my top tips:

  1. Don’t drop it – the cardinal sin. You are probably aware that motorcycle helmets have an inner ‘foam’ layer under the shell that is designed to deform under impact to cushion your skull as it decelerates. If you accidentally drop your helmet; even though the outer skin may look intact, the inner foam layer may have been compressed. If this layer has been squashed another impact in the same place won’t be able to absorb as much shock. In blunt terms, it will be your head that has to absorb more shock. I know you are thinking that dropping a helmet would be an accident, and how can you stop something accidental. That might be true, but the majority of these accidents happen right after that moment when, as you balance your helmet somewhere precarious, you think to yourself  ‘crikey, that looks a bit wobbly, I hope it doesn’t fall off’. Crunch! Chief culprit for me is balancing a number of motorcycle helmets on the top of a shiny sloping fuel tank, just while I fill up. When will I lean? If it looks marginal, It is marginal. Don’t do it.
  2. Don’t paint it yourself – okay, lots of racers have their own designs, and they do look mighty cool, but the actual spraying is done by professionals using specialist equipment, paint and lacquers. Using the wrong chemicals on the shell of a helmet can attack it’s structure and weaken it. How much you would weaken the shell, you can’t be sure of. It’s not a question you want to find the answer to when your head is bouncing along the road. Personally, I think that if you can’t find a design to suit you out of the literally hundreds out there. You’re not looking hard enough.
  3. Don’t ride with your visor open – not strictly something that will damage your helmet but certainly something that will damage your face. There are all sorts of excuses or flipping up your visor, but none of them are any good. The visor is an integral part of the helmet which is there for a reason. That reason being that a stone or even a bee hitting your face or eyes at even 30 or 40 mph will hurt and no you won’t have the reactions to be able to dodge it. You will realise this is a good idea the first time, you are shocked by how loud the BANG is as a stone is flipped up and into the visor.
  4. Don’t sneeze inside it – okay, this might be impossible to actually prevent but I find a face mask which goes over the nose prevents those slimy explosions coating the inside of the visor, giving instant frosted glass!
  5. Don’t think motorcycle helmets mystically give you magical riding powers – there is something about the ritual of putting your riding gear on that can make you feel like someone else. Someone cooler, sexier, a bit of a rebel. That’s all okay and it’s probably some part of the reason for being a biker in the first place, but beware that this alter ego doesn’t also think that he’s the fastest most skilful rider ever to walked the earth. There is always the temptation, especially in the vicinity of other riders to push it that little bit further. The consequences of getting it wrong are enormous….

Motorcycle helmets are amazing pieces of modern technology which undoubtedly save thousands of lives. They are also expensive and are protecting a pretty vital piece of your anatomy. So don’t get blase about the dangers; look after your helmet and hopefully if ever called upon it will look after you.

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Motorcycle Helmets, Top Five Things to Consider Before Purchasing.

June 20, 2010

The most important pieces of safety equipment to buy once you have purchased a motorcycle are motorcycle helmets. Admittedly gloves, clothing and boots are important but your head is the part of your body most susceptible to life-threatening injuries should you be unlucky enough to have a crash. Putting that rather depressing thought to one [...]

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