Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Since modular helments are generally more costly than many full face helmets, what are the advantages to a modular helmet? i.e. easier to get on and off if you wear glasses depending on frame style.

Any thoughts on modular vs full face helmets?

you can crack the sucker open on a hot day at low speeds and get more ventilation than just opening a visor on a full face.

i think they're nice, but every time i've gone helmet shopping i just always ended up with a full face helmet, if i'm just bombing around town i throw the half helmet on if it's real hot but a modular is really the best of both worlds.

Living outside Washington DC a lot of riding friends are in the military. Many of them get "flip face" helmets so they can be identified as the person on the ID, without having to take off their helmet at a sentry gate or checkpoint.

Many Long Distance Rally riders perfer them because they can go into buildings, etc (to get to bonus locations) without taking off their helmet. Saves time and that means they can claim the maximum number of bonus points.

Personally, I've seen far too many riders going down the highway with the chinbar UP. Kinda misses the point of having a "full face/flip up" helmet.

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I have only owned one modular helmet (Bieffe piece of crap- noisiest helmet I ever owned Bieffe Mod4, also one of the most uncomfortable) Most others I have had are just the flip ups. (with a modular helmet the chin can be removed as well as flipped up, at least according to Bieffe)

The main advantages of a flip up are mostly when not riding, (it gives you option of flipping it up instead of fighting latch to take off, especially helpful if you have a beard) some things that you can do with a flip up on that you cannot do with a full face:

smoke a cigarette
spit chewing tobacco
(these no longer present me a problem)

eat snacks

blow nose (my nose runs always in allergy season)

cell phones (you can talk with a flip up w/o removing, while stopped not riding, yes I have seen idiots talk and text while ridding but Darwin will take care of that)

Hydration (I cannot drink from hydro pack with flip up down true of a soda too)

Camera (I can take pics with flip up still on)

You can stay cooler by opening flip up at stoplites but cook in a FF.

You can just flip up and leave on helmet so no one sees bald spot.

Lion_Lady wrote:Living outside Washington DC a lot of riding friends are in the military. Many of them get "flip face" helmets so they can be identified as the person on the ID, without having to take off their helmet at a sentry gate or checkpoint.

The security guards at the base where I work are OK with me just lifting my face shield. Of course, I've worked there since Grant was a lieutenant.

I bought a flip up when I first got my bike and found it extremely noisy. I don't wear it anymore.

By the way--I just got back from my first ever two wheeled business trip (to Columbia/Laurel). Spent half an hour in rush hour traffic on Columbia Pike yesterday and don't ever want to do THAT again.

Chin protection is compromised with the modular helmets due to reduced structual integrity.

Plus they may be even more nerdy looking than a reflective vest.

Full face all the way for me.

DR.Bar hasn't been around here yet but he seems to really like his flip-lid. He puts on a lot of miles so he could probably give you a pretty good shake down of the good and the bad.

Wife and I both have Nolan modular helmets. We both wear glasses (not big old-folks trifocal windshields, I hasten to add), so full-face helmets are a problem for us. The modular helmets snap down around the glasses and give us a convenient way to make sure we're as protected as possible.

I can't imagine a survivable scenario where the positive locking feature of the helmet would fail to protect one's face. I mean, seriously, if I hit the pavement THAT hard, the fate of my neatly trimmed goatee is probably the least of my problems. My wife does NOT have a goatee by the way but does have a very cute chin. I don't worry much about it.

The helmets have lots of vents to keep you cool at speed, and you can always flip them up at stop lights to get some air and talk amongst yourselves.

I've got both, and prefer the fit, perceived security, and lower noise level of my full face (different brands though, so not really a fair comparo). Chances are I'll get a full face for my next helmet; the advantages of a flip up aren't relevant enough to me to make it worth the extra weight and noise.

There's been a long thread on flip-ups running in the Face Plant section on ADV for the better part of a year. Guy posted some nasty pics of structural failure in a flip-up when he came down on his chin.

My wife has a flip-up HJC, but she says it's noisy and she doesn't wear it much any more. IMO noisier, more expensive, and possibly not as strong means "why bother", and I stick with full face lids. But I don't have the military checkpoint issue...