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[Xwrecker]

As for helmet ventilation........

Suomey and Arai are at the top of the scale as per helmet testing that I've read.  They are also expensive and noisy.  If you want great ventilation, you will get noise from any helmet.  The helmet must be in the air stream in order to creat a low pressure area behind the helmet.  That's how they draw air through them.  The faster you go....the better they vent.
I have both an Arai and Suomey full face and can say they do vent very good.  I also use an Arai open face that vents very good.  I can really tell a difference when the vents are not open on a hot day.
The HJC full face is suppose to vent pretty good for that lower price range.  Research the web sites for evaluations on the helmets they carry.  HelmetHarbor.com and SportBikeTrackGear.com have good review systems with vedios.

In order to get the best ventilation, your windsheild will have to be at the correct height to place the vents in the air stream.  Unfortunatley you'll proably get some buffeting from this.  You can experiment with the shield height to get the best compromise between buffeting and venting. I find that placing the shield so I'm just looking over the top of it to be the best for me.

As for my choice........I choose to wear a helmet all the time.  I've been on the pavement three times and EVERYTIME I've hit my head hard enough to cause damage if I had not been wearing a helmet.  I was even knocked out after a dirt bike crash once and I was wearing a helmet then.  I've seen others go down and not hit their heads.  Every wreck is different.  I feel it's just a matter of time and luck, as to if and when you will go down.  You can be the most defensive rider out there, but if some doofus screws up, will you be dressed for the event when it happens?  I respect the right for everyone to make their own choice because I don't want the government telling me what to do.  But as far as I'm concerned, no one has ever had to tell me to wear a helmet or a seat belt for that matter.  They both are life savers.

Thanks for the info .... 

[xcaliber]

In addition to what Morgan posted, if the helmet fits properly it will afford the wearer much better protection from an impact than one which is too loose. I'm a big fan of the modular helmets; I have some old full-face helmets that were great when I could wear them, but now that I'm an old, broke-down bespactacled fogey, I need a helmet I can use with glasses. I'm not trading in my ultra-lightweight specs for a set I can put on through a full-face helmet. I sometimes wear a 3/4 helmet with a flipup shield when it's hot, but if the weather's cool I wear the modular. I've heard several people say they won't wear a modular because the chin bar isn't as strong as the chin bar on a full-face. I'm sure it's not, but if it fails I'm no worse off than if I wore the 3/4 helmet. And even if it does fail, it may well still provide SOME protection to my face, especially if I'm sliding merrily along the pavement. As ugly as I am, I just couldn't justify spending money to reconstruct my face.

Protective gear is a choice (at least for now, there's talk of making helmets mandatory again), and I often ride without armor. But losing some hide won't make me a vegetable, and I always wear a helmet. There are a lot of bikers who seem not to have a brain; I believe they are why helmets are optional -- they won't be hurt by head trauma even without a helmet. For those of you with a brain, consider that motorcycle accidents are on the rise, and the increase is partially attributable to the don'tgiveashit attitude of the contemporary American driver who believes that he/she is perfectly capable of operating a 5,000 lb. killing machine at 85mph while texting, eating, applying makeup, yakking on a cell phone, and yes, even changing clothes (I've seen it myself). While every one of us who has a driver's license knows (or SHOULD know) that two seconds is the minimum safe reactionary gap, the average driver around here follows at less than a one second gap. American drivers get more dangerous every day. Protect yourself.

A friend went down not long ago  at about 50mph. He was wearing a modular helmet. He hit on his face and the chin bar, face sheild and front of the helmet was tore up to be sure but the joint never failed the shield and helmet did its job and he still has his face intact. road rash and a bruised lung but he lives to ride again. my next helmet will be a modular, I don't back my bike out of the garage without one.

[Morgan Buchanan]

Modular helmets have this odd assumptive negative, because they're not able to be Snell approved.    I don't see that as such a big deal, myself.  I think if you smash the helmet hard enough to make the face plate of a reliably manufactured modular to fail, you've got the velocity that is going to cause a lot of other problems.  And logically, as Jim states, it's still more protection for your face than a 3/4 or 1/2 helmet.

Impact studies show that about 1/3 of head impacts are to the area that a full face helmet protects that the other helmets do not protect.  Seems prudent to wear one, to me.  Most motorcycle accidents aren't some horrific high speed t-bone impact.  There are a whole lot of low side slides, tip overs, bad road wobbles turned to high sides where you're tossed to the ground and your head could slam the pavement.

[bluestreak]

It's true that modular flip-ups don't meet Snell but are approved by DOT which is a lower energy impact rating than Snell.  The DOT standard is only designed to protect the head from an equivilate vertical drop fall of only six feet.  The rating has no corrolation to speed.  The Snell standard was originally designed for car racing use and has long been considered too stiff for motorcycle use.  There is now a new standard (even lower than DOT) that some helmet manufactures are offering helmets to that comply with this lower rating.  Spar X (which is made by KBC) complies with this lower rating.  I have one of these and it's one of the lightest helmets made.  This lower impact rating is gaining more support from the motorcycle community lately.  Arai and others are reviewing this lower standard and will decide if they will produce helmets that comply with the new standard in the near future.  The British helmet standard is even higher rating than Snell.  The Suomey Spec 1R helmets comply with this highest helmet standard.
I own and have worn helmets designed under all of the standards and I personally feel that DOT is more than enough protection for motorcycle use.  If you were to suffer an impact to your head that would require Snell energy level protection, it is felt that associated injuries to the neck and chest would be fatal anyway.

[Morgan Buchanan]

There's also some suggestion that Snell is so rigid that too much energy is transmitted to the neck before the helmet does its job.  That's relatively hard to prove.

Now that you're completely educated, you can do like the rest of us... make your best guess, wear what's comfortable, and keep your eyes open so you never have to use it!  LOL

[bayou-biker]

Well, we all have the right to wear a helmet or not, but I am going to put a plug in for wearing one, and even a plug for a full face.  I organized a ride yesterday for my son, Andrew who just bought his new 1800 3 weeks ago.  He is leaving to go back overseas next week and yesterday was the last chance for him to get together with several friends and go on a long ride.  To make the story short, we were going down 3090 towards Carlos and on that last serpetine set of curves before 244 Andrew lost it and crashed his bike.  The purpose of me telling you this is that he and his passenger were wearing full faced helmets (because I INSISTED).  Both of them would have had to had dirt and gravel dug out of what was left of their faces when the dust settled if they had not been wearing helmets.  The bike is probably going to be declared totalled by the insurance company, but fortunately my son and his friend are not totalled, just scratched up pretty bad....thank you helmets.
[/quote]

Lucky - I'm glad to hear your son is OK, and sad to hear about the bike.

[sherri]

Lucky glad to hear Andrew and friend are ok


Sherri

[RSWhite]

I have the Shoei RF1000 and I agree it vents really well.

Just got back from my Colorado ride last week.  While I was
there this happened just outside of town.

http://www.ouraynews.com/Articles-i-2008-07-25-182297.112113_Motorbike_passenger_killed_in_crash.html

I support the right to choose.  I choose to wear.
RW

[bluestreak]

Just got back from my Colorado ride last week.  While I was
there this happened just outside of town.
http://www.ouraynews.com/Articles-i-2008-07-25-182297.112113_Motorbike_passenger_killed_in_crash.html
RW

Unfortunatley we suffer the penalty of death for the stupidity of others, as was the case here.  Statiscally the most dangerous threat to bikers is coming from the front at a 45 degree angle on undivided roads.  That translates to cagers turning left in front of you.  Keep your head on a swivel when cars are near.