- A helmet is an essential piece of equipment when it comes
to riding your bike of course, but it's also super important
that it's fitted to your head correctly,
so let's take a look at the specifics of how to do it.
(rock music)
The first thing to do is to make sure you're buying a helmet
that fits your head, so either go to a bike shop
and try a few on or actually, it's really easy
just to measure your head, so get a tailor's tape measure
and wrap it around your head about half an inch
above your eyebrows, just above your ears,
or simply use a piece of string, wrap it round and pinch it
and then, put it against a normal tape measure.
So I know that my head measures 58 centimeters,
and on the POC website, the medium helmet goes
from 55 up to 58 centimeters, so I buy a medium,
and then, you've still got some adjustability on that helmet
to make sure it fits super snug.
Too big a helmet, and you'll find that it can roll around
or even move in the event of a crash, which I've seen
in the past, that's not safe obviously.
Too small a helmet, and even if you can get it on,
you'll find that it's probably uncomfortable
and can even give you headaches,
so even when you fit in the helmet,
make sure you've got it in the right spot,
so that's about midway down your forehead.
Obviously, too low's gonna start pushing
down onto your eyebrows, or the most common one we see
is probably people run them too high, you can see the whole
of the forehead, again, that's not safe.
You find most of these modern helmets
with that sort of rear, retention system.
By the time you've got that tight, it sort of cups the back
of your head, and actually, your helmet won't move anyway.
It'll sit right in the middle of your forehead.
I like to run that rear ratchet system super tight,
so even without the strap, you see my helmet doesn't move
at all, and when you take the helmet off
and try and put it back on, actually, it won't go back on,
so you have to loosen it all the way off,
stick your helmet on, and then ratchet that system up,
so super nice and snug, and then I can fit the strap.
You'll probably find that that rear retention system
has a bit more adjustability on your helmet, so on this,
it's got three different positions
for it to come further down or further back
into the helmet, and this really sort of depends
on the shape of your head, and this again is just trying
to get it super snug on the back of your head.
And, you'll probably notice that when you're riding,
if your helmet moves, that's probably the one that needs
adjustment, so I've got it set in the middle
of the three,
I find that my helmet doesn't move at all.
So, the helmet fits now, just time to do that jaw strap.
So, clip it in, and you should have enough room
to fit a couple of fingers just below your chin,
so it's tight enough so the helmet can't come off
in the event of a crash, I've seen that happen
in the past as well.
Also, make sure that these ear straps are sort of
centered below your ear, so actually that jaw strap
sits to the back of your jaw.
If they're too far forward, actually that strap can sit
almost beneath your chin, so it wants to be
just below the jaw.
Couple of final adjustments you can do to a helmet
are, first of all, adjusting the peak angle
so, I don't like to run it too low
so I can really see it,
it's sort of just about in the middle so I can
just see it in the top of the field of my vision,
it's not poking up too high, I think it looks ab bit weird,
but, no reason why you can't do that.
Peaks are a funny one, I think if you run a helmet
without a peak, you're starting to look a little bit
like a roadie,
although I do have a cross country helmet without a peak,
controversial, I know.
Also, the back of this helmet, I've actually got this
google strap, so if I choose to run googles
with this helmet, they're nice and secured on the back.
(techno music)
Now I know that the stinking roadies love
a rule or two,
and they always say that your glasses must go
outside your helmet straps,
but when mountain bikers here,
I say, doesn't matter.
You should find that your glasses fit properly
if your helmet's sat nice and square,
so they don't interfere with each other.
So, that's how to fit an open face helmet,
it's pretty simple, the most common mistakes are not
getting it right on your head,
so too far back, or too far forward,
or even a little bit jaunty on the side,
so just make sure that your straps
are evenly tensioned,
and you've got that retention system nice and snug
on the back of your helmet, and it should sit
nice and square.
So, now for the full face helmet, which is of course
going to suit the more extreme riders, like enduros,
down hill, to free ride, to even some dirt jumpers.
Obviously, the disadvantages are it's heavier,
it's gonna be hotter, less comfortable to wear
for a longer amount of time, but the biggest
advantage of course is a greater coverage,
so, for the bigger crashes, this is what you're gonna
want to be wearing.
So, it's the same fitment guide as it is with the
open face helmet, measure your head,
and buy the size helmet that fits.
You'll find that most full face helmets don't have that
rear retention system, because the helmet comes so low,
but actually they often come with different sets of pads,
so this pot does come with some liner pads
you can play around with.
Also, you find that these cheap pads, the thickness of that
does really determine how snug the helmet fits.
So try it on,
and then tailor the helmet to fit your head,
but I find that with the standard pads,
this is super snug on my head.
The cheap pads in this helmet pop out super easily,
you can see it says there 35 plus eight millimeters,
so you can get those in different widths,
to sort of push onto your cheeks a little bit
more or less, to make sure it does fit nice and tight
on your head.
Also, the way these pop out really easily,
you just pull on that to release,
so in the event of something like
a neck injury, you don't want to be pulling a helmet
on someone's head if it's really tight,
so, you just pop them out, and it will come off
super easily.
So, although your full face helmet is probably going
to feel quite secure around your cheeks and the back
of your head, it's still really, really important
to make sure you have that chin strap nice and tight
with those two fingers just underneath it.
I'm sure you've seen videos, like I have,
on the internet of people hitting their heads
and the helmet coming off, so that really does come down
to their chin strap not being tight enough.
Okay, so the peak angle adjustment on a full face helmet,
you're likely to have a much bigger peak on one of these,
so, again, too low, it's going to restrict your view
a little bit especially when you're going fast
and sometimes, you're sort of looking
quite high in your field of vision.
Too high, really its more about fashion, to be honest,
I think they just look a bit weird.
You can go peakless, but again,
don't think it looks very cool.
This helmet has got a break away peak on it,
so if you do have a face plant,
that's just gonna pop back and actually, it can pop off
super easily as well,
it's just gonna take any of that extra force out of
that impact, hopefully, save your head.
When it comes to eyewear with full face helmets,
I think it's all about the googles, they just give you
much more protection to your face than the pair of
glasses do, of course, you can wear glasses with
a full face, I think they look a bit weird,
and they're just not as safe.
Goggles also fit nice and securely around
the back of your helmet.
Now, to the angle of the goggle strap and where it sits
on the back of your helmet,
now you might think this isn't important,
It kind of isn't, but,
there's no quicker way to look a beginner
than having it in the wrong spot,
so I think it looks really weird if you're running
it super low,
pretty kooky, people will think you look like
a beginner.
So, have them fairly high, sat square on the back
of your helmet, you're gonna look like a pro.
You're probably not gonna want to wear your goggles
when pedaling up a hill, because it gets super hot,
so there's a couple of ways to store them,
either wrap them around the back of your neck, like that,
I tend to do that quite a bit,
or, you can actually sort of mount them on your helmet,
so, strap underneath the peak,
goggles on the back, they'll sit there nice and securely.
So, the main things to consider with a full face helmet,
again, are buying the right size, but then tailoring
the internal pads, to make sure it's nice and tight
on your head,
and then, you can't really fit it wrong, to be honest,
because by the time you put your goggles on,
you want them to sit squarely around your eyes,
so you'll just move your helmet
'til they fit nice and tight, and you haven't got anything
pushing into your eyes.
So, it's really important to also look after your helmet,
so, most of them actually come with their own bag,
but if you've not got one,
a nice full face helmet bag is great,
so you can chuck it around in back of the car,
you're not launching your bike on top of it,
and getting scratched, but also, you don't want a helmet
to take any big impacts.
So, this Conair, for example, is a multi impact
protection helmet, so it's designed to take more than
one hit, however, if you do take a big crash
and you feel that that helmet could have been
damaged in any way, it's time to replace it.
Speaking as a man who has experience in this,
I've actually had a brain bleed,
my helmet really made a difference to that injury,
so, don't go anywhere without one.
So there's just a few things to consider when buying
and fitting a helmet, and it really doesn't matter
how much money you're spending on a helmet
if it doesn't fit properly.
If you want to see a couple more videos, click over there
for speed versus style where me and Blake show off
our different riding styles, and the kit we use.
Click over there for the essentials to take to a bike park.
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