Well, if we are gonna go full pedant, let's go full pedant. But remember, Justin, YOU opened this can of worms!
Visors, in moto terms, are that Lexan or other see-through plastic that comprise the face shields of road moto helmets. Peaks are the sun and roost shadey things found on off-road moto helmets. They get called visors on mountain bike lids because, ummm, I don't know why. Hence the title - Peak Advisory. Sort of a play on words. Probably not a very good one, but I was pressed for time.
Anyway, road moto helmets are almost always designed around a visor, except for maybe those retro throwback things that are popping up lately. Designers take the visor as part of the helmet into account and they look for the most part pretty damn good (check out the current Bell Race Star, damn what a nicely proportioned lid). Off-road moto helmets are designed around a peak, and also look well proportioned by and large. Take the visor off a road helmet, or a peak of a dirt helmet, and they look sorta weird. Always have, always will. Same could be said if you de-peak or de-visor (choose your word, since it doesn't really matter here) your mtb lid that was designed around one of those things.
Meanwhile, there is the unspoken abomination of "Adventure" helmet design. Which is a moto helmet with a sort of dirt-esque peak AND a visor. To be worn by people riding BMW GS1200s with an extra $10k of Touratech bullshit bolted to the poor things. Designed, apparently, by blind people who do not actually ride since they are noisy, ugly, and almost all of them do a masterful job of catching wind right as it comes off the windscreens of said adventure bikes and in some cases literally try to unscrew the rider's head from the buffeting. But hey, another excuse to dump a few hundred more dollars into a bigger windscreen. Maybe they appeal to people who played a lot of Halo.
Nov. 4, 2022, 9:57 a.m. - Mike Ferrentino
Well, if we are gonna go full pedant, let's go full pedant. But remember, Justin, YOU opened this can of worms! Visors, in moto terms, are that Lexan or other see-through plastic that comprise the face shields of road moto helmets. Peaks are the sun and roost shadey things found on off-road moto helmets. They get called visors on mountain bike lids because, ummm, I don't know why. Hence the title - Peak Advisory. Sort of a play on words. Probably not a very good one, but I was pressed for time. Anyway, road moto helmets are almost always designed around a visor, except for maybe those retro throwback things that are popping up lately. Designers take the visor as part of the helmet into account and they look for the most part pretty damn good (check out the current Bell Race Star, damn what a nicely proportioned lid). Off-road moto helmets are designed around a peak, and also look well proportioned by and large. Take the visor off a road helmet, or a peak of a dirt helmet, and they look sorta weird. Always have, always will. Same could be said if you de-peak or de-visor (choose your word, since it doesn't really matter here) your mtb lid that was designed around one of those things. Meanwhile, there is the unspoken abomination of "Adventure" helmet design. Which is a moto helmet with a sort of dirt-esque peak AND a visor. To be worn by people riding BMW GS1200s with an extra $10k of Touratech bullshit bolted to the poor things. Designed, apparently, by blind people who do not actually ride since they are noisy, ugly, and almost all of them do a masterful job of catching wind right as it comes off the windscreens of said adventure bikes and in some cases literally try to unscrew the rider's head from the buffeting. But hey, another excuse to dump a few hundred more dollars into a bigger windscreen. Maybe they appeal to people who played a lot of Halo.