oldmanbike profile

I own a YT Izzo, which gets compared with these 2 also. I can't compare it to them, but fwiw I feel about the Izzo much the way Cooper feels about the Spur.

Looking forward to some good mother-daughter-riding content real soon, guys.

I'm intrigued by the gloves. My riding buddies are sick of me raving about how mtb winter gloves should have regular palms.

Leatt finally dialing down their branding to non-sponsored-adult levels.

Enjoying the mental image of all the mountain bike bros ironing their rain gear.

I try to follow helmet-concussion-safety developments pretty closely, and I share your skepticism that VT's testing is authoritative. More info here. Key point: VT "us[es] the methodology that MIPS uses: sticky headform, tight strap, severe anvil angle, rough grippy anvil, no neck. That methodology couples the headform more tightly to the helmet than it would be in the real world. It would be expected to favor the MIPS models, unlike the Snell Foundation's research that showed no benefit from MIPS."

Before opening this I knew this that there'd by something from Blackburn.

I guess you're right, but I think bike helmet makers have a responsibility to their customers that they've failed utterly to meet. It was, what, 3 years ago now maybe, that we first were told that the industry was working on an updated certification standard to test for preventing brain injury not just skull fractures. Still nothing.

You may be right, of course. Maddening that, several years into increased concussion awareness we're all still stuck fumbling in the dark on all these empirically answerable questions.

It's important to be clear-eyed about what a full-face adds, and doesn't add, in terms of rider safety. It surely increases facial protection. But when it comes to concussion and brain trauma, I'm not aware of any evidence that fullfaces are better than halfshells. And they may be worse. More mass and a longer lever arm could increase direct and rotational forces on the brain vs. the same crash in a halfshell. And I wonder if hotter helmets lead to increased fatigue and more crashes. Nothing I'm saying here proves that fullfaces result in more concussions (and, to be clear, I'm neither an insider nor an expert, just a rider who had a bad concussion recovery and has paid attention to this ever since). But if you're buying a fullface thinking that it's the safer choice across the board, you could be making a mistake. I'm a lot more worried about my brain than my teeth, and my best guess from the crappy info available is that the safest option for trail riding is a modern halfshell from a company with a strong track record of concussion-safety innovation with multiple concussion-risk-reducing design features, not a fullface.