Helmet for glasses wearer -recommendations please.

[Philb65]

I’m a helmet virgin, sad at 57 but there you go! So I need to pop my cherry and buy one but I am pretty much clueless on what makes a good one, especially as I need to wear my glasses. I understand it needs to be anti fog and I guess as light as possible. I’ve read about lifting at high speeds but to start with that’s unlikely to be much of an issue. Prices vary wildly. The only thing I do know is I don’t want one of the aero dynamic ones with the bit at the back as space is fairly tight for me anyway. It’s will just be for road use, maybe track day later.

What ever I buy I will find somewhere to try it on to make sure it fits and is comfortable. Get it wrong and it could be a pricey mistake depending on what I choose so any hints, tips or advice will be warmly received.

 

Cheers Phil

[eggontoast]

I recently bought a Hedtec Gem. It's possible for me to wear Wayfarer style sunglasses in it with reasonable comfort. I found that the helmet sized up big after dilligently measuring, ended up wit ha 'M' when the measurements put me firmly to 'L'.

[Euan Hoosearmy]

For the anti-fog side of things, make sure the visor has pinlocks and get the inserts to fit. You can get dark inserts for those rare days when the sun shines and the inserts are easier to carry than spare visors and two sets of specs.

 

Why do you need a helmet? Are you racing or do you have an aero-screen? I'm guessing for racing there's specific standards the helmet needs to meet.

 

Fit is everything. I've always been a Shoei user, Arai are great helmets but just don't fit my head shape. I know plenty of people to whom the opposite applies. After that is comfort. Good ventilation is an absolute must!!

 

I'll wear a helmet in my Westie if I'm doing a long distance, but I just use my old motorcycle helmet. Depending on how tall you are you may want to put some padding on the roll bar.

 

 

[Philb65]

1 hour ago, Euan Hoosearmy said:

For the anti-fog side of things, make sure the visor has pinlocks and get the inserts to fit. You can get dark inserts for those rare days when the sun shines and the inserts are easier to carry than spare visors and two sets of specs.

 

Why do you need a helmet? Are you racing or do you have an aero-screen? I'm guessing for racing there's specific standards the helmet needs to meet.

 

Fit is everything. I've always been a Shoei user, Arai are great helmets but just don't fit my head shape. I know plenty of people to whom the opposite applies. After that is comfort. Good ventilation is an absolute must!!

 

I'll wear a helmet in my Westie if I'm doing a long distance, but I just use my old motorcycle helmet. Depending on how tall you are you may want to put some padding on the roll bar.

 

 

Cars got an aero screen and cage, probably just road work for the first year. 

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

Contact lenses and sunglasses with impact lenses for me 

[Paul Baker]

I would definitely recommend trying some on, as you mentioned.

 

I didn’t regularly wear a helmet before I built my Westfield so I was new to the game as well. Have to say I still don’t really understand the reason for the huge difference in prices, although some have more features, such as the pin-lock that has already been mentioned and is well worth it.

 

I wear glasses too and tried on some helmets that supposedly had the ‘easy fit’ for glasses but didn’t seem that comfortable, whereas the helmet I currently have didn’t advertise that as a feature but my glasses fit nicely. So anyway, trying a few on is definitely worth it to get the right fit.

[Mark Stanton]

I purchased a set of glasses for use when wearing my skid lid (I'm blind as a bat without them) - they are quite small and have bendable arms and rims, effectively you can fold them in half + safety lenses fitted. For my Bell skid lid I have two anti-fog visors one clear and one tinted - Also used plenty of Rain-X to outside of visors and Fog-X to inside and to glasses 👍

 

You really do need to try a few skid lids on, they all vary in their style and fitment.

[Philb65]

Good advice so far thanks. The pin lock is good to know. I like the idea of wearing just sunglasses but worry about a stone through the forehead rightly or wrongly! Another option might be a paintball mask for shorter, lower speed trips, cheap enough for a punt along with a helmet.

[Euan Hoosearmy]

stone through forehead - see recent post

 

From my motorcycling days I can attest to the pain of hitting large insects at speed let alone stones.... 

[stephenh]

If you drive regularly with a helmet on, and have to wear glasses, then it might be worth having a spare pare of glasses made just for wearing in a helmet. 

I used to compete in the speed series, so had to wear a close fitting MSA approved helmet. So I had a pair made up with smallish lenses, and crucially had the arms of the specs made straight, rather than conventional hockey stick style, if you see what I mean. The result was that I could easily slide the arms of the specs into place, through the visor aperture,  whereas my normal specs tended to bend the curved part of the arms when they were pushed in, as they were difficult to get them over and behind my ears, rather than pushing into my ears or snagging on the helmet liner. 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

My problem with glasses in full-face helmet is centred on them being a positive prescription. Positive glasses effectively amplify movement of the glasses with respect to the eyes so bumps which wouldn't normally be a problem become amplified to a point where clear vision is impossible. The arms are sandwiched between the inside of the helmet sides and the sides of my head. So, when the helmet moves as I drive over bumps on a circuit the movement jiggles my specs. My solution was, I thought, some way of fixing the frames to the bony part of my face - the ocular orbit. So I bought some swimming goggles with my distance prescription (c.+3 dioptres). Great as the helmet movement will not be transmitted to the lenses as the goggles are retained by elastic and rest on my cheekbones. But... try putting on a full face helmet over swimming goggles! very uncomfortable indeed!

 

[dvd8n]

5 hours ago, Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO said:

Contact lenses and sunglasses with impact lenses for me 

 

+1 for contacts.  Modern soft disposables are easy to wear, and pretty cheap, especially if you only wear them occasionally.  They don't mist up or get rain on them, and you can wear them with any helmet, goggles or sunglasses.

 

D

[Philb65]

Thanks for the replies…Clapham man you made me chuckle….I’ll take a look at disposable contacts.

[Flying Carrot Steve]

On 26/09/2023 at 16:47, Euan Hoosearmy said:

stone through forehead - see recent post

 

From my motorcycling days I can attest to the pain of hitting large insects at speed let alone stones.... 

@Euan Hoosearmy your link goes to a YouTube video about BMW driver's door handle! 

[Si.Dalziel]

On 26/09/2023 at 12:35, Philb65 said:

I’m a helmet virgin, sad at 57 but there you go! So I need to pop my cherry and buy one but I am pretty much clueless on what makes a good one, especially as I need to wear my glasses. I understand it needs to be anti fog and I guess as light as possible. I’ve read about lifting at high speeds but to start with that’s unlikely to be much of an issue. Prices vary wildly. The only thing I do know is I don’t want one of the aero dynamic ones with the bit at the back as space is fairly tight for me anyway. It’s will just be for road use, maybe track day later.

What ever I buy I will find somewhere to try it on to make sure it fits and is comfortable. Get it wrong and it could be a pricey mistake depending on what I choose so any hints, tips or advice will be warmly received.

 

Cheers Phil

I wear a shark helmet. It has pin lock and the anti fog insert came with it. It has a drop down sun visor but I have tried it with sunglasses as it’s advertised as having cutouts for glasses. No dramas at all and still fairly comfy to wear for a full day of blatting. 
 

I did go to a large biking gear shop and tried a few helmets on. It is a bike helmet rather than a car one but still works well in a car.

 

After having a large moth hit me in the visor at a good speed I can only imagine I would have binned the car off the road without it. I’m also running aeroscreen with cage so welcome to the club.