Shopping for a new helmet..

I've been slowly shopping for a new mountain biking helmet, and in the process, heard a rather interesting story yesterday that I wanted to pass along.

Most of my riding is what I'd call "urban assault", meaning, general mucking around in the city -- jumping off things that were never meant for entertainment. If I'm on the trails, I prefer downhill riding, and again, just goofing around having fun rather then riding for "exercise" per say. In addition to playing around on bikes, I also use them for general transportation. Because of these uses, I really have two different needs when it comes to a brain bucket. For the general transportation and easy trails, a traditional bike helmet serves just fine. However, when playing around on asphalt and rocks, a full-face helmet is a wise choice for those looking to avoid medical bills.

Recognizing the need for two different helmets, manufacturer Giro introduced a convertible helmet a few years back called the Switchblade that fill this niche:

The Switchblade features a removable chin guard that allows the helmet to fill both downhill and cross-country needs with the turn of a few screws. The Switchblade isn't on the market anymore, but Met Helmets offers a similar style called the Parachute:

This sounded like the perfect solution for me, but being a rather unique helmet, I haven't found any at my local bike shops. Yesterday, while out on a ride, I decided to stop and ask about the availability of a convertible helmet like this -- the response was a bit surprising. Apparently, the Switchblade was pulled off the market because the detachable design wasn't strong enough and the chin guards were breaking. When they broke, it could be particularly nasty, and one of the bike-techs at the shop found this out the hard way. During a nasty spill, his chin guard broke and sheared off most of his nose. He required over fifty stitches on the side of his face, and reconstructive surgery to reattach his nose. Even worse, the story went on to say that this wasn't an isolated event, and that dozens of serious injuries had been reported due to failing helmets. The manufacturer picked up the complete medical expenses for this guys' surgery, and the helmet design was pulled off the market.

That's enough convincing for me! So I guess I'm now shopping for a proper full-face helmet like the Giro MadMax II or a Bell Bellistic.