how do HD riders do it?

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SkyRider

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often i see HD riders on the hwy with half helmets and just glasses. bikes had no windshield. how do they deal with road dirt hitting their faces? this one time i had a 20 mins ride with face shield open. when i got home there's a thin layer of black stuff all over my face, like i just came out of a coal mine.

these HD riders are pretty much "eating and breathing" dirt riding this way. it boggles my mind.
 
im with you. ive wondered this many, many times as well. I recall a time i got something in my eye while riding down the 404, luckily i was getting off two exits later. As soon as i got off i went ape **** on my eye until whatever it was came out.

Lesson learned, wear sunglasses or something or that nature.
 
I ride open face 90% of the time and my vision line is well above the windshield on the Burgman.
You get as much dust and dirt from the swirl behind a windshield anyways. I sometimes look like a racoon from wind, sun and dirt.
Who cares.

If you are always riding closed helmet I suggest you are missing a lot of the fun of riding.
Those riding closed faced all the time boggles my mind. ;)

eye protection - now that's a must have - safety glasses are cheap and optically correct. I carry a couple pair all the time.
 
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what i meant was, having a ton of dirt particles going in your lungs/mouth can't be good...(?) and at high speeds dirt just goes in quicker.
 
SkyRider said:
what i meant was, having a ton of dirt particles going in your lungs/mouth can't be good...(?) and at high speeds dirt just goes in quicker.
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This is why they have those big long grey beards. The ladies too.
 
MacDoc said:
If you are always riding closed helmet I suggest you are missing a lot of the fun of riding.
Those riding closed faced all the time boggles my mind. ;)
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+1 I wear an open helmet most of the season and only put my windshield on in cold weather. For me, being out in the open when riding is part of the experience. I don't find that i get particularly dirty from it, but most of my riding is on country back roads with little traffic. Bugs sting for a few moments. June bugs can smart a bit and rain is less then enjoyable but nothing is worse then hail. I keep a pair of riding goggles with my rainsuit in my saddle bags in case of rain.
 
Also see some of them out in low temperatures. I'm freezing with a full face helmet...
 
SkyRider said:
what i meant was, having a ton of dirt particles going in your lungs/mouth can't be good...(?) and at high speeds dirt just goes in quicker.
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That's what mucous and cilia are for!
 
Torren said:
+1 I wear an open helmet most of the season and only put my windshield on in cold weather.
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My equivalent is to ride with a full-face helmet with large visor opening and the visor up all the time. The visor comes down only for rain or when coming up behind dump trucks or other gritty debris causing vehicles.
 
turbodish said:
My equivalent is to ride with a full-face helmet with large visor opening and the visor up all the time. The visor comes down only for rain or when coming up behind dump trucks or other gritty debris causing vehicles.
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Thats what I used to do with my ff. When it came time to replace it i went with a modular unit. Best of both worlds. You just have to be mindful of the sun when you ride in a FF like that. Went into a Tim Horton's one morning in the early spring a couple years back. It was the Monday after one of the first really nice weekends. Pasty white girl behind the counter, with a lobster red oval of a sun burn on her face :D
 
First, you got to buy a Harley or you'll simply never understand. Just do it.................you know you want to as the curiosity is just too intriguing to ignor.......



Truthfully? Bugs and dirt automatically give way to all Harleys. It's the massive glare from the chrome and/or the sonic boom from the pipes. Doesnt work for other makes. Honest.


OK, seriously. How do you think Harley riders get so fat? Coincidence? I think not.
 
I can't stand having the wind in my face, or any other part of my body for that matter. I don't get whole sandals, half helmet, t-shirt and shorts thing but then I guess those that do are the exact opposite of me and they don't get how I can ride with full coverage all the time. The answer is I have to, and I suppose they have to too. To each their own

Of course, I'm right and they're wrong :D
 
I wouldnt ride without anything but a full face,i was driving on the QEW just a couple of weeks ago and this huge rock flew towards me like a bullet,i saw it coming. It hit right in front of my face and took a huge chunk of glass out of my windshield,i was wondering what would have happened if i had been on my bike.
Someone with a half helmet,i an sure that rock would have done a lot of damage....maybe cause them to go down.
 
To me it just seems like the natural way to ride, I love the wind in mt face, and my shirt blowing in the wind, weather it's just down the road or all the way to Halifax N.S. If I was all bundled up in full gear and a full-face helmet I would feel like an astronaut, not a guy on a bike enjoying the country and fresh air.
 
Gotta be "Harley Tough®"

Actually the only time that I can recall regretting a half helmet, back when I had my little Viagro 535, was during a hail storm between Montreal and Napannee. A bandana doesn't do much to help with that.
 
nebulabob said:
I wouldnt ride without anything but a full face,i was driving on the QEW just a couple of weeks ago and this huge rock flew towards me like a bullet,i saw it coming. It hit right in front of my face and took a huge chunk of glass out of my windshield,i was wondering what would have happened if i had been on my bike.
Someone with a half helmet,i an sure that rock would have done a lot of damage....maybe cause them to go down.
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There's a unique sound as a pebble or big bug impacts your face shield. Then you say "Thank you HJC, Arai" etc.

BTW a lot of the USA states where helmets aren't mandatory do mandate eye protection and just sunglasses won't do. They have to have OSHA labels.
 
nobbie48 said:
There's a unique sound as a pebble or big bug impacts your face shield. Then you say "Thank you HJC, Arai" etc.

BTW a lot of the USA states where helmets aren't mandatory do mandate eye protection and just sunglasses won't do. They have to have OSHA labels.
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Even more so when the visor actually cracks or crazes, which I've had happen to me twice.
 
I personally won't wear anything but a full face helmet. Only been riding a few months and already had a bunch of stones and huge bugs smack the middle of my visor on the highway or in the country roads. That's the biggest reason for my choice.

Mind you that when I am on a road by myself, or way behind other vehicles and I don't feel any bug presence, I highly enjoy having the visor up and the wind going through the front of the helmet and then coming out of the bottom onto my shoulders. It also makes my eyes water haha. :D
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