Schuberth J1 pic snagged from their site
"Everything old is new again! Back about 1970 when the Bell Star, the first "full face" helmet, made it's appearance, racers quickly realized that face protection was a good thing. We adapted by bolting football helmet face guards to our open face helmets. It became so common that Webco began making a double loop protective guard to screw to your open face helmet. It was made without the steel reinforcement of the of football piece so the potential greater impact of a motorcycle crash would not leave the face piece bent in against one's face and requiring the Jaws of Life to remove it. A picture of yours truly riding my Bultaco in a La Mesa, California motocross in 1970 is attached."
back when I was skinny and had all my hair
Don't misunderstand either, I like the look of the J1 and it's engineering far surpasses a clunky plastic guard bolted onto my 1970 "Capt. America" helmet. I'd be hunting a J1 down to try it on except I just bought another Arai SZ/M (3/4 helmet with face shield) this past Saturday. Drat. Poor timing on my part as I'd like the extra face protection of the J1 and don't like the enclosed feeling and restricted vision of the typical full face helmet. Ah well, the Arai will be ready for replacement in 5 years or so and maybe then I'll look at the new "pudding bowl" helmets that someone just invented. ;-)
3 comments:
That is a nice helmet. I like how you get full-face protection, without part of your view blocked. I don't need a new helmet yet, but I will have to look in the stores to see how it looks in real life.
PS: Nice action photo of you from the '70's.
Nice to hear from you again, Betty. As for the action photo, I still have those very leathers I was wearing in that race. And they still fit...but only up to my knees.
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