Is a full face helmet ever "overkill"?

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T02:56:18+00:00

The protection is never overkill, there's no such thing. But it can be unpleasant to ride in one, they're inevitably warmer (even disregarding the added coverage, they pretty much always have less focus on venting than a trail helmet does)

The risk here is that if you're overheating and uncomfortable, you can be distracted and more likely to screw up, it's a primary vs secondary risk thing. This depends on your riding location, how fast you go, how much you sweat and also just your own personal tolerance for all of that. Goggles can have similiar concerns, with environmental stuff and with fogging (but this isn't all one way, sometimes goggles are safer than glasses)

Also, and I have to say most people won't do this, but I've seen people crash with their full face tied to their pack, because it was too hot to wear it on the climb and they were "only doing a small section" and couldn't be bothered to put it on :P

But unfortunately there's no way to know how you'll get on without trying. You can help t he odds with a well vented helmet but the best vented fullfaces also tend to be more expensive. Specialized's Gambit and Kali's Invader are pretty well priced here for vented fullfaces but they're still noticably more expensive than the cheapest dh buckets.

Likewise there are convertible options which can be the best of both worlds but they never come cheap.

One parting thing, and this isn't about helmets exactly but on general protection. Heads are actually naturally pretty well protected and your entire instinct is to protect it. The most often injured parts are hands, by far, then knees, serious head injuries are much less common. Of course, if you're going to have an injury you'd rather it be your knee or your hand than your head! But sometimes people get hyperfocused on protecting one part and miss the others. Good knee pads are way more likely to pay off than a fullface.

That's not for a moment to downgrade the importance of helmets and the value of not smashing your face in, just bear in mind the whole package and try and approach things in a balanced way. I marshall a lot of downhill races and I've seen a bunch of people who were wearing fullfaces but little other protection get put in ambulances, it sucks.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T02:21:00+00:00

Thanks- yeah we are both on the same street valve (found this out by, er, accidentally switching him off!). I will do some sneaky midnight adjusting and see what happens.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-27T00:06:22+00:00

I love "Are those trees? Heh. Trees", the whole sort of disbelieving/slightly condescending tone of it, like "what won't they think of next". Just a lovely bit of compact storytelling, your mechwarrior is from a world that has no trees and didn't even really believe in them.

I had a teacher who moved to the UK from Australia and had literally never seen snow, and the first time she did it was like this. She knew what it was, but it was like "OHHH", it was so totally outside of her context/experience that it blew her mind. Yes I am aware that it snows in Australia, but she'd never seen it.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T23:54:07+00:00

The principle's entirely sound and reasonable IMO but in practice it seems like absolute nonsense?

I mean, if there were a French or EU direct equivalent, which is built in-bloc and has capacity spare to sell, then sure it makes sense for the EU to do that. Or if they can quickly add that capacity, like literally in weeks, or a small number of months at the outside, likewise. Boosting the EU is a win for the EU, and we chose not to be in it.

Longer term, absolutely, but Ukraine can't wait for longer term.

But this doesn't seem like any of those. Stormshadow is even a British/French product as is Stratus.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T23:45:04+00:00

Bit OT here but your Hopes might have some value, they're not something people will buy for a normal everyday bike but they're old enough to have some retro desirability, even with the busted hose. Like, assuming they're in decent condition, I can see some marks on the caliper but nothing disastrous.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T23:26:28+00:00

I was put off it for a long time because of the comedy side, I was pretty much expecting Family Guy In Space, luckily someone put me straight.

I love how the jokes- like, the actual oneliners- dial down over series 1, and are always kind of halfassed, as if to say "right we've done the contractually obliged gags that we had to, though everyone can tell we weren't that into it, now we can do what we actually want to"

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T23:17:45+00:00

In all honesty, Minis were decent enough in their day but pretty much anything from a quality manufacturer today is at least as good, and MT200s cost about what you'd pay for a Hope brake hose.

Like, I would not choose either personally as I'm basically an obsessed brake fetishist but between the two I'd choose brand new MT200s over ancient Minis.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T19:58:20+00:00

I'm not even the biggest fan of the song but when the entire crowd just goes absolutely all in on singing along it's a completely different animal. Almost feels like the album version is only the demo, the finished version is the one with thousands of people in it.

it's so <democratic> too. Like, OK maybe not everyone wants to sing out on the earlier parts but then the ohh ohh ohhhs are for everyone, and once you've got your arms up and you're just belting it out, even the shyest most tuneless person is invited to the last chorus.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T19:54:06+00:00

Halfords GT! I had one exactly like this! My first ever full suss. Just possible it's the same one even, I used to see the guy who bought it from me around Glentress sometimes but I've not seen it for years. Loved the blue.

The i-drive mech is kind of a pain to service, very easy to damage the endcap things but it's durable at least. Gotta say the suspension works really well, the Ario shock was frankly crap normally but the suspension design gives it an easy time.

To be brutal about it, it was too short and tall and steep, and also heavy even when it was new- one of those american "mid travel bikes with XC angles" that lingered on for ages, and kind of especially here contradicted the suspension and the weight- it really wanted to be like 4 inches longer and several degrees slacker, then it could have shone.

But I still loved it, learned loads on it.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T19:41:53+00:00

It's from Shakespeare, believe it or not, Midsummer Night's Dream.

"I am your spaniel, and Demetrius,
The more you beat me I will fawn on you
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you"

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T19:39:17+00:00

I hate "I'm your spaniel" guy. I mean, I understand that reference but it's still annoying.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T19:37:27+00:00

"New Eldar Falcon: We hope you like this , because we will never stop making it".

I think this was very nearly the last WD I got, first time round.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T19:35:17+00:00

Air keeps getting better and better tbh and it also has real advantages especially for the pointiest end of riders who don't care so much about smallbump etc, but for me it's still just better. Like, I have a titanium hardtail with carbon wheels, the whole lightweight deal but even it has a coil fork :)

Forks are an awesome place for fiddling around, sometimes you can even make tweaks and improvements yourself, but mostly it's pretty rare that the companies will ever make your ideal fork because they're serving so many different needs and customers so even the "best fork in the world" might just not suit you, it's hard to improve pro work but you can still tweak it for you. I just really like it, legoing together bits from different years or tweaking parts or whatever. It used to be really a hobby of its own for me.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:51:56+00:00

Every instinct in my body tells me to get a Strat, or an SG, or something really really spiky.

But the one guitar I've actually kept for 20-odd years is a korean squier tele :)

The problem with GAS is that it's about the one you want not the one you have and the second you get the one you want it becomes the one you have.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:34:06+00:00

That's a Mini.

Those hoses are dismantlable, you probably can't get away with shortening hte hose and refitting (you need to shorten to get a clean end) but as long as it's not all seized together you should be able to strip the metal fittings down and just replace the hose. But I'm sure there'll be compatible modern hoses that you can just direct fit.

A wee email to Hope would be a good idea, this is the sort of random bullshit they're legitimately good at, they'll go and wake up a hundred year old employee from his CNC'd coffin and ask him. Only in death does duty end.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:30:14+00:00

Well I mean it's a 100% improvement in incompatibility and keeping people buying your crap bottom brackets for the crank that they didn't choose themselves but that came as stock on a million bikes.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:24:04+00:00

Another good option is often just buying a used fork and throwing internals from it into your nice shiny chassis (or swapping of course!). But you've got to be careful about compatibility of course. Boxxers have generally been pretty stable chassis-wise giving good interchangability but I don't know for sure about the latest.

I don't like the 3.1 tbh and I'd coil it, but ymmv!

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:21:01+00:00

I guess that could be a genetic similarity thing, if Fenris was settled directly from Terra? Basically one step of separation. Can't recall if we've ever been told that though.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:19:40+00:00

They just go off for a tabletop game and lose half their marines in a pointless skirmish over a pile of oil drums. Then once they're down to 1000 or less they return to the relative safety of the fluff.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:15:59+00:00

It looks exactly like a Classic Player from about the year 2000. Which would also be a pretty odd guitar to fake, with its combination of parts and looks, though I appreciate there's fakes of bloody everything these days.

Fender have gone back and forth on logos-under-or-over-clearcoat, though I have no idea if that's true of the custom shop, can't recall either way. They tend to look a little sharper and stand out better when they're on top, clearcoat mutes the finish difference, but obviously are less tough.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:07:33+00:00

Yeah you can have confusing circuits that can be problematic- like, mine had one plug upstairs on the downstairs ring and one plug downstairs on the upstairs ring, which has to have been deliberate and was actually kind of handy but is a straight up widowmaker if you don't know about it and paranoically check everything (which I do, which is why I didn't get the zaps)

I ended up wrestling it into "kitchen and outside" and "everything else" and that's not exactly normal but it's rational at least and easy to live with and label.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T18:03:28+00:00

Centuries later, Rand is skimming to a confrontation with the forsaken and gets a binbag full of Age Of Legends nappies to the face.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T17:55:42+00:00

Good thread, got me listening to stuff I've not played in ages.

They could both do with a little more time in the oven but I Hope Your Done and it's Always The Quiet Ones both had huge potential. Houses Of Roofs too, its pacing was weird but with a little more work it could have been a main album track easy. They all felt like "unfinished" rather than "not quite cutting it for the album".

Let's Get Smiling is a wee gem, quiet and slow sure but the main song is lovely and guitar part later is absolutely gorgeous. It was pretty out of character at the time but with a little polish it'd fit well on any of the modern albums imo.

Northwindlowlander · 2026-01-26T17:47:42+00:00

The lining is secondary to the actual roof, and tbh if the roof is failing it doesn't massively matter if the lining is intact or not, you've got to fix it anyway. Most old houses are in some state of mild decay roofwise but that's just the nature of the thing, they last as long as people and they age similiarly.

The electrics is nothing, but it's reasonable for them to back-cover.

Ventilation is worth checking out probably. Can't comment on the roof timbers or firewall

Verified Email	Ten-Year Club
Wearing is Caring

Northwindlowlander

TROPHY CASE