Coming from sport bikes, and having been an MSF instructor, I've always been an ATGATT guy, including a FF helmet. I would also never allow a passenger on my bike to wear any less.

In the past year, I have started wearing less gear when it's hot. On a run earlier this year, both my wife & I ended up stuffing our jackets in the saddlebags and strapping the helmets onto the bike. Had a blast.

Riding lidless has taken some getting used to - the wind in my eyes, the wind noise over 50, but, I've been digging it anyway.

Having experience both ways, I really have to laugh at those who say they won't wear a FF because it diminishes their ability to hear. I know one can certainly hear more, much better, in a FF than lidless, at any speed over 50 mph.

 

I wear the Roof Boxer, which is very populair in Holland with H-D riders.
Imo it's the best of both worlds. Ride it open around town or put the chinpiece down when it rains or at the highway.

 

http://www.explodingdog.com/dumbpict51/goodpie.gif

 

I went with the Arai Corsair V Jolly Roger Helmet to ride with my SB.

 

I love this helmet. I really want one, but it doesn't look like anyone in the US sells them.

 

I Have been on the look out for good deals on a FF for highway riding as my half helmet is a PITA for all the reasons previously posted on the Hwy.: Noise, neck strain, being hit in the face with high speed projectiles, etc.

I recently tripped across the Shoei X-11. Since it is last year's model of the current X-12, is can be had for a significant cut from MSRP - if you have a big head and can find one. They are getting rare.

Ok so how is it? It is fan-damn-TASTIC. The air flow through this helmet is amazing. I have never ridden with a vented helmet that you could actually FEEL the air flowing around your head at speed the way I can with this helmet. And yet it is quiet as hell. Like all FF's it fogs a bit at a stop but only in very warm conditions - 85+ and only if sitting at a longish light. And you can always just flip up the visor in that case.

In short - if you can find one, go git-choo some!

On another note - I am so happy to see such a positive thread on FF helmets. Most of the remarks around here and in the HD world in general are so negative regarding FF helmets. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against halfies, or lidless riding, have done both (though lidless is rare), and they have their merits, especially around town, but I can't help but see the folks ranking on FF helmets (especially highway use) as engaged in illogical posturing. It just cannot be true that "you hear better" or that being hit in the face with all sorts of debris is more "freeing." Last fall when I bought my bike (not first cruiser but first Harley) and had only my half helmet, and no visor, I had to ride home in light to heavy rain only about 18 miles or so a couple times. I couldn't go any faster than about 55, as the rain felt like needles being driven under my skin. And getting behind most trucks even on relatively clean roads becomes an experience akin to being sand blasted. Who really "likes" such a thing? Well maybe those folks like it in the sense of proving to themselves how much they will/can endure. But I don't ride to "endure" it. I ride to enjoy it - and if I can enjoy getting where I'm going a little more (even going to work and back), that's all that really matters.

Or maybe I'm just not a "tough guy."


(stepping down from my soap box now )

 

I just took the plunge too and bought a EXO-700 :



Some positives I noticed right away :

- Less wind noise and bike valvetrain noise. It's quieter and seems to make the exhaust note much more audible vs everything else. At highway speeds, this is nice.

- Less wind fatigue. Again, highway, no contest. I was cruising at 120 km/h without so much as feeling it. I could have gone much faster.

- Looks god damn cool.

- Better field of view than my Guard-dog goggles. I don't squint at highway speed with the Guard-dogs on, people who squint have badly adjusted eye protection, period. However, because it's not a visor on a FF, the extra plastic on the side does hamper my peripheral vision a bit, the FF was better in this regard.

Negatives though :

- Much less cooling. I don't care what you say, all vents fully open and even with the visor up, this thing is an oven. It is also one of the best venting helmets out there according to most reviews and yet I didn't feel a thing as far as wind was concerned. Beanie destroys it in this instance. Wind in your face is an unbeatable experience.

- More buffeting during head movement at highway speed. My beanie is like it's not even there when I turn my head, this thing grabs the wind in the chin bar area much more. Looking forward is not a problem, but I do need the change lanes sometimes...

- Like riding in a car. Not a positive by a long mile

All in all I am very satisfied with the experience and my purchase. I bought this for cold weather riding and rainy days. It does what I want it to do, it isolates me from the climate . I'll never wear it on a sunny day in the middle of summer though, completely ruins the experience (I rode it in about 25 degree C (not F you crazy americans...), sunny to bring it back from the store and I was seriously regretting my beanie that sat in my backpack. Since it was summer hot I tried to get it to fog up by purposefully breathing hard. Scorpion do indeed make fog free visors. Nothing I could do, even sweating like I was could fog this thing up.

I couldn't care less about the safety aspects.

And yes, that is my Zox beanie in the back trying to get in the photo action har har...

 

Not really. The FF crowd makes it sound worse than it actually is. I drive along the river quite a few times in the evening hours, and it is full of bugs. You can literrally see clouds of them at head height above the road. Close your mouth. The bigger ones sting a bit, but no worse that hard rain.

You'd have to be a pretty big sissy to actually get hurt by bugs hitting your face. I've had things as big as the tip of my finger hit my face at 100 km/h and aside from having to wash them off, it didn't leave a mark.

If you like the look, can't help you there. It has that Simpson/Bandit look that is really bad ***. However, if it's the concept you like, the reversable chin bar and sun visor, Shark makes one that is carried in the US, the Evoline :



From full face to 3/4 helmet with no leftover parts.

 

Not as cool looking as the Roof Boxer V8, but worth looking into, Thanks.

 

http://www.pinlock.com/
This will solve your fogging problem. They come standard on Shoei helmets sold in the UK. You can get tinted inserts also. They work really well. My Shoei has never fogged with these installed.