Winter Riding (Part 4)
Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 9:29 am by rhino
I’ll be devoting this latest episode of “Winter Riding” to only one piece of gear: the facesheild!
Making sure your vision is unobscured is the most significant safety precaution you can take. It is integral to competent riding and anything which restricts this source of invaluable information needs immediate correction. One of the problems with riding when the temperature starts dropping is condensation. Most riders use the term “fogging” and it’s effects can range from annoying to dangerous. It can be particularly bad in humid climates, even at moderate temperatures. Even though it’s virtually impossible to eliminate all the warm moist air you exhale from finding its way to your facesheild, there several techniques that will help mitigate it’s effects.
My HJC CS-12 helmet came with a “real” breath guard that actually seals around my nose and mouth and vents through two snorkels that plug into outside vents. This is the most ffective solution I found to eliminate shield fogging. Don’t count on the standard breath guard on most other helmets, it’s mostly a cosmetic feature which makes only a marginal attempt to deflect your breath from ending up on your sheild . There are several products like the FogCity which apply to the inside of your faceshield and do a remarkable job of minimizing fogging. My chief complaint with these type of products is a tendency to slightly blur your view, especially at night. Many riders notice no effect at all, but you won’t know unless you try it. You might also consider a DOT approved snowmobile helmet which provides excellent protection while incorporating specific cold weather features like special venting and double-paned shields.
A home remedy for fogging I’ve used with great success in the past, is to wear a painter’s paper facemask and cut a quarter sized opening in the bottom (so your breath is directed down and out of the helmet). Some helmets have a small piece of fabric that runs across the bottom of the leading edge of the helmet (these are to reduce noise). You must remove this when using the facemask technique or all that hot moist air will just get redirected back up into the helmet. Another method that works well, but requires constant interaction, is cracking open the faceshield a couple millimeters. This keeps it clear at higher speeds (above 25 MPH). Below that speed a few more millimeters works. At full stop I open my sheild all the way. This method might not suit you, as your face will be pretty cold. As a last resort, try to exhale downward by putting your upper lip forward of your lower lip. I even try to modify my breathing velocity and rate when traveling particularly slow or when stopped (rush hour traffic).
Keeping your sheild clean inside and out is one of the best ways to reduce fogging. You should occassionally clean your sheild inside and out with soap and water. I like to remove my sheild from my helmet and then hand-wash it in the sink about once a week. Not only are your hands the least likely material to scratch your sheild, but you can feel encrusted crud more easily and give it a little more knuckle grease. Make sure not to use any paper products (which contain wood) to clean or dry your sheild, it’s pretty much guaranteed to scratch, if not immediately, then cumulatively. My preferred “rag” is a piece of an old T-shirt that’s been washed many times.
Between thorough cleanings I like to use a product called Plexus which is specifically designed to clean and polish plastic products. Not only can it minimize very light scratches but it causes bug splat to have a much less adhesive quality (kinda like PAM spray for your facesheild). Eventually, over time, your sheild will become scratched to the point where it’s hard to ignore the lack of clear spots and starbursts start to form around the headlights of oncoming vehicles. At this point, there’s no use trying to polish out the imperfections; just bite the bullet and buy a new sheild.
Daylight becomes pretty scarce commodity about the time Halloween rolls around. Inevitably you’ll get caught out after dark. If you like to wear a tinted shield (like I do), it’s imperative you carry a clear shield with you everywhere you go. Believe me when I say you will go out during broad daylight with the intent of returning before sundown, and at some point your plan will go awry. If you don’t have someplace on your bike to put that extra sheild, I recommend putting it inside your jacket under your arm, surrounding your rib cage. It’s out of the way and almost unnoticeable, but it’s there when you need it! Always protect your spare sheild from scratches by putting it in some type of soft-material sleeve; old socks work great.
Just like darkness, wetness will eventually catch up with you at some point in your riding career. In areas where you’ll be following a lot of traffic, the spray thrown up by the 4-or-more-wheelers is usually so fine it sticks to even the newest,cleanest sheild. I purchased a thumb squeege which slip over the gloved thumb of your left hand and does an excellent job of wiping away this particularly persistent mist. Well there you have it, keep that thin piece of plastic between your eyes and the rest of the world as clean, clear, smooth and moisture-free as possible and you’ll eliminate one more risk factor. Rhino
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Good piece, Rhino. We used Rain-X on both sides of our face shields to reduce fogging. There is a slight rainbow effect from oncoming headlights at night in the rain, but it is tolerable. It’s workable, but it’s not as good as your other recommended solutions.
This article reminds me of the fact that plastic face masks or shields can also be instrumental in fast, hard, motorcycle emergency braking as well. How so? Let me digress and address a specific situation that I hope none of you ever experiences. It involves an incident that occured years ago on my Honda CX 500.
The experience on the CX-500 that I recall vividly was something that I feel must be related to my fellow motorcyclists as a cautionary note. I do not wish this particular incident on anyone.
You all know what a fixed-bubble face shield is, don’t you? It’s a clear, plastic, fish-bowl-like facemask affixed to the helmet that protects the face and eyes from the elements and road debris. The fixed variety snaps on to the front of the helmet and does not swivel upwards but remains fixed in front of the face. These face shields should not be worn while riding if you have a cold or like to chew tobacco. Now I don’t chew, but once, when I had a cold and without thinking, I made the mistake of forgetting that I was wearing the bubble face shield. I spat as I turned my head to the side while riding my bike at 55 mph.
Panic! The spittle hit the plastic bubble with a splat and scattered all over the inside of the face shield. You never saw a bike stop so fast in all your life.
Well, I hope you get the idea. Beware the bubble face shield. I don’t expect that you will be expectorating anytime soon while wearing one after reading this comment. This is just one of many tidbits of wisdom that you will find in my eBook, First to Last (The Tale of a Biker) by Digital Pulp Publishing.
Anyway, Rhino, thanks for the solid and practical recommendations to overcome a persistent problem and prevent or reduce face shield fogging.
Skid Lid