What kind of Helmet to buy? Motorcycle or BMX style?
 

Hey all - just got my first ATV in December, and I am eagerly awaiting the snow to melt so I can take it out on some trails... maybe even before it all melts!

Gear is something that I am concerned about. Should I jsut get a helmet for casual riding, or should I get a chest plate/armor as well?

And with helmets, should I get a full motorcycle helmet, or the bmx style ones?? Which is more comfortable? In my head it feels like the motorcycle ones are probably more comfy, but I dont know.

Are there helmets where my passenger and I could hear each other and talk to each other?

Thanks for any info!

Depends on how you ride, if your wild and crazy then get the good stuff! I just use a half helmet for summer and a 3/4 for colder weather and a snowmobile helmet for winter. I have a full roll cage (utv) and dont drive fast and crazy...at my age it takes to long to recover...so I dont need premimum protection. Most inportant is to find a helmet that fits correctly and comfortable as possible!! It will be money well spent if you ever need it!

Riding in snow is fun, but make sure you don't ride alone in case you get stuck or break down. You may need a friend with a tow rope. I prefer motocross type helmets with a pair of goggles. It's a good combination of protection and the ventilation I need. Unless you bought a 2-person ATV it may not be legal to ride with a passenger. You can't ride double on a single person ATV on any national forest trails. There are radios made to use with helmets so you can communicate. Most people I see riding sport ATVs wear chest plates and generally ride faster than the people on utility ATVs who don't wear them.

Just bought:
Hopefully it suits!

You'll be missing out on one of the things that comes in handy with an MX helmet: the visor. There are times when the sun shines in my eyes and I tilt my head just a little so the visor blocks the sun until I get around the next curve. You may be tempted to put a darker tinted shield on your helmet but if you're out past dark it's like riding with sunglasses at night. I learned that the hard way when I bought tinted goggles.

That is gonna be quite warm when summer gets here. You might give some thought to having myltiple helmets like I do. Comfort is everything to me, so I have different helmets for different times of the year. That closed job is gonna bake the brain come summer. Frank makes some good points here also, bright sun can be a real killer when zipping thru the trails at a brisk pace....them trees never want to get out of your way when the sun steals your vision!

The visor opens up I think.. I hope! Would that not allow air flow through the helmet?

I run dual sport helmets.. so i get the benefit of the visor as well as a full face shield i also have the drop down sun shield on all mine. Great to have then you dont have to mess with sun glasses. When looking for communications stay away from the ebay crap i have been stung 2x first set was to be able to talk to multiple users but i failed to read the fine print that it was not at the same time.. Got another what i though was a good set that could talk to 3 or more riders at the same time. The distance on them was poor maby 50ft or so. The unit on my little girls helmet would randomly let out a high pitch sequel at full volume. This actually caused to to crash as well.. When i contacted the seller they ignored me and ebay and paypal refused to do anything as well.. After doing some research i found over 50% of the stuff on ebay is made by the same Chinese factory. For what i spend i could have had a good reliable set and saved money

Sure it would let air in. And bugs, dirt, and everything else. You wouldn't have any eye protection which isn't just a great idea to have, it's also required by law in some states. One time I was riding along and a butterfly splattered on my goggles so bad I couldn't see anything out of my left eye. I've also had yellowjackets and all kinds of other bugs bounce off my goggles. You don't want a June bug poking you in the eye so you need eye protection. It would look stupid to have the visor open and a pair of goggles on. You have a good cold weather helmet, but that's it.

Quite Frankly he is absolutely correct! Time to go shopping again with your new found helmet education...