Aero helmet visor/shield impact vulnerable

[dcolv]

Back story: hit by a car similar situation to Kat Matthews. Was wearing an aerohead mips, visor/shield fractured in two and cut above and below my right eye. Looking back I am fortunate all injuries were not worse and I didnt lose that eye.

In looking for a replacement helmet I started searching for helmet visor/shield impact protection standards and I haven’t found any across the current manufacturers ( except Oakley). This is surprising as I cannot imagine a shield breaking during an accident is a one off. Yes, I was hit by a car so taking the situation into account as a more extreme example, still I dont want anyone else to lose an eye.

Was thinking along the lines of something or anything similar to the ANSI standards Oakley uses for their eyewear.

I have talked with customer service for Giro and Rudy and neither had any shield testing to discuss. (two of the known faster helmets)

Oakley customer service was able to answer right off the bat that all lenses are plutonite and pass the ansi standard. (have read the Aro 7 is a bit of a dog).

So 3 questions for the ST crowd:

Are there any shield standards?

Is this an unrealistic expectation and performance expectation for the helmet shield/visor?

Switch back to a non shield/visor helmet and run sun glasses? If yes whats the fastest and what would I give up?

[Rideon77]

I have no doubt that a car impact isn’t in the testing of any aero helmet shield design. Sorry about your accident by the way.

But I can say that I was taken out by 2 dogs and my aerohead shield saved my face when I hit the asphalt. The shield took all the damage and didn’t break. It saved my face that day. My guess is that the only helmet face shield tested for car impacts is a motorcycle helmet.

[burnthesheep]

Switch back to a non shield/visor helmet and run sun glasses? If yes whats the fastest and what would I give up?

No difference on “digging in” or cutting you. Perhaps only on abrasion (as shown in my picture) or with object impact like a rock if they are ansi safety glasses versus a simple optic plastic. So, these saved my eyelids but did severely dig into my face and cause me a bunch of stiches to my face.

If they sold a “downhill skiing” style helmet with integrated chin guard to keep the face off the surface at impact, I’d buy one for training/road/gravel riding.