A tip to setup your helmet for wet weather mountain biking

·Wednesday 19 August 2015

It’s raining. It does that a lot here in the UK. But, that’s no reason to go slower or have any less fun on your bike!

Team Wideopenmag’s Rich Thomas wants to share his advice on setting up a full-face helmet for wet weather mountain biking.

rich

Top tips

Ask any seasoned mountain bike rider and they’ll have their own top tip for surviving crap weather. Rich Thomas has been racing downhill mountain bikes since 2002 and has learnt his art riding in all weathers from Mountain Ash to Mont Saint-Anne.

Rich’s top tip will help you keep your vision clear and keep your eyes on the track and your fingers off the brakes. It’s a simple fix that will help set up your helmet to stop water and mud spraying into your eyes. Use this tip when the weather is super wet and alongside a rip-n-roll system or tear-offs. It works for racing and for shredding with your mates and it works on a full face or trail-helmet.

You’ll need:

1 x goggle lens – use an old one that’s no longer needed
A power drill and 3mm drill bit
Your full face helmet’s peak (or your spare peak)
2 x 3mm nut and bolts
Some black sticky tape

Rich says:

When it’s really wet I attach a lens to the peak of my helmet. That’s really good when it’s raining and stops the rain and roost from your back wheel from going on your goggles. The lens is see through so it doesn’t obscure your vision, it’s cheap and easy to get hold of and is super light.

I have a spare peak so I keep one arranged with this setup in my helmet bag and whip it out when the weather turns bad. It’s quick and easy to setup though so if you don’t have a spare peak you won’t waste too much time.

There’s 3 ways of fixing the lens to your peak:

You can zip tie tie lens on which is a bit of a bodge, but works fine.
You can tape it on but this needs a lot of the lens to overlap with the peak and you loose a bit of the benefit. I’ve also had the wind blow a taped lens off and lose it mid-run.
The best way is to drill two holes in your peak and two holes in your lens and then bolt the very back of your lens onto your peak. This is quick to whip on and off, really secure and you only need a small bit of the lens to overlap with the peak. Also, it looks pro.