Swapping My Old Beanie Helmet for an ILM 3/4 Open Face: A Rider's Story

I rode with a beanie helmet for the better part of two seasons. It looked right on a cruiser, I'll give it that. But every time I got caught in one of those cold Puget Sound mornings, I found myself squinting into the wind and wishing I had more than a strip of foam between my ears and the weather. Last spring I finally swapped it for an ILM 3/4 open face, and nine months later I still think it was the right call.

I'm Walt. I'm 58, I've ridden a black Harley-Davidson Road King for about nine years, and most of my miles are weekend loops around Tacoma with one longer trip every summer. My wife Deb rides on the back when the forecast cooperates. I referee youth soccer on Saturday mornings, so a lot of my rides are short hops to a field with a helmet that needs to go on and come off without a production.

The beanie did fine in July. It did not do fine in April, or October, or on any of the damp evenings when the marine layer rolled in and the temperature dropped fifteen degrees by the time I got home. I kept telling myself the wind was part of the experience. Then came a Saturday in late April, a 42-degree morning ride to a soccer field in Puyallup. By the time I got there my ears were numb and my eyes were watering. I sat through the first half of the match with a headache, and on the ride home I started shopping for something that covered more of my head without turning me into a full-face commuter.

The ILM 3/4 open face sat in that middle spot. It covers the back of the head and the ears, which is exactly where the cold got me, but it keeps the open face I like on a cruiser. I ordered one on a Tuesday night, and it showed up four days later. My first test was a quick loop around the neighborhood, then a 30-mile shakedown ride up Highway 7 the next morning. When that went well, I put it through a real test: a nine-day loop through the Cascades and down the Oregon coast, most of it in rain and wind.

The first morning I rode with the ILM, I got to the gas station and realized my ears weren't ringing and my eyes weren't watering. That had never happened with the beanie.

The biggest difference showed up on the cold mornings. With the beanie, I'd layer a balaclava underneath and still feel the wind cutting around the sides. The ILM's shell wraps further down, so the balaclava stays put and the wind has a harder time finding a gap. On a 40-degree morning in March I rode 25 miles up to a diner in Eatonville without stopping once to tuck the balaclava back under my ears, which had never happened with the beanie. I also noticed less noise at highway speed. It's not a quiet helmet, and I won't pretend it is, but the drop in wind roar was enough that I stopped dreading the long straight stretches on I-5.

The chin strap took a little getting used to. The first few times I fumbled with it, especially with gloves on. Once I got the hang of it, it became a non-issue. The visor is another thing I adjusted to. It keeps rain off the top of the lens, which matters more than I expected in this part of the country. On the coastal trip, I rode a full day of drizzle from Florence up to Cannon Beach, and I only had to wipe the shield twice the whole way. With the beanie I would have been squinting into spray by the first hour.

It's not perfect. The helmet runs a little warm in the middle of summer, and on the rare ninety-degree day I found myself wishing for the beanie again. The fit runs true to size for me, but I've read enough reviews to know some riders size up for a looser feel. And it's a 3/4, so your face is still out there. If you want full protection for your jaw, this is not the helmet for you. I knew that going in, and I still chose it, because the open face is part of why I ride a cruiser in the first place.

What surprised me most was how much I used the extra coverage without thinking about it. I'd reach for the ILM on short trips to the grocery store, on the Saturday morning ride to the soccer field, on the evening loop with Deb. The beanie only came out on the hottest days. That tells me the tradeoff was worth it.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you're thinking about swapping your beanie or half helmet for a 3/4 open face, here's the honest version. The ILM won't make you a better rider and it won't turn a cold ride into a warm one. What it will do is take the edge off the wind, cut down the noise, and keep your ears from ringing on the way home. For me, that was worth the swap. If you ride mostly in warm weather and never go more than twenty minutes from home, you might not feel the same. But if you've ever finished a ride with cold ears and a headache, it's worth trying one on.